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April 13, 2018

Facebook spammers making things worse

Facebook’s having a bad couple of weeks. Between Congressional testimony and new information coming forward about Cambridge Analytica’s use of user data, the tech giant is having problems keeping its users aboard. Unfortunately, misery loves company. We noticed a few Facebook spam campaigns this week that can only make things worse. Should a browser extension be able to add a Facebook … [Read more...]

Filed Under: cybercrime, facebook, Facebook Messenger, finnish, messenger, Social engineering, spam, youtube
March 23, 2018

“Celebrating Stephen Hawking” with a 419 scam

The recently departed Stephen Hawking is apparently back from the dead, now a target for scammers wanting to extract some quick cash from the unwary in the form of a vaguely surreal 419 scam. The whole thing begins with an email from, er, Stephen Hawking titled “Celebrating Stephen Hawking.” Click to enlarge The body text is a slightly mangled swipe job from this AP article over on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 419, cybercrime, fake, mail, quiz, scam, Social engineering, spam, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Hawking scam
February 5, 2018

Boomerang spam bombs Malwarebytes forum—not a smart move

Tech support scammers are generally not the best and brightest. As such, they will occasionally post ads for their fake companies in the comment sections here or on the Malwarebytes forums. Last week, however, scammers struggled with configuring their spambots, resulting in spam bombs on the forum lasting roughly 72 hours, with a slow taper down for two more days. Over six days, 246 spam accounts … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Boomerang, cybercrime, forums, MBAM, Social engineering, spam, TSS
January 23, 2018

“Who visits your Twitter profile” spam app brings week of chaos

Twitter spam has been around forever, and rogue apps asking for installs in return for a cool feature (to be more accurate, spamming your contacts) is a constant thorn in our Twittery sides. Over the weekend, we observed a new Twitter app doing the rounds and causing a lot of congestion on people’s timelines. What is it? We first noticed this when a number of my contacts using the #FBPE … [Read more...]

Filed Under: applications, apps, cybercrime, scam, Social engineering, social media, spam, spread, twitter
November 21, 2017

Text messages and the Bitcoin Code: follow the money trail

I was a bit surprised to receive lots of messages similar to the one below this past week: I mean, we’ve all done it—managed a bulk text spam campaign offering free Bitcoins in your spare time, while completely forgetting said business exists. Maybe I did it in my sleep? It’s all gone a bit Fight Club. And as we all know, the first Rule of Fight Club is “Don’t run a free … [Read more...]

Filed Under: bitcoin, Bitcoin Code, btc, CoinDesk, cybercrime, sms, Social engineering, spam
August 23, 2017

Don’t Get Hit by the Whaler’s Harpoon

What is Whaling? Chances are you’re familiar with the term Phishing, where scammers use social engineering tactics to get users to give up personal information such as financial data, Social Security numbers, or other highly confidential and valuable information. That email you received from the “IRS” asking for your Social Security number? Don’t fall for it! You may have also heard of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Email Best Practices, Email Security, phishing, spam, whaling