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“Looking back to the 1990s and early 2000s, you needed to have a reasonable level of technical competence to pull off these types of crimes,” Nicholas Court, assistant director of Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, told CNBC.

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An expanding network of cybercrime marketplaces is making it easier than ever to become a professional fraudster, posing unprecedented cybersecurity threats worldwide, experts warn.

Cybercriminals are often portrayed in popular media as rogue and highly skilled individuals, wielding coding and hacking abilities from a dimly lit room. But such stereotypes are becoming outdated. 

“Looking back to the 1990s and early 2000s, you needed to have a reasonable level of technical competence to pull off these types of crimes,” Nicholas Court, assistant director of Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, tells CNBC. 

Today, the barriers to entry have come down “quite significantly,” Court said. For example, obtaining personal data, such as email addresses, and sending them spam messages en masse — one of the oldest online scams in the book — has never been easier.

Cybersecurity experts say the change is due to advances in scam technology and the growth of organized online markets where cybercrime expertise and resources are bought and sold. 

A growing cybercrime economy 

“The last decade or so has seen an evolution of rogue cybercriminals into organized groups and networks all of which are part of a thriving underground economy,” said Tony Burnside, vice president and head of Asia-Pacific at Netskope, a cloud security company.

Driving that trend has been the emergence of global underground markets that offer “cybercrime-as-a-service” or “CaaS,” through which vendors charge customers for different types of malicious tools and cybercrime services, he added.

Examples of CaaS include ransomware and hacking tools, botnets for rent, stolen data, and anything else that may aid cybercriminals in their illicit activities.

“The availability of these services certainly helps in enabling more cybercriminals, allowing them to scale up and sophisticate their crime while reducing the technical expertise required,” Burnside said. 

CaaS is often hosted on markets in the “darknet” — a part of the internet that uses encryption technology to protect the anonymity of users.

Examples include Abacus Market, Torzon Market and Styx, though the top markets often change as authorities shut them down and new ones emerge. 

Burnside adds that the criminal gangs operating CaaS services and markets have begun to operate like “legitimate organizations in their structure and processes.”

Meanwhile, vendors on these illicit exchanges tend to accept payments only in cryptocurrency in attempts to remain anonymous, obscure proceeds and evade detection. 

Silk Road, an infamous dark web marketplace that was shut down by law enforcement in 2013, is recognized by many as one of the earliest large-scale applications of cryptocurrency.

Darknet emerges from shadows 

Though the use of cryptocurrencies in the cybercrime market can help obscure the identities of participants, it can also make their activities more traceable on the blockchain, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain research firm that traces illicit crypto transactions. 

According to Chainalysis data, while darknet markets remain a major factor in the global cybercrime ecosystem, more activity is moving to the public internet and secure messaging services like Telegram. 

The largest of those marketplaces identified by Chainalysis is Huione Guarantee — a platform affiliated with Cambodian conglomerate Huione Group — which the firm says acts as a “one-stop shop for nearly every form of cybercrime.”

The Chinese-language platform operates as a peer-to-peer marketplace where vendors offer services Chainalysis says are linked to illicit activity like money laundering and crypto-based scams.

Vendors pay to advertise on the Huione website, often directing interested parties into private Telegram groups. If a sale is made, Huione appears to act as an escrow and dispute intermediary to “guarantee” the exchange.

Chainalysis data shows that vendors on Huione Guarantee have processed a staggering $70 billion in crypto transactions since 2021. Meanwhile, Elliptic, another blockchain analytics firm, estimates that Huione Group entities have received at least $89 billion in crypto assets, making it “the largest ever illicit online marketplace.

The platform advertises and directs potential buyers to vendor groups on Telegram that offer everything from scam technology and money laundering to escort services and illicit goods. 

Judging from the scale and volume of the transactions on Huione Guarantee, it is likely leveraged by numerous organized criminal groups, according to Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainlaysis.

However, he adds that the many services don’t cost much money, providing a low barrier to entry and access point into cybercrime for “anyone with internet connection.” 

