Fake listings can turn trusted platforms into scam springboards

Recently, we found a listing on BuzzFeed from someone pretending to be Malwarebytes Support. It reminded us why we need to be cautious about content on platforms where anyone can create an entry. Based on the phone number, we suspect the people behind this listing are trying to draw callers into ...

Beware of fake Indeed interview apps used to install spyware

From several independent reports, we’ve seen evidence of scammers using fake Android “interview” apps to target job seekers on the Indeed platform. Indeed is one of the world's largest employment websites, giving scammers access to a huge pool of potential victims, especially in a competitive job...

TikTok phishing: How to spot fake login and verification pages

Phishing pages don’t need to be sophisticated. They just need to look convincing enough to make you trust them. TikTok phishing often starts with an email or message designed to make you think you need to act on your account. It might claim your account has been suspended, reported, or hit with a...

Be careful what you put in “anyone with the link” Google Docs

The next time you type something sensitive into a Google Doc—or any other online tool with a sharing feature—be careful about the permissions you grant. Speaking with The Register, the founder of QR generation service Pageloot said that he learned that the hard way. Siim Kostabi recalled how a...

The March Madness scam playbook

March Madness is the annual men's and women's NCAA Division I basketball tournament, where 68 teams play in a single-elimination bracket for the US national championship. But March Madness doesn’t just bring buzzer beaters and busted brackets. It also kicks off a short, intense season for scammer...

Attackers abuse OAuth’s built-in redirects to launch phishing and malware attacks

Attackers are abusing normal OAuth error redirects to send users from a legitimate Microsoft or Google login URL to phishing or malware pages, without ever completing a successful sign‑in or stealing tokens from the OAuth flow itself. That calls for a bit more explanation. OAuth Open Authorizatio...

Malwarebytes joins Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) as supporting member

We are excited to share that Malwarebytes has officially joined the Global Anti-Scam Alliance GASA as a supporting member. Working with GASA helps us stay aligned with others who are focused on reducing scams and keeping people safer online. Modern-day scams aren’t the clumsy, obvious tricks they...

How to set up two factor authentication (2FA) on your Instagram account

Two-factor authentication 2FA isn't foolproof, but it is one of the best ways to protect your accounts from hackers. It adds a small extra step when logging in, but that extra effort pays off. Instagram’s 2FA requires an additional code whenever you try to log in from an unrecognized device or...

A week in security (October 6 – October 12)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Apple voices concerns over age-check law that could put user privacy at risk Your passwords don’t need so many fiddly characters, NIST says Millions of very private chats exposed by two AI companion apps Fake VPN and streaming app drops malware that drains your ban...

Apple voices concerns over age-check law that could put user privacy at risk

Apple has raised concerns about a new Texas state law, SB 2420, which introduces age assurance requirements for app stores and app developers. One of its main objections is that the requirements are over the top and don’t take into account what the user is actually trying to do. Apple stated: “We...

Is your computer mouse eavesdropping on you?

The short answer is: probably not, but theoretically it’s possible. Researchers at the University of California found a method they called Mic-E-Mouse, which turns your computer mouse into a spy that can listen in on your conversations. The method uses high-performance optical sensors in optical...

ChatGPT Deep Research zero-click vulnerability fixed by OpenAI

OpenAI has moved quickly to patch a vulnerability known as “ShadowLeak” before anyone detected real-world abuse. Revealed by researchers yesterday, ShadowLeak was an issue in OpenAI’s Deep Research project that attackers could exploit by simply sending an email to the target. Deep Research was...

iCloud Calendar infrastructure abused in PayPal phishing campaign

Once again, phishers are targeting PayPal users by abusing existing legitimate infrastructure. Only this time they’re not abusing PayPal’s platform, but iCloud Calendar invites. Our friends over at BleepingComputer unraveled a call-back phishing scam which was sent to one of their readers. “Pedro...

Nexar dashcam video database hacked

A hacker cracked into a database of video recordings taken from Nexar-branded cameras, which are built to be placed drivers’ cars, according to a new report from 404 Media. Nexar is a dashcam company that promotes its products as “virtual CCTV cameras” and offers automatic cloud uploads of critic...

Claude AI chatbot abused to launch “cybercrime spree”

Anthropic—the company behind the widely renowned coding chatbot, Claude—says it uncovered a large-scale extortion operation in which cybercriminals abused Claude to automate and orchestrate sophisticated attacks. The company issued a Threat Intelligence report in which it describes several...

A week in security (August 18 – August 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Clickjack attack steals password managers’ secrets Grok chats show up in Google searches All Apple users should update after company patches zero-day vulnerability in all platforms Google settles YouTube lawsuit over kids’ privacy invasion and data collection...

Instagram Map: What is it and how do I control it?

