Background

As of May 2025, Threat Hunter intelligence identified an emergent and highly concerning fraud vector: the illicit sale of cross-border store brand authorization credentials across Southeast Asian markets via social media platforms. These sophisticated authorization-as-a-service offerings encompass prominent brands such as POP MART and SK-II, impacting major e-commerce platforms. Adversaries openly advertise a '100% pass rate,' indicating a high level of confidence in their bypass capabilities.

This incident diverges significantly from previously observed, fragmented brand qualification forgery attempts. The current iteration demonstrates clear organizational maturity and scalable operational characteristics. Through deep-cover intelligence operations, including virtual identity establishment and direct engagement with the underground service provider, Threat Hunter obtained comprehensive insights into their service catalog, pricing models, and modus operandi.

Comparative analysis against similar cases monitored between 2023 and 2024 reveals a distinct evolution in the adversary's capabilities:

1. Expanded Service Footprint: A strategic pivot from single-platform exploitation to multi-platform collaborative fraud.

2. Sophisticated Organizational Structure: A transition from individual opportunistic operations to a professionally segmented and collaborative division of labor.

3. Adaptive Monetization Models: A shift from static pricing to tiered service models and customized solutions, reflecting a mature business approach.

These characteristics collectively signify the evolution of e-commerce platform exploitation from rudimentary opportunistic behavior to a robust, mature shadow business model. This poses an escalating and systemic challenge to the integrity and resilience of the global e-commerce ecosystem.

Adversary Tactics & Operational Innovations in Brand Impersonation FraudEvolution of Technical Means

The identified underground service provider (uSP) demonstrates significant technical sophistication, manifesting primarily in the following advancements:

• Advanced Qualification Forgery: Leveraging sophisticated image manipulation and deepfake technologies, the uSP now produces meticulously replicated brand qualifications, reaching a fidelity level that significantly challenges conventional manual review processes.

  
  

• Targeted Validation Process Exploitation: The uSP conducts continuous reconnaissance and vulnerability research against the brand authorization verification workflows of major e-commerce platforms. This persistent analysis identifies and exploits technical and business logic flaws, enabling the expansion of their illicit operations.

  
  

• Forged Authorization Chain Construction: The latest attack methodology involves the fabrication of a complete "authorization chain relationship," moving beyond single-document forgery. The uSP now simultaneously generates forged credentials for the brand owner, primary agents, and secondary agents, presenting a seemingly comprehensive and legitimate authorization hierarchy to the target system. This dramatically increases the probability of bypassing automated and manual review during the authorization process.

Innovation in Operational Modus Operandi

The underground service provider (uSP) exhibits a mature and sophisticated operational framework, characterized by:

• Tiered Service Architecture: Implementation of a granular, hierarchical service system with dynamic pricing structures. These variations are contingent upon platform specificity, brand prestige, and the complexity of the authorization type. For instance, distinct pricing strategies are observed for cross-border e-commerce local store brand authorizations (e.g., ~$830 USD/year) versus cross-border store authorization credentials (e.g., ~$277 USD/copy), reflecting nuanced market demand and perceived technical difficulty.

  
  

• Phased Payment Model (Prepayment + Final Payment): To establish trust and reduce perceived customer risk, the uSP employs a "50% upfront deposit with final payment upon authorization approval" model. This financial framework underscores the uSP's high confidence in its success rates and signifies a mature, customer-centric (from an illicit perspective) business model.

  
  

• "Proof-of-Concept" (PoC) Display Strategy: underground service provider (uSP) strategically showcases a robust portfolio of "successful case" screenshots to prospective clients. These PoCs include critical telemetry such as approved brand authorization pages, Case IDs, and authorization codes. Beyond serving as sales collateral, these successful cases function as vital intelligence for the uSP, enabling continuous knowledge accumulation and service optimization.

  
  

• Distributed Multi-Channel Marketing: The underground service provider (uSP) has cultivated an expansive marketing network spanning multiple platforms, including WeChat, Telegram, and dark web forums. They employ differentiated promotional strategies tailored to specific target demographics. For example, WeChat primarily serves Chinese-speaking sellers targeting the Southeast Asian market, while Telegram offers cross-border platform authorization solutions for a broader international clientele.

Adversary Profiling: Dissecting the Underground Industry's Evolving Organizational Structure

By analyzing observed service processes and technical characteristics, we have delineated the sophisticated organizational structure and highly specialized division of labor within this underground service provider (uSP) ecosystem.

Core Operational Units

• Technical Exploitation Team: This unit is dedicated to advanced research into platform verification mechanisms, the development of sophisticated forgery technologies, and the continuous maintenance of their technical arsenal. Typically comprising individuals with e-commerce platform development or security backgrounds, they possess deep familiarity with target system architectures and authentication workflows.

  
  

• Resource Acquisition Team: Responsible for sourcing genuine brand authorization telemetry, official templates, and verification samples. Their methods include, but are not limited to, insider collusion, social engineering campaigns, and exploitation of data breaches, providing the foundational materials for the technical team's operations.

  
  

• Client Engagement Team: Manages all client-facing interactions, including initial communication, requirement validation, and post-service support. These teams often possess multilingual capabilities, serving diverse e-commerce seller demographics across various regions, and maintaining up-to-date knowledge of platform-specific policies and processes.

  
  

• Financial Exfiltration Team: Oversees illicit fund collection, complex fund layering, and anti-detection measures. They operate sophisticated collection systems, typically involving multi-tiered financial transfers to evade regulatory oversight and tracing.

