Cybercriminals are increasingly using IM platforms like Telegram, Discord, Jabber, WhatsApp, IRC and others to advertise and sell their goods and services, IntSight researchers have found.

While traditional cybercrime sources (e.g., forums, black markets, credit card shops, etc.) continue to see regular traffic, peer-to-peer communication networks and chat channels offer advantages like automated answers and chat bots, less rules restricting advertisements of the types of goods threat actors can sell, as well as enhanced security features and data encryption and the option of creating private networks by using decentralized messenger protocols.