Security News
A type of fraud targeting those in charge of performing legitimate funds transfers for a company, BEC scams aim to trick unsuspecting victims into sending money to the attackers. In BEC attacks, the victim typically receives an email apparently arriving from a company they normally conduct business with, requesting payments be made to a new account, or demanding a change in the standard payment operations.
Bona fide IRS agents wouldn't do any of those things, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. Taxpayers who don't have their refunds direct-deposited should beware of what the IRS and its Criminal Investigation Division say is a wave of new and evolving phishing schemes that target them in particular.
Akamai researchers have seen recycled phishing kits from as far back as July being used in coronavirus-based phishing attacks now. While most of these URLs are new, the phishing kits that operate in the background are not.
On Monday, a video of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates could be found playing on multiple YouTube channels that were broadcasting a well-known cryptocurrency Ponzi scam, ZDNet reported. In November 2019, cryptocoin news site Coin Rivet reported that scammers were hopping on YouTube live streams to bilk people by posing as the official foundations and development teams of popular cryptocurrencies.
According to cryptocurrency enthusiast and Director of Security at MyCrypto, Harry Denley, a wily scammer has been operating a network of fake bitcoin QR code generators to dupe people out of their bitcoins. Bitcoin uses addresses as conduits to send and receive bitcoin payments.
Just as law-abiding people have been discussing COVID-19, so too have criminals on the dark web. In a report published last week, Sixgill discussed the specific topics that the coronavirus has been generating on the dark web.
Don't login to company websites via emails or texts. If a company wants or needs you to login to your account, you should already know how to access your account from the company's own site or app.
Cybersecurity firm Forcepoint reports that it has found a number of new phishing and malware scams circulating around the internet with a common theme: They all aim to capitalize on coronavirus and COVID-19 fears. The tactics being used in this current wave of COVID-19 phishing and malware are nothing new: Phishing attempts are seeking to steal email passwords, fake ads are selling scam products, and traditional malware droppers are being found in infected word documents.
Research from the Better Business Bureau, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, and the Stanford Center on Longevity found that people are more likely to lose money to a scam when they are socially or physically isolated from others, if they are actively engaging online, and if they are financially vulnerable. "According to our research, social isolation is a key risk factor for susceptibility to scams, as is financial vulnerability," said Melissa Lanning Trumpower, executive director of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, BBB's foundation that conducted the research.
The story concluded that this dubious service had been scamming people and companies for more than a decade, and promised a Part II to explore who was behind Web Listings. Since at least 2007, Web Listings Inc. has been sending snail mail letters to domain registrants around the world.