Facebook’s struggles with cyber crime

Facebook took down a batch of more than 70 groups dedicated to cybercrime after they were flagged by researchers, according to a report published Friday.

Researchers at intelligence firm Cisco Talos tracked 74 cybercrime Facebook groups over the course of several months last year. Researchers Jon Munshaw and Jaeson Schultz in a post on Friday wrote that the groups frequently hosted “shady (at best) and illegal (at worst) activities,” including users that sold stolen bank and credit card information, stole account credentials from other websites, and promoted email spamming tools.

Facebook confirmed that it took down the cybercrime groups after Talos reported them.

“These Groups violated our policies against spam and financial fraud and we removed them,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We know we need to be more vigilant and we’re investing heavily to fight this type of activity.”

Facebook reviewed the groups submitted by Talos and removed them once they determined they were violating Facebook’s policies.

The accounts who ran the groups have also been blocked and should be unable to create new groups.

The Talos researchers found the groups through searches for simple cybercrime keywords including “spam,” “carding” or “CVV.” Once they joined those groups, they wrote, Facebook began recommending other hacking groups for them to join.

“Facebook’s own algorithms will often suggest similar groups, making new criminal hangouts even easier to find,” they wrote.

The groups had hundreds of thousands of members, and some of them had been up for over eight years by the time Facebook took them down. Most of the groups were created last year, however.

The users who participated in the groups often did nothing to mask their criminal activity. “Selling CVV fresh,” one user wrote, naming their price for credit card information.