How do cybercriminals spread malware nowadays? [for educational and research purposes]

[jetkai]

Not sure if this is too late for your project, but - website/forum hijacking and replacing binary/download url's have been quite common recently. IPB4 recently had an exploit which allowed an attacker to upload a shell on up-to-date (production ready) through the forum software.

[JoyfulMr]

DISCORD! Very popular way of spreading malware nowadays. Victims trust the link more before of the official 'Discord' domain, but it's just being used to store and distribute malware by hackers.

^^ Discord mass DMS, is the best and cheapest way u can get it done now days, 

for ur "research":

 

Chatting platforms where mass message  to users is possible.