Spammed Bomb Threat Hoax Demands Bitcoin

A new email extortion scam is making the rounds, threatening that someone has planted bombs within the recipient's building that will be detonated unless a hefty bitcoin ransom is paid by the end of the business day. Sources at multiple U.S. based financial institutions reported receiving the...

IT consultancy firm caught running ransomware decryption scam

By Waqas Ransomware has become a persistent threat to users globally but for cybercriminals, it is a lucrative business. Recently, IT security researchers at Check Point unearthed a sophisticated ransomware decryption scam in which a Russian IT consultant company has been caught scamming ransomwa...

How Internet Savvy are Your Leaders?

Back in April 2015, I tweeted about receiving a letter via snail mail suggesting the search engine rankings for a domain registered in my name would suffer if I didn't pay a bill for some kind of dubious-looking service I'd never heard of. But it wasn't until the past week that it become clear ho...

A week in security (December 3 – 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we gave readers an FYI on multiple breaches that affected Humble Bundle, Quora, and Dunkin' Donuts, to name a few. This follows the announcement from Marriott about a four-year-long breach that impacted half a billion of its patrons. We also pushed out the report,...

Volkswagen Giveaway Scam Peddles Ad Networks

A fake Volkswagen campaign is making its way across social media platforms, luring in victims with promises of a free Volkswagen car giveaway – but instead redirecting them to third-party ad servers. Victims are first sent messages via WhatsApp or Facebook, purporting to be from Volkswagen and...

New Scam Apps Take Advantage of iPhone Touch ID

Touch ID is seamless, which makes it great for unlocking your phone—and for App Store scammers...

U.S. Military Members Catfished and Hooked for Thousands of Dollars

A sextortion ring that aimed “catfish” efforts at U.S. military service members has been uncovered. The scam bilked 442 service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps out of more than $560,000. An 11-month investigation, dubbed “Operation Surprise Party” and carried out by the...

iOS Fitness Apps Robbing Money From Apple Victims

Two apps that were posing as fitness-tracking tools were actually using Apple’s Touch ID feature to loot money from unassuming iOS victims. The two impacted apps were the “Fitness Balance App” and “Calories Tracker App.” Both apps looked normal, and served functions like calculating BMI, tracking...

A Dunkin' Donuts Hack, a Fake FedEx Site, and More Security News This Week

Scam centers, exposed massage company data, and more of the week's top security news...

Indian police & Microsoft busts tech support scam centers

By Uzair Amir You may have watched YouTube videos about tech support scam tricking unsuspecting users into believing that their devices have been compromised with some nasty malware and the only way to get rid of it is to pay the technician for their "services" over the phone or Skype call. This...

FBI Shuts Down Multimillion Dollar – 3ve – Ad Fraud Operation

Google, the FBI, ad-fraud fighting company WhiteOps and a collection of cyber security companies worked together to shut down one of the largest and most sophisticated digital ad-fraud schemes that infected over 1.7 million computers to generate fake clicks used to defraud online advertisers for...

Fraudsters changing contact details of banks on Google Maps to scam users

By Waqas Don’t trust Google Maps for banks’ contact details - At least not for now. Scammers are now increasingly interested in defrauding users through Google Maps that lets users change or correct the listings displayed on the service. Seeing this as an effectively exploitable opportunity,...

FCC Addresses Robocalling – But Questions Remain

Robocalls and text spam – often in the service of widespread fraud campaigns – continue to persist, dogging consumers despite the existence of the national Do Not Call registry and efforts like the Truth in Caller ID Act. In an effort to alleviate the situation, Federal Communications Commission...

A week in security (November 12 – 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we found out that TrickBot became a top business threat, so we took a deeper look at what's new with it. With Christmas just around the corner, the Secret Sister scam returned. We also touched on the security and privacy or lack thereof in smart jewelry, air traffi...

Business email compromise scam costs Pathé $21.5 million

Recently released court documents show that European-based cinema chain Pathé lost a small fortune to a business email compromise BEC scam in March 2018. How much? An astonishing US$21.5 million roughly 19 million euros. The attack, which ran for about a month, cost the company 10 percent of its...

Bitcoin Giveaway Scam Balloons, with Google the Latest Victim

Google’s official G Suite Twitter account, which has more than 800,000 followers, on Tuesday became the latest victim of an increasingly widespread Bitcoin scam, according to researchers. The growing size and scope of the scam — as well as the cybercriminals’ success in hijacking high-profile,...

Secret Sister scam returns in time for Christmas

The festive season may be imminent, but it’s a Facebook Secret Sister not Santa you have to steer clear of. Secret Sister has been a mainstay of Yuletide scams since at least 2015, and has come back around once more. But what is it? Your office probably has a Secret Santa scheme in place. You dra...

Google logins: JavaScript now required

Google users: In news that may sound alarming, it is now a requirement for you to enable JavaScript. Why? When your username and password are entered on Google’s sign-in page, Google runs a risk assessment and only allows the sign-in if nothing looks suspicious. Recently, Google went about...

ThreatList: Despite Fraud Awareness, Password Reuse Persists for Half of U.S. Consumers

As National Fraud Day approaches Nov. 11, it remains clear that more consumer education is required when it comes to thwarting scammers and identity thieves. Despite almost half of U.S. consumers 49 percent believing their security habits make them vulnerable to information fraud or identity thef...

A week in security (October 22 – 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at some new Mac malware, gave you a roundup of 2018 exploit kits, and dispensed some advice on sextortion scams. We also looked at the Cathay Pacific breach, groaned at the revival of an old browser trick, and explained how voting machines and...