Security News
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.
The Classiscam scam-as-a-service program has reaped the criminal actors $64.5 million in illicit earnings since its emergence in 2019. Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, and Romania accounted for the highest number of fraudulent transactions registered in Classiscam chats.
Dubbed Telekopye, a portmanteau of Telegram and kopye, the toolkit functions as an automated means to create a phishing web page from a premade template and send the URL to potential victims, codenamed Mammoths by the criminals. The attack chains proceed thus: Neanderthals find their Mammoths and try to build rapport with them, before sending a bogus link created using the Telekopye phishing kit via email, SMS, or a direct message.
A legitimate-looking ad for Amazon in Google search results redirects visitors to a Microsoft Defender tech support scam that locks up their browser. Clicking on the Google ad will redirect the person to a tech support scam pretending to be an alert from Microsoft Defender stating that you are infected with the ads(exe).
Cybersecurity researchers have detailed an updated version of an advanced fingerprinting and redirection toolkit called WoofLocker that's engineered to conduct tech support scams. The sophisticated traffic redirection scheme was first documented by Malwarebytes in January 2020, leveraging JavaScript embedded in compromised websites to perform anti-bot and web traffic filtering checks to serve next-stage JavaScript that redirects users to a browser locker.
The Feds didn't go as far as naming any specific vendors or services here, but one of the main reasons that crooks go down the "Beta-testing" route is to lure users of Apple iPhones into installing software that didn't come from the App Store. In contrast, even iPhone apps that are 100% free must be submitted by the vendor to the App Store to become available for download, and downloaded by the user from the App Store for installation.
The FBI is warning of an increase in scammers pretending to be recovery companies that can help victims of cryptocurrency investment scams recover lost assets. "Representatives of fraudulent businesses claiming to provide cryptocurrency tracing and promising an ability to recover lost funds may contact victims directly on social media or messaging platforms," reads the FBI notice.
Every year local government bodies or councils across Britain contact residents, asking them to update their voter details on the electoral register if these have changed. What's worse is, failure to respond to this notice by visiting the website can, at least in theory, lead to a criminal penalty-a fine up to £1,000, according to the Electoral Commission website.