How scammers use fake insurance texts to steal your identity

Sometimes it’s hard to understand how some scams work or why criminals would even try them on you. In this case it may have been a matter of timing. One of my co-workers received this one: “Insurance estimates for certain age ranges: 20-30 200 – 300/mo 31-40 270 – 450/mo 41-64 350 – 500/mo Please...

Update Chrome now: Google fixes 13 security issues affecting billions

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser that includes 13 security fixes, four of which are classified as high severity. One of these was found in Chrome’s Digital Credentials feature–a tool that lets you share verified information from your digital wallet with websites so you can pro...

Holiday shoppers targeted as Amazon and FBI warn of surge in account takeover attacks

The FBI has issued a public service announcement warning about a surge in account takeover ATO fraud, and the timing lines up with a major alert Amazon has just sent to its 300 million customers about brand impersonation scams. How ATO fraud works Account takeover fraud is just what it says:...

AI teddy bear for kids responds with sexual content and advice about weapons

In testing, FoloToy’s AI teddy bear jumped from friendly chat to sexual topics and unsafe household advice. It shows how easily artificial intelligence can cross serious boundaries. It’s a fair moment to ask whether AI-powered stuffed animals are appropriate for children. It’s easy to get swept u...

Mac users warned about new DigitStealer information stealer

A new infostealer called DigitStealer is going after Mac users. It avoids detection, skips older devices, and steals files, passwords, and browser data. We break down what it does and how to protect your Mac. Researchers have described a new malware called DigitStealer that steals sensitive...

Watch out for Walmart gift card scams

You’ve probably seen it before—a bright, urgent message claiming you’ve qualified for a $750 or $1000 Walmart gift card. All you have to do is answer a few questions. It looks harmless enough. But once you click, you find yourself in a maze of surveys, redirects, and "partner offers"—without ever...

Gmail breach panic? It’s a misunderstanding, not a hack

After a misinterpretation of an interview with a security researcher, several media outlets hinted at a major Gmail breach. Reporters claimed the incident took place in April. In reality, the researcher had said there was an enormous amount of Gmail usernames and passwords circulating on the dark...

New SVG-based phishing campaign is a recipe for disaster

We've written in the past about cybercriminals using SVG files for phishing and for clickjack campaigns. We found a new, rather sophisticated example of an SVG involved in phishing. For readers that missed the earlier posts, SVG files are not always simply image files. Because they are written in...

WinRAR vulnerability exploited by two different groups

On July 30, 2025, WinRAR released a new version 7.13 Final to patch a vulnerability which was used in two separate malware campaigns. WinRAR is a popular file archiving and data compression tool that allows users to compress files into smaller archives, like RAR and ZIP, and can also unpack vario...

Apple patches multiple vulnerabilities in iOS and iPadOS. Update now!

Apple released a security update for iOS and iPadOS to patch multiple vulnerabilities, including one that could leak sensitive information when visiting a malicious website and one that allows an attacker to display false information in the address bar. In total, 29 vulnerabilities were patched,...

Qantas: Breach affects 6 million people, “significant” amount of data likely taken

Australia's largest airline Qantas has confirmed that cybercriminals have gained access to a third party customer servicing platform that contained 6 million customer service records. Qantas says the breach occurred after a cybercriminal targeted a call centre and managed to gain access to the...

Corpse-eating selfies, and other ways to trick scammers (Lock and Code S06E14)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … There’s a unique counter response to romance scammers. Her name is Becky Holmes. Holmes, an expert and author on romance scams, has spent years responding to nearly every romance scammer who lands a message in her inbox. She told one scammer pretending to ...

OpenAI forced to preserve ChatGPT chats

OpenAI has protested a court order that forces it to retain its users' conversations. The creator of the ChatGPT AI model objected to the order, which is part of a copyright infringement case against it by The New York Times and other publishers. The news organizations argued that ChatGPT was...

Android users bombarded with unskippable ads

Researchers have discovered a very versatile ad fraud network—known as Kaleidoscope—that bombards users with unskippable ads. Normally, ad fraud is not a concern for users of infected devices. They might experience some sluggish behavior on their device, but often that’s the extent of it. Ad frau...

A week in security (May 4 – May 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: The AI chatbot cop squad is here Lock and Code S06E09 Android fixes 47 vulnerabilities, including one zero-day. Update as soon as you can! "Your privacy is a promise we don’t break": Dating app Raw exposes sensitive user data FBI issues warning as scammers target...

“I sent you an email from your email account,” sextortion scam claims

In a new version of the old “Hello pervert” emails, scammers are relying on classic email spoofing techniques to try and convince victims that they have lost control of their email account and computer systems. Email spoofing basically comes down to sending emails with a false sender address, a...

