Researchers with vpnMentor recently uncovered an unsecured database exposing 17 million emails to the Internet. When they tried to trace and alert the owner, they discovered that the leaky server was controlled by a cybercriminal network as part of a vast scam targeting Groupon, Ticketmaster and other online ticket vendors.
Since 2016, the scammers had been using stolen credit cards as well as both compromised and newly generated email accounts to open millions of fraudulent accounts on ticket vendor platforms. The accounts were used to buy up tickets that the scammers could then resell for profit on other platforms. The researchers stated that “Groupon has been trying to shut this operation down ever since it started, but it has proven resilient.”
Read more: Major Groupon, Ticketmaster Fraud Scheme Exposed By Insecure Database