According to Chainalysis, individuals looking to facilitate “romance” or investment scams may be able to purchase the necessary tools and services on Huione for just a couple of hundred dollars. Costs can reach thousands of dollars, depending on the level of complexity they are looking to execute.

Investing or romance scams involve a fraudster building a relationship with a victim via social media or dating apps, intending to con them out of money through a sham investment opportunity.

A scammer attempting to pull off this type of scam might shop Huione Guarantee for a portfolio of potential victims’ data, such as phone numbers; old social media accounts that appear to be from real people; and AI-powered facial and voice manipulation software, which can be used by a scammer to digitally disguise themselves. 

Other vendors on the site offer services related to the creation of fake investment and gambling platforms. Fiermen says scammers often deceive victims into depositing money on such platforms.

In a disclaimer on its website, the platform says it does not participate in or understand its customers’ specific businesses and is responsible only for guaranteeing payments between buyers and sellers, according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese-language statement.

According to Fierman, Huione Guarantee’s activity appears to be concentrated in Cambodia and China, but there’s evidence that other platforms are emerging. 

‘Child’s play’

As CaaS and cybercrime markets continue to grow, the technology that is offered and leveraged by criminal vendors has also advanced, allowing more sophisticated scams on scale — with less effort, experts say. 

AI-generated deepfake videos and voice cloning are increasingly looking more real, with previously infeasible attacks now realistic thanks to generative AI advancements, according to Kim-Hock Leow, Asia CEO of cybersecurity company Wizlynx Group. 

Last year, Hong Kong police reported that a finance worker at a multinational firm had been tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake technology to pose as the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call.

“This would have been completely impossible to pull off just a few years ago, even for criminals with technical skills, and now it is a viable attack even for those without,” added NetSkope’s Burnside.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity experts told CNBC that AI tools can be used to enhance phishing and social engineering scams, helping to write more personalized and human-like messages. 

“It has become child’s play to create really convincing fake emails, audio notes, images or videos designed to scam and trick victims,” said Burnside, noting that dark variants of legitimate generative AI tools continue to find their way into dark markets. 

Prevention efforts

Because of the global and anonymous nature of CaaS vendors and cybercrime marketplaces, they are very difficult to police, cybersecurity experts told CNBC, noting that markets that are shut down often resurface under different names or are replaced.

For that reason, Interpol’s Nicholas Court says cybercrime isn’t the type of activity “you can arrest your way out of.” 

“The volume of criminality is going up so fast that it is actually harder for law enforcement to catch the same proportion of cybercriminals,” he said, adding that this calls for a significant focus on prevention and public awareness campaigns to warn about the rapid sophistication of scams and AI tools.

“Almost everybody receives scam messages these days. While it used to be enough to tell people not to send money to someone that refuses to video call, that’s not enough anymore.” 

On the enterprise level, Wizlynx Group’s Leow says that as cybercriminals become more tech- and AI-savvy, so must companies’ cybersecurity protocols.

For example, AI tools can be used to help automate security systems on the enterprise level, lowering the threshold for detection and accelerating response times, he added.

Meanwhile, new tools are emerging, such as “dark web monitoring,” which can track cybercrime markets and underground forums for leaked or stolen data, including credentials, financial data, and intellectual property.

It’s “never been easier” to commit cybercrime, so it’s crucial to prioritize cybersecurity by investing in technological solutions and enhancing employee awareness, Leow said. 

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Doordash announces $1.2 billion SevenRooms deal, misses revenue expectations

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Doordash announces .2 billion SevenRooms deal, misses revenue expectations

A DoorDash sign is pictured on a restaurant on the day they hold their IPO in New York, December 9, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Doordash on Tuesday announced the $1.2 billion acquisition of restaurant booking platform SevenRooms and reported first-quarter revenue that missed expectations.

Shares fell about 4% following the news.

Here’s how the company did, based on LSEG expectations:

  • Earnings per share: 44 cents adjusted vs. 39 cents expected
  • Revenue: $3.03 billion vs. $3.09 billion expected

Doordash said the all-cash acquisition of SevenRooms, a New York City-based data platform for restaurants and hotels to manage booking information, will close in the second half of 2025.

