GoDaddy Removes a Massive Network of Bogus Sales Sites

GoDaddy removed a cluster of more than 15,000 fraudulent websites discovered by a researcher at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 analysis team. From a report: The scam, which sold products like weight loss pills, used breached websites to add legitimacy to its sales and involved using fake celebrity endorsements. Jeff White, the researcher at Unit 42, started researching the network of sites more than 2 years ago when he noticed spam messages that looked visually similar and used similar language. The products were sold on commission as part of an affiliate marketing program and used low initial pricing and tiny print to get people signed up for costly subscriptions. The sales took place on hacked GoDaddy websites, where hackers had set up subdomains on legitimate websites.

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