scammers

Facebook ignored a widely-known privacy flaw for years, allowing scammers, spammers, and other malicious parties to scoop up virtually all users’ names and profile details. As I explained way back in 2012, when I was writing for the Sophos Naked Security blog, simply entering someone’s phone...

As we all know, tech support scammers like to use a variety of techniques to fool their victims into calling them up. Some impersonate a target's Internet Service Provider, while others warn a user's hard drive will have its contents deleted unless they call straight away. Clever, but not...

When scammers come calling, the temptation is to try and turn the tables on them. Some experts actually do, but is it a good idea for would-be vigilantes to follow suit? Florian Lukavsky, director of application security services firm SEC Consult, is an expert at these things. He scammed a...

As if auto-dialed, pre-recorded robocalls weren't bad enough, scammers are now blasting out robocalls that use poorly synthesized text-to-talk programs in an effort to try to frighten people into thinking they are being sued. The following recording is just one of many robot-voiced robocalls...

Using the same username across the web? That may have its drawbacks… Some scammers think the chances of the police ever catching them are low, but there's one thing they are afraid of: their mum. Security researcher Christian Haschek tells the story of how he tried to sell some Apple gift...

Don’t think for a minute that the internet is the only place where technology-savvy scammers are taking advantage of innocent victims. These criminals are finding ways to use text messaging to lure you into traps, either to scam money from you or steal personal information. Recognizing the most...

Scammers have a new way of getting to you. Their weapon: a phishing email claiming to come from the Social Security Administration. The subject line reads “Get Protected” and the return address appears as “no-reply@ssa.gov.” The email appears to offer new features that will help you monitor...

We all know that a lot of businesses outsource customer service work to call centers around the world. But what you may not know is that there are also call centers that specialize — and openly advertise — their services in aiding ID theft and other cyber fraud. KrebsOnSecurity.com recently...

There are a lot of purchases you can make with the information on the front of a credit card. But ID thieves who have the card number, name, and expiration date will still hit a speedbump if they have to enter that (usually 3-digit) security code on the back of a victim’s card. Notice that we...