British food delivery service Deliveroo said Tuesday that they have agreed to a takeover offer from American rival Doordash worth $3.9 billion.

“We believe both SevenRooms and Deliveroo will expand our ability to build world class services that increase our potential to grow local commerce and support our financial goals,” Doordash said in a release.

Doordash reported total orders of 732 million for the quarter, an 18% increase over the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by StreetAccount expected 732.7 million.

The company said it expects second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $600 million to $650 million. Analysts polled by StreetAccount expected $639 million.

Read more CNBC tech news

“So far in 2025, consumer demand on our marketplaces has remained strong, with engagement across different consumer cohorts and types that we believe is consistent with typical seasonal patterns,” the company said.

Doordash reported $193 million in net income for Q1 2025, or 44 cents per share. The company had a net loss of $23 million, or a net loss of 6 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Doordash noted growth in the grocery delivery category, citing “accelerating average spend per grocery consumer and increasing average spend on perishables.”

The company did not mention tariffs as a factor in the financial outlook, but did note that an increased international presence leaves it open to “geopolitical and currency risks.”

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DoorDash to buy British food delivery firm Deliveroo for $3.9 billion in overseas push

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DoorDash to buy British food delivery firm Deliveroo for .9 billion in overseas push

A Deliveroo rider near Victoria station in London, England, on March 31, 2021.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images

LONDON — British food delivery firm Deliveroo on Monday said it has agreed to a takeover offer from American rival DoorDash that values the company at £2.9 billion ($3.9 billion).

Deliveroo, which lets users order hot meals and groceries via an app, said its board agreed to an offer from DoorDash to acquire all issued and to be issued shares in the company for 180 pence a share.

That marks a 44% premium to Deliveroo’s closing price on April 4, the last business day prior to DoorDash’s initial offer letter.

Deliveroo shares jumped to a three-year high last week after the company confirmed it had received a takeover offer from DoorDash.

The transaction values Deliveroo at £2.9 billion on a fully diluted basis, the company said.

DoorDash said that the financial terms of the acquisition were final and would not be increased unless a third party steps in with a rival bid.

“I could not be more excited by the prospect of what DoorDash and Deliveroo will be able to accomplish together. We’ll cover more than 40 countries with a combined population of more than 1 billion people, enabling us to provide more local businesses with the tools and technology they need to thrive,” said Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash.

International expansion

The acquisition deal marks an end to Deliveroo’s tumultuous ride as a public company.

Once viewed as a British tech darling, Deliveroo saw its shares tank 30% in 2021 in one of the worst trading debuts on the London Stock Exchange. Shares have continued to fall from that point and are down more than 50% from the firm’s £3.90 IPO price.

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Temu and Shein face massive tariffs. But don’t count them out of the U.S. e-tail scene, experts say

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Temu and Shein face massive tariffs. But don't count them out of the U.S. e-tail scene, experts say

Photo illustration of the Shein app on the App Store reflected in the Temu logo.

Stefani Reynolds | Afp | Getty Images

The closure of a trade loophole and prohibitive tariffs on China have upended Temu and Shein’s business model in the United States. And yet the e-commerce companies are likely to remain a dominant force in American online retailing, experts suggest.  

On Friday, the de minimis rule — a policy that had exempted U.S. imports worth $800 from trade tariffs — officially closed for shipments from China. This has seen Temu and Shein exposed to duties as high as 120% or a flat fee of $100, set to rise to $200 in June.

The small-package tariff exemption had been key to the companies’ ability to maintain budget prices on the merchandise they ship from China. Now that it’s gone, prices on Temu and Shein have been surging, with the former ending direct shipments from outside the U.S. altogether. 

The change will be welcomed by many detractors of de minimis, among them U.S. lawmakers, labor unions and retailers, who have argued that Temu and Shein abused the exemption to undercut local businesses and flood the country with illicit and counterfeit products. 

But despite the new trade challenges that Temu and Shein face, ecommerce and supply chain experts told CNBC that the companies are still capable of competing with their rivals in the U.S. 

