FOR YEARS, COSTLY email grifts have largely been the provenance of West African scammers, particularly those based in Nigeria. A newly discovered “business email compromise” campaign, though, appears to come from a criminal group in a part of the world better known for a different brand of online mayhem: Russia.
Dubbed “Cosmic Lynx,” the group has carried out more than 200 BEC campaigns since July 2019, according to researchers from the email security firm Agari, particularly targeting senior executives at large organizations and corporations in 46 countries. Cosmic Lynx specializes in topical, tailored scams related to mergers and acquisitions; the group typically requests hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars as part of its hustles.