Instagram Map is a new feature—for Instagram, anyway—that users may have enabled without being fully aware of the consequences. The Map feature launched in the US on August 6, 2025, and is reportedly planned for a global rollout "soon." As of mid-August 2025, not all users outside the US,...

Malwarebytes earns MRG Effitas Android 360° Certificate for mobile threat detection

We’re excited to announce that MRG Effitas, a globally recognized security assessment firm, has awarded Malwarebytes the prestigious MRG Effitas Android 360° Certificate, one of the toughest independent tests in mobile security. Our mobile protection received the highest marks, achieving a...

Unexpected snail mail packages are being sent with scammy QR codes, warns FBI

Receiving an unexpected package in the post is not always a pleasant surprise. The FBI has warned the public about unsolicited packages containing a QR code which leads to a website aimed at stealing personal data or downloading malware to the victim's device. The packages are often shipped witho...

Prison visitor details shared with all inmates at correctional facility

The Everglades Correctional Institution ECI in Miami-Dade County has leaked the names, email addresses, and telephone numbers of visitors to the facility to every inmate. The inmates received an email last week sent by a staff member that included the personal information of the visitors. Inmates...

Age verification: Child protection or privacy risk?

With governments demanding actual age verification on websites with adult content, and platforms like social media and Roblox introducing restrictions based on a user’s age, the controversy about different types of age verification and their implications is growing. Last week, Roblox announced ne...

Zoom attack tricks victims into allowing remote access to install malware and steal money

Be careful when talking to people you've not met with before over the Zoom video conferencing system; you might get more than you bargained for. Two CEOs were recently targeted by a Zoom-based attack. One spotted it in time - and sadly, one did not. The attack is by a crime group that the Securit...

A week in security (February 24 – March 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Millions of stalkerware users exposed again PayPal’s "no-code checkout" abused by scammers Countries and companies are fighting at the expense of our data privacy Roblox called "real-life nightmare for children" as Roblox and Discord sued Android happy to check you...

Roblox called “real-life nightmare for children” as Roblox and Discord sued

Last week it was reported that a lawsuit has been initiated against gaming giant Roblox and leading messaging platform Discord. The court action—charging them with the facilitation of child predators and misleading parents into believing the platforms are safe to use for their children—centers...

Small business owners, secure your web shop

An online shop is more than just another way to sell your products. It comes with a responsibility to keep the web shop secure. Cybercriminals are looking to steal your customers’ credit card details, their personal data, and even your revenue. And it’s not as if using a platform that is used by...

The DeepSeek controversy: Authorities ask where does the data come from and how safe is it?

The sudden rise of DeepSeek has raised concerns and questions, especially about the origin and destination of the training data, as well as the security of the data. For those returning from a short holiday away from the news, DeepSeek is a new player on the Artificial Intelligence AI field. The...

The great Google Ads heist: criminals ransack advertiser accounts via fake Google ads

Table of contents Overview Criminals impersonate Google Ads Lures hosted on Google Sites Phishing for Google account credentials Victimology Who is behind these campaigns? Fuel for other malware and scam campaigns Indicators of Compromise Overview Online criminals are targeting individuals and...

Massive breach at location data seller: “Millions” of users affected

Like many other data brokers, Gravy is a company you may never have heard of, but it almost certainly knows a lot about you if you’re a US citizen. Data brokers come in different shapes and sizes. What they have in common is that they gather personally identifiable data from various sources—from...

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8 security tips for small businesses

Small businesses and startups are known to face some extra challenges when it comes to cybersecurity. Because they don’t have the size or budget to have a fully-fledged dedicated security team, it often comes down to one person that doesn’t have the time to do everything that is recommended or ev...

Payment provider data breach exposes credit card information of 1.7 million customers

Payment provider Slim CD has disclosed a security incident that may have exposed the full credit card information of anyone paying at a merchant that uses Slim CD’s services. The Florida-based gateway system, which allows merchants to take any kind of electronic payment, said on June 15 it notice...

City of Columbus tries to silence security researcher

The City of Columbus, Ohio is suing a security researcher for sharing stolen data. All the complaint will accomplish, we imagine, is spotlight the ignorance of certain city officials in handling a common security matter. What happened is that the City of Columbus was attacked by a ransomware grou...

X accused of unlawfully using personal data of 60 million+ users to train its AI

In what may come as a surprise to nobody at all, theres been yet another complaint about using social media data to train Artificial Intelligence AI. This time the complaint is against X formerly Twitter and Grok, the conversational AI chatbot developed by Elon Musks company xAI. Grok is a large...

Meta takes down 63,000 sextortion-related accounts on Instagram

Meta announced the take-down of 63,000 sextortion-related Instagram accounts in Nigeria alone. The action was directed against a group known as Yahoo Boys, a loosely organized set of cybercriminals that largely operate out of Nigeria and specialize in different types of scams. Meta took down a ho...