“Don’t count them out … Not at all. These kinds of Chinese e-commerce apps are very adept and agile. They have contingency plans in place and have taken the necessary steps to cover the tariffs from a margin perspective,” said Deborah Weinswig, CEO and founder of Coresight Research.

“I personally believe, if anything, [America’s e-commerce] game has been accelerating in favor of Temu and Shein … I wouldn’t be surprised if the competitiveness gap actually continues to widen,” added Weinswig, whose research and advisory firm works with clients across tech, retail and supply chains.

Contingencies in place 

The loss of the de minimis exemption had long been anticipated, with U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily closing it in February. In preparation, Temu and Shein had been accelerating localization strategies for the U.S.

Scott Miller, CEO of e-commerce consulting firm pdPlus, told CNBC that Shein and Temu will continue to onboard goods from American sellers onto their apps to protect them from tariffs. 

“Many of the current sellers on Temu and Shein are located in China or countries nearby, but not all. Local U.S. companies have been joining these platforms at an accelerating pace … several of our clients have onboarded or began the process of onboarding in just the past few months,” he said. 

While margins for more localized brands and other sellers won’t be as high as those for China-based sellers on the platforms, they can be competitive, he said. 

He added that in the case of Temu, vendors are attracted to lower fees, lighter competition and greater assistance with onboarding and setting up sales channels compared with what Amazon offers. 

Temu, Shein raising prices ahead of Trump administration ending 'de minimis' rule: Report

In recent days, Temu, which is owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, has begun exclusively offering goods shipped from local warehouses to U.S. shoppers.

Many of those goods are still sourced from China but then shipped in bulk to U.S. warehouses, according to experts. While these bulk items are subject to tariffs, they also benefit from economies of scale. 

This development is likely to see the variety of products on Temu scaled back, said Henry Jin, an associate professor of supply chain management at Miami University. However, he added, Temu is likely to resume direct shipments from China, depending on the outcome of the trade war between the U.S. and China. 

Shein, meanwhile, has leaned into supply chain expansion, building manufacturing operations in countries such as Turkey, Mexico and Brazil, and reportedly plans to shift to Vietnam.

The company appears to still be shipping directly from China and likely has more room to absorb tariffs because of its “sky-high” margins in its core fast-fashion business, Jin said.

“If there’s one thing that Chinese companies are good at, it’s operating on a razor thin margin in an intensely competitive, if not adverse environment … they find every scrap that they can to survive,” he added.

Competitive prices?

Contingency plans aside, experts agree that Trump’s trade policy will continue to affect prices on Temu and Shein. The companies first announced they were raising prices in mid-April to counter tariffs.

According to data from Coresight, prices across shopping categories on Shein rose between 5% and 50% in the latter half of April, with the sharpest rises seen in toys and games and beauty and health. 

However, many e-commerce experts remain confident that Temu and Shein will continue to prove price-competitive. 

Coresight’s Weinswig said the two companies have previously been able to offer products at a third of the prices on Amazon for comparable goods. So, even if they more than double the prices to absorb the impacts of tariffs, many goods could remain cheaper than those on American e-commerce sites and retailers. 

Jason Wong, who works in product logistics for Temu in Hong Kong, noted this dynamic when speaking to CNBC last month, likening Temu to a dollar store. If prices at the dollar store go from $1 to $2, it’s still a dollar store, he said. 

Furthermore, Trump’s trade tariffs on China and other trade partners have also affected American retailers and e-commerce sites like Amazon. 

Other advantages

When Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, it blamed Shein and Temu’s use of the de minimis exemption, which it said “undercut” its business. 

But experts say that exclusively attributing the success of Shein and Temu to that trade loophole misses many of the other factors that have made them smash hits in the U.S.

According to Anand Kumar, associate director of research at Coresight Research, Temu and Shein owe a lot of their success to their very agile supply chains that adapt fast to consumer trends. 

For example, Shein’s small-batch production — in which product styles are initially launched in limited quantities, typically around 100-200 items — allows it to test and scale products efficiently. 

Shein's Donald Tang: We are not fast fashion but fashion on-demand

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