Scammers pretending to be Microsoft had help from US executives

A pop-up appears on your computer, warning of a virus. You call the "Microsoft technician" in the pop-up message, and they explain that they need remote access to fix it. Most of us know this script by now. It's a scam, operated by people intent on siphoning money from your account. A court case...

Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned $21 Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market

The UK designated Xinbi Guarantee as an enabler of crypto scammers and human trafficking weeks ago. Telegram is still hosting it in plain sight...

Your Digital Footprint Can Lead Right to Your Front Door

You lock your doors at night. You avoid sketchy phone calls. You're careful about what you post on social media. But what about the information about you that's already out there—without your permission? Your name. Home address. Phone number. Past jobs. Family members. Old usernames. It's all sti...

Telegram Hosting World’s Largest Darknet Market

Wired is reporting on Chinese darknet markets on Telegram. The ecosystem of marketplaces for Chinese-speaking crypto scammers hosted on the messaging service Telegram have now grown to be bigger than ever before, according to a new analysis from the crypto tracing firm Elliptic. Despite a brief...

Using AI-Generated Images to Get Refunds

Scammers are generating images of broken merchandise in order to apply for refunds...

Chinese Crypto Scammers on Telegram Are Fueling the Biggest Darknet Markets Ever

Online black markets once lurked in the shadows of the dark web. Today, they’ve moved onto public platforms like Telegram—and are racking up historic illicit fortunes...

WIRED Roundup: DHS’s Privacy Breach, AI Romantic Affairs, and Google Sues Text Scammers

In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss our scoop about how the Department of Homeland Security illegally collected Chicago residents’ data for months, as well as the news of the week...

Victim As a Service: Designing a System for Engaging with Interactive Scammers

Pig butchering, and similar interactive online scams, lower their victims' defenses by building trust over extended periods of conversation - sometimes weeks or months. They have become increasingly public losses at least $75B by one recent study. However, because of their long-term conversationa...

North Korean Scammers Are Doing Architectural Design Now

New research shows that North Koreans appear to be trying to trick US companies into hiring them to develop architectural designs using fake profiles, résumés, and Social Security numbers...

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,...

Romance scammers in Ghana charged with more than $100 million in theft

The Department of Justice DOJ extradited and indicted 4 Ghanaian nationals for allegedly stealing more than $100 million, mainly through romance scams and business email compromises. According to a report from Comparitech, nearly 59,000 Americans fell victim to romance scams in 2024, losing an...

Leak Reveals the Workaday Lives of North Korean IT Scammers

Spreadsheets, Slack messages, and files linked to an alleged group of North Korean IT workers expose their meticulous job-planning and targeting—and the constant surveillance they're under...

Scammers Use Inferno Drainer to Steal $43K from CoinMarketCap Users

Scammers used Inferno Drainer to steal $43,000 in crypto from 110 CoinMarketCap users through a fake wallet prompt embedded in the site’s front-end...

Scammers hijack websites of Bank of America, Netflix, Microsoft, and more to insert fake phone number

The examples in this post are actual fraud attempts found by Malwarebytes Senior Director of Research, Jérôme Segura. Cybercriminals frequently use fake search engine listings to take advantage of our trust in popular brands, and then scam us. It often starts, as with so many attacks, with a...

Scammers Use Fake Kling AI Ads to Spread Malware

Scammers impersonate Kling AI AI-powered video generation tool using fake ads and websites to spread malware. Check Point Research details how the attack tricks users into downloading RATs...

How to Win Followers and Scamfluence People

Format Boy makes a living teaching Yahoo Boys, notorious West African scammers, how to use AI and deepfake technology to ensnare their next victims...

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...

Job Seekers Targeted as Scammers Pose as Government Agencies on WhatsApp

Scammers impersonate government agencies on WhatsApp to target job seekers with fake offers, phishing sites, and identity theft…...

An $8.4 Billion Chinese Hub for Crypto Crime Is Incorporated in Colorado

Before a crackdown by Telegram, Xinbi Guarantee grew into one of the internet’s biggest markets for Chinese-speaking crypto scammers and money laundering. And all registered to a US address...

FBI issues warning as scammers target victims of crime

The FBI has issued a warning about an ongoing fraud scheme where criminal scammers are impersonating FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 employees in order to scam people. Between December 2023 and February 2025, the FBI received over 100 reports of scams involving people posing as IC3...