“Amazon got hacked” messages are a false alarm

Amazon customers have been seeing a message on social media that has caused some alarm. Most of the posts look like one of these depending on the social media platform: “PSA!! Amazon got hacked. For USA based people, check your Amazon account. Hackers added HUB lockers as your default delivery...

AI generated Pentagon explosion photograph goes viral on Twitter

Twitters recent changes to checkmark verification continue to cause chaos, this time in the realm of potentially dangerous misinformation. A checkmarked account claimed to show images of explosions close to important landmarks like the Pentagon. These images quickly went viral despite being AI...

Microsoft vs Google spat sees users rolling back security updates to fix browser issues

We like to imagine were in total control of our desktop experience, carefully curated to look and work the way we want it to. However, every so often a story comes along which reminds us how little control we have when the big players notice one another's existence. A recent Windows update really...

Royal Mail schools LockBit in leaked negotiation

The LockBit group has finally given up any prospect of extracting a ransom from Royal Mail and published the files it stole from the company in a recent ransomware attack. The leak brings weeks of negotiations to a close, leaving Royal Mail without a decryptor, and LockBit without a payday...

FTC bans SpyFone and its CEO from continuing to sell stalkerware

Nearly two years after the US Federal Trade Commission first took aim against mobile apps that can non-consensually track people’s locations and pry into their emails, photos, and videos, the government agency placed restrictions Wednesday on the developers of SpyFone—which the FTC called a...

New evasion techniques found in web skimmers

For a number of years, criminals have been able to steal credit card details from unaware online shoppers without attracting too much attention. Few people in the security industry were talking about these credit card web skimmers, both server-side and client-side, before the latter became largel...

Convincing Free Mobile phishing emails appear after data breach

Free Mobile, one of France’s main cellular providers, was fined €27 million by France’s data protection regulator, the CNIL, in January over failures to protect customer data. The October 2024 breach allowed an unauthorized party to access sensitive customer records, including bank account detail...

Losing gamblers pushed to bet more by DraftKings’ AI, report says

Two separate investigations have raised concerns about betting site DraftKings’ marketing to target problem gamblers, including its use of AI. On September 19, the New York Times reported that the company’s machine learning model targeted people who were more likely to respond to betting promotio...

A week in security (September 14 – September 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: New Android malware uses AI to steal bank logins and PINs Did an AI really try to break free from human control? Fake parcel delivery messages steal your card and bank details Flock cameras are tracking people as well as cars Revolut phishing texts appear days afte...

Meta AI builds detailed profiles of children from years of family posts

If you're still OK with posting pictures of your kids on social media, take a minute to hear from mother of two Kalie Robins. At the start of September, she did something that hundreds of thousands of parents do every day. She posted a video of her young daughter on Facebook. Under the video of...

Crypto customers targeted by scammers after email marketing provider breach

An attacker breached an email marketing platform and launched targeted attacks against the newsletter subscribers of some of its customers, especially those working in cryptocurrency and adjacent fields. The incident was a supply-chain phishing campaign carried out through Brevo, an email marketi...

Flirty OnlyFans promoters on X may be using AI to appear human

In a recent post, we looked at reports of League of Legends players receiving suspicious friend requests shortly after matches. The accounts quickly steered the conversation toward Discord, where they promoted paid adult-content pages. At the time, one unanswered question was how much of those...

Malwarebytes earns PCMag Best Tech Brand spot, scores 100% with MRG Effitas

Malwarebytes is on a roll. Recently named one of PCMag's “Best Tech Brands for 2026,” Malwarebytes also scored 100% on the first-ever MRG Effitas consumer security product test, cementing the fact that we are loved by users and trusted by experts. But don’t take our word for it. As PCMag Principa...

Phishing campaign abuses Google Cloud services to steal Microsoft 365 logins

Attackers are sending very convincing fake “Google” emails that slip past spam filters, route victims through several trusted Google-owned services, and ultimately lead to a look-alike Microsoft 365 sign-in page designed to harvest usernames and passwords. Researchers found that cybercriminals us...

Take control of your privacy with updates on Malwarebytes for Windows

It’s getting harder to keep your Windows space truly yours, as Microsoft increasingly serves annoying ads and tracks your data across third-party apps. Pushing back against your eroding privacy has been a scattered and sometimes complicated process… but we're making it easier for you. With the...

Chinese gangs made over $1 billion targeting Americans with scam texts

We regularly warn our readers about new scams and phishing texts. Almost everyone gets pestered with these messages. But where are all these scam texts coming from? According to an article in The Wall Street Journal: “It has become a billion-dollar, highly sophisticated business benefiting...