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AI-driven scams are preying on Gen Z’s digital lives
Gone are the days when extortion was only the plot line of crime dramas—today, these threatening tactics target anyone with a smartphone. As AI makes fake voices and videos sound and look real, high-pressure plays like sextortion, deepfakes, and virtual kidnapping feel more believable than ever...
Phishing scams exploit New York’s inflation refund program
A warning from the New York State on their website informs visitors that: “Scammers are calling, mailing, and texting taxpayers about income tax refunds, including the inflation refund check.” Here's the warning on the website: We can confirm that several phishing campaigns are exploiting a...
A week in security (October 6 – October 12)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Apple voices concerns over age-check law that could put user privacy at risk Your passwords don’t need so many fiddly characters, NIST says Millions of very private chats exposed by two AI companion apps Fake VPN and streaming app drops malware that drains your ban...
Modeling scams see mature models as attractive new prospects
The BBC reported on modeling scams targeting older models. Modeling scams aren't new, but it’s worth looking at how they spread today, how to spot them, and—most importantly—how to avoid falling victim to them. The classic pitch goes like this: Someone walks up to you in the street and says, "You...
OpenAI Finds Growing Exploitation of AI Tools by Foreign Threat Groups
OpenAI's new report warns hackers are combining multiple AI tools for cyberattacks, scams, and influence ops linked to China, Russia, and North Korea...
A week in security (September 29 – October 5)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: From threats to apology, hackers pull child data offline after public backlash Your Meta AI conversations may come back as ads in your feed Scam Facebook groups send malicious Android malware to seniors Sendit tricked kids, harvested their data, and faked messages,...
Family group chats: Your (very last) line of cyber defense
Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter, and happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Like everyone under the age of 35 who has at least one father, my dad sends me advice on online safety at least once a week. Does he work in information security? No. He's a recently retired...
Use of Generative AI in Scams
New report: "Scam GPT: GenAI and the Automation of Fraud." This primer maps what we currently know about generative AI’s role in scams, the communities most at risk, and the broader economic and cultural shifts that are making people more willing to take risks, more vulnerable to deception, and...
260 romance scammers and sextortionists caught in huge Interpol sting
Online crime of all kinds is deplorable, but romance scammers and sextortionists who target the most vulnerable victims are among the worst. Now, there’s likely a place for 260 of them in jail, thanks to international law enforcement. Interpol's Operation Contender 3.0 targeted alleged criminals...
FBI Warns of Fake IC3 Websites Designed to Steal Personal Data
The FBI is warning internet users about fake versions of its official IC3 cybercrime reporting website. Learn how to spot these ‘spoofed’ sites, avoid scams where criminals impersonate agents, and protect your personal information by following the FBI’s crucial safety tips...
Scammers are impersonating the FBI to steal your personal data
Been scammed? Hoping to report it to the FBI? Definitely do so, but be careful. Spoofed versions of the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 website are now circulating online, and they lead straight back to the scammers. The FBI issued an advisory last week, warning that cybercriminals are...
Beware of Zelle transfer scams
As we have said many times before, falling for a scam can happen to the best of us. And it can ruin lives. In our podcast How a scam hunter got scammed, scam hunter Julie-Anne Kearns talked about how she had been duped by people pretending to be from HMRC, which is the UK’s version of the US...
DPRK Hackers Use ClickFix to Deliver BeaverTail Malware in Crypto Job Scams
Threat actors with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka DPRK or North Korea have been observed leveraging ClickFix-style lures to deliver a known malware called BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret. "The threat actor used ClickFix lures to target marketing and trader roles in...
Gucci, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen Breach Linked to ShinyHunters
ShinyHunters reportedly hacked Kering, exposing Gucci, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen customer data, raising risks of scams and spear…...
A week in security (September 8 – September 14)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: AI browsers or agentic browsers: a look at the future of web surfing From Fitbit to financial despair: How one woman lost her life savings and more to a scammer Meta ignored child sex abuse in VR, say whistleblowers When AI chatbots leak and how it happens Fake...
LOKI: Proactively Discovering Online Scam Websites by Mining Toxic Search Queries
Online e-commerce scams, ranging from shopping scams to pet scams, globally cause millions of dollars in financial damage every year. In response, the security community has developed highly accurate detection systems able to determine if a website is fraudulent. However, finding candidate scam...
A week in security (September 1 – September 7)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Nexar dashcam video database hacked Roblox introduces age checks to use communication features Give your PC a fresh start: New free tools to boost your PC’s speed, security, and peace of mind TP-Link warns of botnet infecting routers and targeting Microsoft 365...
How a scam hunter got scammed (Lock and Code S06E17)
This week on the Lock and Code podcast… If there’s one thing that scam hunter Julie-Anne Kearns wants everyone to know, it is that no one is immune from a scam. And she would know—she fell for one last year. For years now, Kearns has made a name for herself on TikTok as a scam awareness and...
INTERPOL Arrests 1,209 Cybercriminals Across 18 African Nations in Global Crackdown
INTERPOL on Friday announced that authorities from 18 countries across Africa have arrested 1,209 cybercriminals who targeted 88,000 victims. "The crackdown recovered $97.4 million and dismantled 11,432 malicious infrastructures, underscoring the global reach of cybercrime and the urgent need for...