Security News
We've seen a recent surge of concern about sextortion emails over the last few days. A sextortion or porn scam email is where cybercriminals email you out of the blue to claim that they've implanted malware on your computer, and have therefore been able to keep tabs on your online activity.
While this move by the government was lauded by many, cybersecurity experts noticed that almost immediately, cybercriminals kickstarted efforts to either steal the money coming to people or set up scams using potential stimulus checks as ways to steal people's information. A number of cybersecurity experts said the scams will resemble the typical IRS and tax season scams that have become increasingly common over the past decade.
The agency that oversees online addresses on Tuesday called for those issuing website addresses to vigilantly thwart cyber scams exploiting coronavirus fears. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers took the unusual step of firing off a letter to "Registrars" entrusted with the business of issuing website names around the world.
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.