This highly specialized division of labor enables these Underground Industry (UI) syndicates to operate with remarkable efficiency and adapt rapidly to evolving platform policies and technological countermeasures. This organized operational model represents a significant evolution from earlier, individualistic underground service provider (uSP) activities, dramatically enhancing their professionalism and success rate.

Geographic Distribution & Operational Pattern: The Transnational Footprint

Geographic Dispersion

Analysis of communication timestamps, linguistic indicators, and payment methodologies reveals clear cross-border collaboration characteristics within these underground service providers (uSPs). The Core Technical Team is predominantly situated in mainland China, while Client Engagement and Resource Acquisition teams are strategically distributed across Southeast Asian nations (e.g., Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia), forming an integrated operational network spanning multiple time zones.

Cross-border Collaboration Network

 The uSP has established an efficient transnational collaborative framework, leveraging regional resource advantages. For example, Southeast Asian cells specialize in local brand qualification harvesting and policy intelligence, while the Chinese contingent focuses on advanced technology development and document fabrication, forming a seamless, end-to-end illicit supply chain.

Operational Pattern & Adaptability

The uSP team exhibits a distinct operational tempo. We observe a rapid deployment of new, targeted services, typically within 1-2 weeks following significant adjustments to e-commerce platform policies or changes in brand authorization review standards. This agility underscores the uSP team's acute sensitivity to platform dynamics and their capacity for rapid strategic adaptation.

Case studies

Case 1:

Transnational Brand Impersonation in Southeast Asian E-commerce

Case Background

In May 2025, Threat Hunter intelligence detected a large-scale brand authorization fraud campaign orchestrated by an underground service provider (uSP), extensively promoted via WeChat channels. This service specifically targeted cross-border e-commerce platforms, offering forged authorizations for high-value brands including POP MART and SK-II. The uSP aggressively advertised a "100% pass rate" for their illicit service, priced at approximately $830 USD annually per authorization.

Impact Assessment

Based on the uSP's demonstrated portfolio of "successful cases" and client testimonials, it is conservatively estimated that this illicit service has enabled at least dozens of unauthorized merchants to circumvent platform brand verification processes. The affected product categories are diverse, encompassing beauty, home appliances, and textiles. A critical risk factor identified is the typical validity period of these fabricated authorizations, often set for 1-2 years. This extended validity implies that these fraudulent entities and their associated risks are poised to persist within the platform's ecosystem for a prolonged duration, posing a significant long-term integrity challenge.

Case 2:

Platform Brand Authorization Fraud & Integrity Compromise

Case Background

In February 2025, Threat Hunter intelligence identified a highly concerning brand authorization fraud service operating via Telegram channels, specifically targeting a particular cross-border e-commerce platform. This illicit service extended beyond mere authorization document forgery, offering a purported capability to delete complaints that will affect the account’s “health”, explicitly including trademark infringement and counterfeit/genuine product dispute complaints.

Impact Assessment

The infiltration of forged authorization documents into the platform's database has a direct and detrimental effect: it introduces significant distortion into the brand interrelationship digraphs, thereby compromising the accuracy and integrity of algorithmic recommendations. Furthermore, the underground service provider's offering of "health complaint deletion" services directly interferes with the platform's fulfillment of its dispute resolution obligations under applicable E-commerce regulatory frameworks, posing severe legal and compliance risks in addition to the operational and reputational damage.

Impact Analysis & Strategic Countermeasures: Addressing Brand Impersonation Fraud

Systemic Risks to E-commerce Platforms

The proliferation of falsified brand authorizations introduces severe systemic risks to e-commerce platforms:

Legal & Compliance Exposure

Platforms, operating as intermediary service providers, face significant joint and several liability risks under relevant E-commerce regulatory frameworks. This exposure materializes if a platform's negligence or failure to implement requisite countermeasures can be demonstrated, particularly when they possess, or reasonably should possess, knowledge of seller infringement.

Brand Perception Erosion & User Trust Degradation

The influx of illicit goods facilitated by forged brand authorizations directly compromises platform brand equity and consumer trust. Substandard product quality drives diminished customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and elevated churn. Persistent complaints concerning counterfeit products critically erode platform credibility, culminating in significant reputational damage.

Ecosystem Integrity & Competitive Distortion

The widespread availability of counterfeit brand authorization services fundamentally destabilizes the platform's competitive landscape. Legitimate sellers, incurring higher operational costs for authentic authorization, are subjected to unfair competition. Fraudulent actors leverage low-price strategies to undercut compliant sellers, fostering a "Gresham's Law" effect where illicit practices displace legitimate commerce.

Targeted Defense Recommendations

To mitigate these risks, we propose the following targeted defense strategies:

Proactive Underground Industry (UI) Reconnaissance

1. Leverage Threat Hunter intelligence services for continuous, multi-channel monitoring of UI entities actively advertising brand authorization fraud.

2. Systematically extract key intelligence from UI-published "successful case" screenshots (e.g., authorization pages, Case IDs), enabling internal platform triangulation and risk actor identification.

3. Sustain ongoing surveillance of UI methodologies to derive robust detection features.

4. Employ intelligence social engineering techniques for in-depth engagement with UI actors, validating their TTPs and operational details for enhanced platform-side positioning.

Real-time Risk Intelligence & Anomaly Detection

1. Implement advanced brand authorization anomaly detection services.

2. Utilize cross-platform account association analysis to track the historical activity of known UI contact points.

3. Conduct deep-dive investigations to map the underlying fraud industry chain and its inter-dependencies.

Customized Regional Solutions

1. Deploy a specialized, multilingual public opinion monitoring module tailored for the Southeast Asian market (supporting Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese).

2. Integrate this module with a localized intelligence operation team to ensure rapid response and contextualized remediation of regional brand infringement risks.

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