Scattered Spider: Understanding Help Desk Scams and How to Defend Your Organization

In the wake of high-profile attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer and Co-op, Scattered Spider has been all over the media, with coverage spilling over into the mainstream news due to the severity of the disruption caused — currently looking like hundreds of millions in lost profits for M&S alon...

A week in security (May 26 – June 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Porn sites probed for allegedly failing to prevent minors from accessing content Take back control of your browser—Malwarebytes Browser Guard now blocks search hijacking attempts Deepfake-posting man faces huge $450,000 fine Fake AI video generator tools lure in...

U.S. Sanctions Funnull for $200M Romance Baiting Scams Tied to Crypto Fraud

The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC has levied sanctions against a Philippines-based company named Funnull Technology Inc. and its administrator Liu Lizhi for providing infrastructure to conduct romance baiting scams that led to massive cryptocurrency losses. T...

U.S. Sanctions Cloud Provider ‘Funnull’ as Top Source of ‘Pig Butchering’ Scams

Image: Shutterstock, ArtHead. The U.S. government today imposed economic sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc. , a Philippines-based company that provides computer infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites involved in virtual currency investment scams known as “pig butchering." In Janua...

Fake AI video generator tools lure in Facebook and LinkedIn users to deliver malware

Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the public’s interest in Artificial Intelligence AI and delivering malware via text-to-video tools. According to researchers at Mandiant, the criminals are setting up websites claiming to offer “AI video generator” services, and then using those fake tools t...

New warning issued over toll fee scams

Over a year ago the FBI warned about what was then a new form of smishing phishing via SMS scam: text messages that demanded payment for toll fees. The FTC sent out a similar warning in January, 2025. Then, in April another wave of toll fee scams began doing the rounds. Now the Departments of Mot...

Top Scams in Affiliate Marketing to Know in 2025

Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool for promoting brands. However, with its popularity gaining traction, more dishonest affiliate…...

Uncovering Black-Hat SEO Based Fake E-Commerce Scam Groups from Their Redirectors and Websites

While law enforcements agencies and cybercrime researchers are working hard, fake E-commerce scam is still a big threat to Internet users. One of the major techniques to victimize users is luring them by black-hat search-engine-optimization SEO; making search engines display their lure pages as i...

Scammers are using AI to impersonate senior officials, warns FBI

The FBI has issued a warning about an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign that impersonates senior US officials. The targets are predominantly current or former US federal or state government officials and their contacts. In the course of this campaign, the cybercriminals have use...

Hazy Hawk Exploits DNS Records to Hijack CDC, Corporate Domains for Malware Delivery

A threat actor known as Hazy Hawk has been observed hijacking abandoned cloud resources of high-profile organizations, including Amazon S3 buckets and Microsoft Azure endpoints, by leveraging misconfigurations in the Domain Name System DNS records. The hijacked domains are then used to host URLs...

AutomationDirect MB-Gateway

RISK EVALUATION Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to make configuration changes, disrupt operations, or achieve arbitrary code execution. 2. RECOMMENDED PRACTICES CISA recommends users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of this...

PsyScam: a Benchmark for Psychological Techniques in Real-World Scams

Online scams have become increasingly prevalent, with scammers using psychological techniques PTs to manipulate victims. While existing research has developed benchmarks to study scammer behaviors, these benchmarks do not adequately reflect the PTs observed in real-world scams. To fill this gap, ...

FBI Warns of AI Voice Scams Impersonating US Govt Officials

FBI has warned about a sophisticated vishing and smishing campaign using AI-generated voice memos to impersonate senior US…...

Xinbi Telegram Market Tied to $8.4B in Crypto Crime, Romance Scams, North Korea Laundering

A Chinese-language, Telegram-based marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee has facilitated no less than $8.4 billion in transactions since 2022, making it the second major black market to be exposed after HuiOne Guarantee. According to a report published by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, merchant...

Deepfakes, Scams, and the Age of Paranoia

As AI-driven fraud becomes increasingly common, more people feel the need to verify every interaction they have online...

Google Chrome will use AI to block tech support scam websites

Google has expressed plans to use Artificial Intelligence AI to stop tech support scams in Chrome. With the launch of Chrome version 137, Google plans to use the on-device Gemini Nano large language model LLM to recognize and block tech support scams. Users already have the ability to chose...

Google Rolls Out On-Device AI Protections to Detect Scams in Chrome and Android

Google on Thursday announced it's rolling out new artificial intelligence AI-powered countermeasures to combat scams across Chrome, Search, and Android. The tech giant said it will begin using Gemini Nano, its on-device large language model LLM, to improve Safe Browsing in Chrome 137 on desktops...

The IT help desk kindly requests you read this newsletter

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Authority bias is one of the many things that shape how we think. Taking the advice of someone with recognized authority is often far easier and usually leads to a better outcome than spending time and effort in researching the...

Fake Crypto Exchange Ads on Facebook Spread Malware

Bitdefender exposes Facebook ad scams using fake crypto sites and celebrity lures to spread malware via malicious desktop…...

Pakistani Firm Shipped Fentanyl Analogs, Scams to US

A Texas firm recently charged with conspiring to distribute synthetic opioids in the United States is at the center of a vast network of companies in the U.S. and Pakistan whose employees are accused of using online ads to scam westerners seeking help with trademarks, book writing, mobile app...