For all the recent focus on artificial intelligence and its potential for deepfake impostures, the boiler room is still very much active in the criminal underworld. WIRED describes the ways in which people in many parts of the world (Ireland, France, Nigeria, and Mexico) have been recruited to work as freelancers for a company that seeks to profit from lonely people looking for love. This is how a typical operation runs.
Scott McClallen – Staff Reporter – The Center Square (The Center Square) – Nationwide, electronic benefits transfer fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers up to $4.7 billion annually, according to the Government Accountability Office. In 2022, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program distributed over $113.7 billion to nearly 22 million households. The federal government entrusts states to reduce fraud in safety net programs. In March, the U.S.
While there are an estimated 30,000 daily cyber attacks on business websites, there are roughly ten times as many attacks against social media accounts every single day, equating to roughly 1.4 billion accounts every month. Social media attacks and scams have become pervasive problems, with threat actors finding innovative new ways to deceive users and steal their information.
New data from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics shows that this often overlooked scam has grown significantly in interest – likely because it pays off. If you’re not familiar with this kind of scam, it’s pretty simple: the scammer presents the victim with an opportunity for a grant, a prize – something of value – but requires a small payment up front (often called a processing fee, etc.).
For many financial institutions and retail businesses, there is a need to balance the risks associated with payment fraud and advanced persistent threats against the economic imperative to provide excellent customer experiences in a competitive market. When good users are mistakenly flagged as fraudsters and can’t access payment services, customers get angry and brands lose revenue. These false declines result in lost customers, damaged reputation and lower revenue.
Researchers at Group-IB have found an extensive campaign in which criminal operators have created a large number of fake Facebook profiles that repost messages in which the scammers misrepresent themselves as tech support personnel from Meta (Facebook’s corporate parent). Researchers discovered some 3200 bogus profiles in twenty-three languages. By far most of the profiles were created in English, more than 90%, followed by Mongolian (2.5%), Arabic (2.3%), Italian (0.8%), and Khmer (0.6%).
Texting has taken over the global communication space; marketers and predators are seeing huge dollar signs. Email continues to be a reliable, but somewhat fraught with problems, alternative form of communication. In fact, the average user interacts, sends, and receives 25% more texts than email, and usage is skyrocketing. Most electronic device users have loads more unopened emails than texts.
A FBI bulletin highlights a new twist in the sextortion game: companies claiming to assist with addressing sextortion who use deceptive social engineering tactics to coerce victims into paying huge fees.
Harding, Shymanski, and Company is a major accounting firm that works with customers providing them with tax help and other financial services. The company recently suffered from a data breach that exposed many of its clients and led to fraudulent tax filings for the 2022 tax year. The company employs more than 142 people and has an approximate annual revenue of $28 million. A large number of individuals were impacted by this very serious data breach.
