Security News

Impersonation scams in the U.S. exceeded $1.1 billion in losses last year, according to statistics collected by the Federal Trade Commission, a figure that is three times higher than in 2020. The agency compiled this data based on 490,000 reported scams in 2023.

Your profile can be used to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests. Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services, possible interests and personal aspects.

The military junta controlling Myanmar has struggled to control all of its territory thanks in part to China backing rebel forces as a way of expressing its displeasure about cyberscam centers operating from the country. One issue Beijing wanted the junta to address was the proliferation of scam centers in Myanmar, as they often prey on Chinese netizens.

Google's new AI-powered 'Search Generative Experience' algorithms recommend scam sites that redirect visitors to unwanted Chrome extensions, fake iPhone giveaways, browser spam subscriptions, and tech support scams. Earlier this month, Google began rolling out a new feature called Google Search Generative Experience in its search results, which provides AI-generated quick summaries for search queries, including recommendations for other sites to visit related to the query.

Scams directly targeting consumers continue to increase in both complexity and volume, according to Visa. While the number of individual scam reports from June to December decreased, the total money lost increased, indicating scammers are targeting victims with more effective - and costly - scams.

A massive malware campaign dubbed Sign1 has compromised over 39,000 WordPress sites in the last six months, using malicious JavaScript injections to redirect users to scam sites. The most recent...

The FBI warned of increases in crypto scams in March last year, saying most begin with some sort of social engineering, like a romance or confidence scam, which then evolve into crypto investment fraud. The total losses from investment fraud also beat those incurred by ransomware across the country, according to the latest report [PDF] from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Filipino police rescued 875 "Workers" - including 504 foreigners - in a raid late last week on a firm that posed as an online gaming company but in reality operated a forced labor camp that housed romance scam operators. The "Gaming company" that ran the operation - which went by Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated - maintains a meager website that may not initially set off alarm bells and appears more targeted toward recruiting staff than clients.

A pair of tech support businesses accused of swindling marks out of their hard-earned cash have agreed to cough up a $26 million settlement following an undercover probe by the FTC. Restoro and Reimage - both headquartered in Cyprus and, based on the the US watchdog's complaint and settlement proposal [both PDFs], two arms of the same operation - have been running a pretty typical Windows antivirus scam since at least 2018, or so the regulator alleged. "To replicate consumers' experience with defendants' marketing, FTC investigators made four undercover purchases of defendants' services," the FTC said in its complaint.

As the April 15, 2024 tax filing deadline approaches in the US, some old and some new tax-related scams targeting both taxpayers and tax professionals. The IRS has warned tax professionals about a "New client" scam where cybercriminals pose as potential clients via email, seemingly seeking assistance with tax preparation.