Security News
As thousands of civilians die amid the deadly Israel-Hamas war, scammers are capitalizing on the horrific events to collect donations by pretending to be legitimate charities. These accounts, primarily listing crypto wallet addresses, have dubious origins, are not endorsed by an official charity, and are very likely to be scams.
The ACCC has given the green light for cross-banking collaboration to address scams. 1.5 billion came from investment scams, with remote access scams and payment redirection scams rounding out the top three.
Scams originating on social media have accounted for $2.7 billion in reported losses since 2021, more than any other contact method, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In a new data spotlight, the FTC also takes a deep dive into social media scam trends in the first half of 2023.
The Federal Trade Commission says Americans have lost at least $2.7 billion to social media scams since 2021, with the actual number likely many times larger due to severe under-reporting. "Reported losses to scams on social media during the same period hit a staggering $2.7 billion, far higher than any other method of contact," said Emma Fletcher, a Senior Data Researcher at the FTC. "And because the vast majority of frauds are not reported, this figure reflects just a small fraction of the public harm."
The FBI issued a public service announcement warning of a significant increase in 'phantom hacker' scams targeting senior citizens across the United States. "This Phantom Hacker scam is an evolution of more general tech support scams, layering imposter tech support, financial institution, and government personas to enhance the trust victims place in the scammers and identify the most lucrative accounts to target," the FBI said.
Security researcher Sam Curry describes a stressful situation he encountered upon his return to the U.S. when border officials and federal agents seized and searched his electronic devices. Why, you ask? All because his IP address landed in the logs of a crypto wallet associated with a phishing scam that Curry had earlier helped investigate as a part of his job-a scam that the feds were now investigating.
A sysadmin and his partner pleaded guilty this week to being part of a "Massive" international ring that sold software licenses worth $88 million for "Significantly below the wholesale price." After agreeing to a plea deal, the Pearces must also forfeit at least $4 million as well as gold, silver, collectible coins, cryptocurrency, and a vehicle, and "Make full restitution to their victims," the US Department of Justice said.
TikTok is flooded by a surge of fake cryptocurrency giveaways posted to the video-sharing platform, with almost all of the videos pretending to be themes based on Elon Musk, Tesla, or SpaceX. Threat actors have created fake cryptocurrency giveaways on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter for years. These scams pretend to be giveaways from celebrities, cryptocurrency exchanges, and, more commonly, impersonating Elon Musk or SpaceX. The scammers set up hundreds of websites that pretend to be crypto exchanges or giveaway sites that prompt users to register an account to receive free cryptocurrency.
A new sextortion scam is making the rounds that pretends to be an email from the adult site YouPorn, warning that a sexually explicit video of you was uploaded to the site and suggesting you pay to have it taken down. Threat actors have created various email extortion scams, including ones that pretend to be hitman contracts, bomb threats, CIA investigations, threats of installing ransomware, and threats to infect your family with Coronavirus.
A new sextortion scam is making the rounds that pretends to be an email from the adult site YouPorn, warning that a sexually explicit video of you was uploaded to the site and suggesting you pay to have it taken down. In sextortion email scams the scammers pretend to have images or videos of you performing sexual acts and then demand money not publicly to publish them.