All articles tagged with #cyber fraud
Europol disrupted a sophisticated cybercrime network operating a SIM farm that enabled the creation of over 49 million fake accounts used for various crimes including phishing, fraud, and extortion, leading to arrests, seizures, and international cooperation.
A coalition of 42 state attorneys general, led by New York's Letitia James, is urging Meta to enhance its efforts to combat investment scams on Facebook and WhatsApp, where criminals use fake ads featuring celebrities to lure users into pump-and-dump schemes, causing significant financial losses. They demand increased ad review and policing, or Meta should cease running investment ads altogether. Meta commits to investing in technology and partnerships to fight these scams.
Marjorie Bloom, a 77-year-old widow, fell victim to a tech support scam and lost $661,000. The scam involved a fraudster posing as a "fraud investigator" from PNC Bank who convinced Bloom to liquidate her savings and transfer the funds to cryptocurrency to protect them from criminals. However, the scammer disappeared, leaving Bloom devastated and realizing she had been defrauded of everything. This type of fraud is increasingly common and targets older adults, who lost $588 million to tech support scams in 2022. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to fraud due to their limited understanding of technology and online safety.
Genesis Market, one of the largest online criminal platforms, has been seized by the FBI in an international operation. The platform sold stolen credentials and tools to weaponize data, and was linked to millions of financially motivated cyber incidents globally. Genesis Market provided criminals access to "bots" or "browser fingerprints" that allowed them to impersonate victims' web browsers, including IP addresses, session cookies, operating system information, and plugins. The platform was unique among credential marketplaces and had a low barrier to access. A large number of arrests are being carried out globally.