Facebook clickbait leads to money scam for users

Online criminals are notorious for lurking on social media sites and tricking users into visiting malicious links. We recently observed a scheme where Facebook users are clicking on posts that lead to external websites set up for the sole purpose of scamming them out of hundreds of dollars via fa...

‘Spam Nation’ Villain Vrublevsky Charged With Fraud

Pavel Vrublevsky, founder of the Russian payment technology firm ChronoPay and the antagonist in my 2014 book "Spam Nation," was arrested in Moscow this month and charged with fraud. Russian authorities allege Vrublevsky operated several fraudulent SMS-based payment schemes, and facilitated money...

Facebook Small Business Grants Spark Identity-Theft Scam

Cybercriminals are exploiting a $100 million Facebook grant program designed for small businesses impacted by the pandemic, to phish personal information and take over Facebook accounts. The perpetrators are trying to dupe people into thinking that the social network is handing out free money to...