Judge drops hammer, dishes 7 years slammer for BEC and romance scammer

A Texas resident has finally paid the price for a heady mix of malicious mail antics. A combination of business email compromise BEC scams and romance fakeouts bagged them $2.2 million across roughly 6 years. This is quite a divergent portfolio of scamming activity. You may typically assume BEC...

A week in security (February 15 – February 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, the spotlight fell on the State of Malware 2021 report, wherein we have seen cyberthreats evolve. We also touched on ransomware, such as Egregor and a tactic known as Remote Desktop Protocol RDP brute forcing that has long been part of the ransomware operators...

Cybercriminal Enterprise 'Ringleaders' Stole $55M Via COVID-19 Fraud, Romance Scams

Click to Register U.S. law enforcement arrested six “ringleaders” of a Ghana-based cybercriminal enterprise, who had allegedly launched a slew of money-stealing scams dating back to 2013 that included romance scams, business email compromise attacks and fraud. Seized in the arrests were a slew of...

Romance scams: FTC reveals $304 million of heartache

In 2020, reported losses to the FTC for romance scams went up by 50% from 2019, totalling $304 million. And things werent exactly good before: Romance scams have cost people a fortune for 3 years running, according to the FTC. Their latest report suggests a steady rise in these kind of scams...

Cybercrooks Rake in $304M in Romance Scams

Romance scams remain the most successful fraud strategy for cybercrooks, and represents a growing sector, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Last year, romance schemes accounted for a record $304 million raked into illicit coffers, according to new data – up about 50 percent from 2019...

Verify Your Valentine

This Valentine’s Day, before you go looking for love in all the wrong chat rooms, CISA reminds users to be wary of internet romance scams. At first, cyber criminals promise the reward of romance after adopting an alias to appear as a potential partner. Once your heart is hooked on hope, they turn...

new.toto-romance.com Cross Site Scripting vulnerability OBB-1315768

Following coordinated and responsible vulnerability disclosure guidelines of the ISO 29147 standard, Open Bug Bounty has: &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspa. verified the vulnerability and confirmed its existence; &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspb. notified the website operator about its existence...

dating-romance-ebook-reviews.com Cross Site Scripting vulnerability OBB-1275042

Following coordinated and responsible vulnerability disclosure guidelines of the ISO 29147 standard, Open Bug Bounty has: &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspa. verified the vulnerability and confirmed its existence; &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspb. notified the website operator about its existence...

U.S. Secret Service: “Massive Fraud” Against State Unemployment Insurance Programs

A well-organized Nigerian crime ring is exploiting the COVID-19 crisis by committing large-scale fraud against multiple state unemployment insurance programs, with potential losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new alert issued by the U.S. Secret Service. A memo seen by...

News Wrap: Valentine's Day Scams and Emotet's Wi-Fi Hack

Threatpost editors Tara Seals and Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch break down the top stories for this week, ended Feb. 14, including: Recent phishing scams – including ones with a romance hook – continue to trick victims, showing that phishing tactics still work in stealing millions from individuals,...

Be Cautious of Romance Scams

This Valentine’s Day, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA reminds users to be wary of internet romance scams. Cyber criminals partaking in this type of fraud target victims, gain their confidence, and convince them to transfer funds. When online dating, use caution and never...

Feds Crack Down on Money Mules, Warn of BEC Scams

The Justice Department said this week that it is cracking down on money mules, i.e., middlemen who assist in fraud schemes by receiving money from victims and forwarding proceeds to foreign-based perpetrators. So far, feds say they have halted more than 600 domestic money mules – exceeding the 40...

Before He Spammed You, this Sly Prince Stalked Your Mailbox

A reader forwarded what he briefly imagined might be a bold, if potentially costly, innovation on the old Nigerian prince scam that asks for help squirreling away millions in unclaimed fortune: It was sent via the U.S. Postal Service, with a postmarked stamp and everything. In truth these old...

Protect Against Romance Scams

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has released a short video to help users spot and defend against romance scams. In this type of fraud, cyber criminals gain the confidence of their victims and trick them into sending money. The video includes stories that romance scammers tell to online daters to...

A Harlequin Romance Novel about Hackers

Really...

Podcast: Behind-the-Scenes Look at Scattered Canary BEC Cybergang

LONDON, U.K. – At Infosecurity Europe, Threatpost caught up with Agari researchers to discuss their threat research unveiled at the show about a newly-unveiled business email compromise BEC cybergang. The cybercriminal group, which researchers called Scattered Canary, has been evolving for over 1...

Newly-Identified BEC Cybergang Targets U.S. Enterprise Victims

LONDON, U.K. – Researchers have identified a highly-sophisticated Nigerian business email compromise gang targeting U.S enterprises and government institutions. The cybercrime group, dubbed Scattered Canary, has evolved over the past 10 years from a one-man shop working Craigslist scams into a...

Chinese Hackers Used NSA Hacking Tools Before Shadow Brokers Leaked Them

In a shocking revelation, it turns out that a hacking group believed to be sponsored by Chinese intelligence had been using some of the zero-day exploits linked to the NSA's Equation Group almost a year before the mysterious Shadow Brokers group leaked them. According to a new report published by...

Internet Romance Scams

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has released an article addressing a rise in reports of internet romance scams. In this type of fraud, cyber criminals gain the confidence of their victims and trick them into sending money. Use caution when online dating, and never send money or gifts to someone...

Feds Arrest 74 Email Fraudsters Involved in Nigerian BEC Scams

The United States Department of Justice announced Monday the arrest of 74 email fraudsters across three continents in a global crackdown on a large-scale business email compromise BEC scheme. The arrest was the result of a six-month-long operation dubbed "Operation Wire Wire" that involved the US...