Child predators are lurking on dating apps, warns report

Using a dating app? Beware of your potential partner's motives. A report from Edinburgh University warns that child abusers are using these apps to find single parents with vulnerable children. The Searchlight 2025 report, from the University's Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, analyses t...

The “free money” trap: How scammers exploit financial anxiety

With financial stress at an all-time high, and many Americans grappling with confusion about social security, Medicaid, and Medicare, people are desperately seeking relief. Scammers know this all too well and have tailored their tactics to exploit these fears, preying on vulnerable individuals wi...

Malwarebytes Premium Security awarded “Product of the Year” from AVLab

Malwarebytes Premium Security has once again been awarded “Product of the Year” after successfully blocking 100% of “in-the-wild” malware samples. The samples were deployed in multiple, consecutive third-party tests conducted by the AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation. AVLab commended Malwarebytes for...

I spoke to a task scammer. Here’s how it went

Tasks scam are surging, with a year over year increase of 400%. So I guess it should have been no surprise when I was contacted by a task scammer on X recently. Task scammers prey on people looking for remote jobs by offering them simple repetitive tasks such as liking videos, optimizing apps,...

DeepSeek found to be sharing user data with TikTok parent company ByteDance

A couple of weeks ago we reported on the concerns surrounding data collection and security at DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company which recently made headlines for shaking up the industry after seemingly appearing from nowhere to become top of the app download charts. Now South Korea’s Personal...

7-Zip bug could allow a bypass of a Windows security feature. Update now

A patch is available for a vulnerability in 7-Zip that could have allowed attackers to bypass the Mark-of-the-Web MotW security feature in Windows. The MotW is an attribute added to files by Windows when they have been sourced from an untrusted location, like the internet or a restricted zone. Th...

iMessage text gets recipient to disable phishing protection so they can be phished

A smishing SMS phishing campaign is targeting iMessage users, attempting to socially engineer them into bypassing Apple's built in phishing protection. For months, iMessage users have been posting examples online of how phishers are trying to get around this protection. And, now, the campign is...

2024 in AI: It’s changed the world, but it’s not all good

A popular saying is: “To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.” Even though the saying is older than you might think, it did not come about earlier than the concept of artificial intelligence AI. And as long as we have been waiting for AI technology to become commonplace...

TikTok ban in US: Company seeks emergency injunction to prevent it

TikTok has requested an emergency injunction to stop or postpone the planned ban on the platform in the US. Back in March, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would effectively ban TikTok from the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance agreed to give up its share of the immensely popular...

Repeat offenders drive bulk of tech support scams via Google Ads

Of all the different kinds of malicious search ads we track, those related to customer service are by far the most common. Brands such as PayPal, eBay, Apple or Netflix are among the most coveted ones as they tend to drive a lot of online searches. Tech support scammers are leveraging Google ads ...

Pinterest tracks users without consent, alleges complaint

Pinterest has received a complaint from privacy watchdog noyb None of your business over the unsolicited tracking of its users. Pinterest allows you to pin images to virtual pinboards; useful for interior design, recipe ideas, party inspiration, and much more. It started as a virtual replacement...

A week in security (October 7 – October 13)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Modern TVs have "unprecedented capabilities for surveillance and manipulation," group reveals Internet Archive suffers data breach and DDoS Google Search user interface: A/B testing shows security concerns remain AI girlfriend site breached, user fantasies stolen...

Exposing the Facebook funeral livestream scam (Lock and Code S05E21)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … Online scammers were seen this August stooping to a new low—abusing local funerals to steal from bereaved family and friends. Cybercrime has never been a job of morals calling it a "job" is already lending it too much credit, but, for many years, scams...

Fake Disney+ activation page redirects to pornographic scam

A common way to activate digital subscriptions such as Netflix, Prime or Disney+ on a new TV is to visit a website and enter the code seen on your screen. It's much easier than having to authenticate using a remote and typing a username and password. Scammers are creating fake activation pages th...

Don’t share the viral Instagram Meta AI “legal” post

A new variation of a hoax that has been doing the rounds on Facebook for years has crossed over to Instagram. We’re seeing this post on Instagram Stories a lot suddenly over the last few days. The post is usually posted as a shareable screenshot on Instagram Stories, but it’s also been spotted on...

Scammers advertise fake AppleCare+ service via GitHub repos

Weve uncovered a malicious campaign going after Mac users looking for support or extended warranty from Apple via the AppleCare+ support plans. The perpetrators are buying Google ads to lure in their victims and redirect them to bogus pages hosted on GitHub, the developer and code repository...

A week in security (August 26 – September 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Iranian cybercriminals are targeting WhatsApp users in spear phishing campaign Fake Canva home page leads to browser lock Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged with allowing criminal activity CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, US Marshalls are latest ransomware targets SMS...

