MageCart skimmers, a type of credit card skimming malware, are now hijacking legitimate online stores’ payment pages to show fake payment forms as modals to steal customers’ credit card information.
The payment forms are shown as HTML content overlaid on top of the main webpage, allowing the user to interact with login forms or notification content without leaving the page. When modals are active, the background content is sometimes dimmed or blurred to draw attention to the modal content.
These fake payment forms are designed to look better than the original and are visually identical to the actual payment forms, making them hard to distinguish. When buyers enter their details on the fake modal, it displays a bogus loader momentarily and then shows a fake error, redirecting the user to the real payment URL.
However, the attackers have already stolen all the entered details, including the credit card number, expiration date, CVV number, and cardholder name.
The skimmer drops a cookie on users who have been successfully targeted to prevent loading the malicious modal again on the same or another site. This is to avoid collecting duplicate data and minimize the operation’s exposure. Unfortunately, the trend of using modal forms is gaining traction in the Magecart cybercrime community.
Malwarebytes, the cybersecurity firm that detected the threat, observed evidence that the custom modals were developed fairly recently, maybe a month or two ago.
Online shoppers are advised to be highly vigilant and prefer electronic payment methods or one-time private cards with charge limits that are useless in the hands of cybercriminals. Additionally, it is important to check if the payment page redirects visitors to a third-party processor, which is a typical step in online payments.
It inspires less trust in the visitor than the modal form rendered right on the page.
