Security News
The Internal Revenue Service is warning of ongoing phishing attacks impersonating the IRS and targeting educational institutions. "The phishing emails appear to target university and college students from both public and private, profit and non-profit institutions," the US revenue service warned.
Cybercriminals ruthlessly exploited the coronavirus pandemic to set up phishing websites that posed as Pfizer, BioNTech and other household-name suppliers of vaccines and PPE, according to Palo Alto Networks. In a post published today, Palo Alto's Unit 42 threat intel division said COVID-themed phishing lure URLs "Largely centered around Personal Protective Equipment and testing kits in March 2020, government stimulus programs from April through the summer 2020 and vaccines from late fall 2020 onward."
It happened in July 2020, when many prominent blue-badged Twitter accounts suddenly starting sending out scammy cryptocoin messages. "Feeling greatful , doubling all payments made to my Bitcoin address," said one message, urging people to pay out $1000 now, with a $2000 payback to follow later.
Threat actors have started to use 'Promoted' tweets, otherwise known as Twitter ads, to spread cryptocurrency giveaway scams. For some time, BleepingComputer has been reporting on scammers hacking into verified Twitter accounts to promote fake cryptocurrency giveaway scams.
Business email compromise scammers are utilizing a new type of attack targeting investors that could leverage payouts seven times greater than average. In a new report by email cybersecurity company Agari, BEC scammers have started to target investors with fake 'capital call' notices that carry a much larger payout than your standard BEC scam.
Cryptocurrency scammers have made at least $145,000 this week by promoting fake giveaways through hacked verified Twitter accounts. At the time, these scams pulled in a massive $580,000 in cryptocurrency over a one-week period.
Texas electric utility Austin Energy today warned of unknown individuals impersonating the company and threatening customers over the phone that their power will be cut off unless they pay fictitious overdue bills. During these ongoing scam attempts, the scammers warn the customers that their utilities will be disconnected if they don't make immediate payments, "Typically using a reloadable prepaid debit card or other non-traceable form of payment."
The Internal Revenue Service has warned US tax professionals of identity thieves actively targeting them in a series of phishing attacks attempting to steal Electronic Filing Identification Numbers. Scammers started this ongoing phishing campaign right before the US tax season with the end goal of stealing both client data and tax preparers' identities.
While it's logical to assume seniors would be primary targets, a new report revealed that millennials were actually the most targeted demographic group of the more than 50 billion spam calls made in 2020. The increase in calls has enabled scammers to go ham on the unsuspecting, as they steal money and damage trust.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning of scammers actively posing as FBI representatives and threatening targets with fines and jail time unless they don't hand out personal and/or financial information. As the FBI warns, the agency has received multiple reports of such scam attempts where the fraudsters are targeting North Florida residents attempting to steal their personal info.