Hundreds of online stores hacked in new campaign

Whenever you shop online and enter your payment details, you could be at risk of being a victim of fraud. Digital skimmers are snippets of code that have been injected into online stores and they can steal your credit card number, expiration date and CVV/CVC as you type it in. We recently detecte...

Dozens of Google products targeted by scammers via malicious search ads

In a previous blog, we saw criminals distribute malware via malicious ads for Google Authenticator. This time, brazen malvertisers went as far as impersonating Googles entire product line and redirecting victims to a fake Google home page. Clearly not afraid of poking the bear, they even used and...

Meta to pay $1.4 billion over unauthorized facial recognition image capture

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta to “stop the company’s practice of capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law.” The prime reason for the initial lawsuit that led to the...

TracFone will pay $16 million to settle FCC data breach investigation

Following three separate data breaches between 2021 and 2023 which exposed the proprietary information PI of TracFone Wireless customers, the Federal Communications Commission FCC announced that the Verizon-owned company has agreed to pay a $16 million civil penalty to settle the government...

“Nearly all” AT&T customers had phone records stolen in new data breach disclosure

In a déjà-vu nightmare, US phone giant AT&T has notified customers that cybercriminals managed to download phone call and text message records of "nearly all of AT&T cellular customers from May 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022 as well as on January 2, 2023". In a filing with the Securities and Exchang...

iPhone users in 98 countries warned about spyware by Apple

In April 2024, we reported how Apple was warning people of mercenary attacks via its threat notification system. At the time it warned users in 92 countries. In a new round, Apple is now warning users in 98 countries of potential mercenary spyware attacks. The message sent to the affected users...

Busted for book club? Why cops want to see what you’re reading, with Sarah Lamdan (Lock and Code S05E14)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… More than 20 years ago, a law that the United States would eventually use to justify the warrantless collection of Americans phone call records actually started out as a warning sign against an entirely different target: Libraries. Not two months after...

Ticketmaster confirms customer data breach

Live Nation Entertainment has confirmed what everyone has been speculating on for the last week: Ticketmaster has suffered a data breach. In a filing with the SEC, Live Nation said on May 20th it identified "unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company...

A week in security (May 6 – May 12)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Dell notifies customers about data breach DocGo patient health data stolen in cyberattack Desperate Taylor Swift fans defrauded by ticket scams Tracing what went wrong in 2012 for today’s teens, with Dr. Jean Twenge: Lock and Code S04E10 Last week on ThreatDown:...

LockBit, the world’s worst ransomware, is down

For the last two years the absolute worst, most prolific, most globally significant "big game" ransomware gang has been LockBit. This evening its position as ransomwares biggest beast is suddenly in doubt, following some non-consensual website redecoration at the hands of the UKs National Crime...

Google failing to scrub abortion access in location history, study claims

Nearly 16 months after Google announced a policy change to remove location data that could reveal users’ physical trips to abortion clinics and other potentially sensitive medical centers, a nonprofit has alleged in a new report that the company is failing to do just that. The findings, which wer...

Meta’s Purple Llama wants to test safety risks in AI models

Meta has announced Purple Llama, a project that aims to "bring together tools and evaluations to help the community build responsibly with open generative AI models." Generative Artificial Intelligence AI models have been around for years and their main function, compared to older AI models is th...

Will ChatGPT write ransomware? Yes.

This morning I decided to write some ransomware, and I asked ChatGPT to help. Not because I wanted to turn to a life of crime, but because I wanted to see if anything had changed since March, when I last tried the same exact thing. In short: ChatGPT has helped me, worryingly so. But more on that...

Google Chrome wants to hide your IP address

Google is working out some kinks in the project formerly known as Gnatcatcher, which will now be known under the more descriptive name “IP Protection.” Which means that Chrome is reintroducing a proposal to hide users IP addresses, to make cross-site tracking more difficult. An Internet Protocol ...

Stalkerware activity drops as glaring spying problem is revealed

North America has a spying problem. Its perpetrators are everyday people. According to recent research from Malwarebytes, 62 percent of people in the United States and Canada admitted to monitoring their romantic partners online in one form or another, from looking through a spouses or significan...

Multi-factor authentication has proven it works, so what are we waiting for?

Recently, Amazon announced that it will require all privileged Amazon Web Services AWS accounts to use multi-factor authentication MFA, starting in mid-2024. Our regular readers will know that we feel that passwords alone are not adequate protection, especially not for your important accounts. So...

Malwarebytes Admin update: New Detection screens to manage threats!

We released version 1.2 of the Malwarebytes Admin app for iOS and Android last week, adding new Detection features make it easier to see and manage threats. Designed as a companion to the Nebula console, Malwarebytes Admin allows administrators to quickly review, investigate, and resolve security...