Hackers Compromised Thousands of WordPress Sites and Redirects to Tech Support Scams

Hackers compromised thousands of WordPress Sites that running outdated plugin and redirected them to tech support scam pages.

Researchers believe the attackers use a combination of multiple vectors to inject the payloads that contain redirection scripts. A number of website owners also reported that the malicious code present within the wp_posts table of WordPress database.

From the client-side researchers spotted large encoded blurb the present in the HTML header tag or a single line of code that pointing to external JavaScript code.

The redirection loop flows across multiple domains before redirecting to the Browlock scam site that locks your browser, also a custom mouse cursor displayed.

Based on the increase in a number of compromised sites, researchers believe still the campaign is ongoing and recommended website owners to perform a thorough cleanup.

Scammers continue to adapt with new techniques to trick user’s and make them fall as a victim. Recently they adapt to call optimization service for inserting the phone numbers to scam pages to make it looks more legitimate.

According to Q2 threat report tech Support scam activities have grown by 38%, the Spam click rates increased in 2018, so far 14.2 percent of spam that delivered in the inbox are clicked.

Scammers always impose limits such as “call immediately” or “Offer Valid Today only” to make you act on it immediately.