Fraud
FBI warns of NFT airdrop scams targeting Hedera Hashgraph wallets
The FBI is warning about a new scam where cybercriminals exploit NFT airdrops on the Hedera Hashgraph network to steal crypto from cryptocurrency wallets. Airdrops are a method of distributing cryptocurrency tokens for free to wallet addresses, usually as part of a marketing, community growth, or reward campaign, but they are also used as bait […]
Apple blocked over $9 billion in App Store fraud in five years
Apple says it blocked over $9 billion in fraudulent App Store transactions over the last five years, with over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent sanctions prevented in 2024 alone. The company’s annual App Store fraud analysis also shows that Apple identified almost 4.7 million stolen credit cards and blocked over 1.6 million accounts from making […]
WordPress ad-fraud plugins generated 1.4 billion ad requests per day
A large-scale ad fraud operation called ‘Scallywag’ is monetizing pirating and URL shortening sites through specially crafted WordPress plugins that generate billions of daily fraudulent requests. Scallywag was uncovered by bot and fraud detection firm HUMAN, which mapped a network of 407 domains supporting the operation that peaked at 1.4 billion fraudulent ad requests per […]
FBI: Scammers pose as FBI IC3 employees to ‘help’ recover lost funds
The FBI warns that scammers impersonating FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) employees offer to “help” fraud victims recover money lost to other scammers. Over the last two years, between December 2023 and February 2025, the FBI said it has received over 100 reports of fraudsters using this tactic. “Complainants report initial contact from the scammers […]
Police arrests 300 suspects linked to African cybercrime rings
African law enforcement authorities have arrested 306 suspects as part of ‘Operation Red Card,’ an INTERPOL-led international crackdown targeting cross-border cybercriminal networks. Between November 2024 and February 2025, authorities seized 1,842 devices allegedly used in mobile banking, investment, and messaging app scams linked to over 5,000 victims. “Ahead of the operation, countries exchanged criminal intelligence on key targets. This […]
Malware campaign ‘DollyWay’ breached 20,000 WordPress sites
A malware operation dubbed ‘DollyWay’ has been underway since 2016, compromising over 20,000 WordPress sites globally to redirect users to malicious sites. The campaign has evolved significantly in the past eight years, leveraging advanced evasion, re-infection, and monetization strategies. According to GoDaddy researcher Denis Sinegubko, DollyWay has been functioning as a large-scale scam redirection system in its […]
US govt says Americans lost record $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said today that Americans lost a record $12.5 billion to fraud last year, a 25% increase over the previous year. Consumers reported that investment scams resulted in the highest losses, totaling around $5.7 billion with a median loss of over $9,000 and exceeding all other fraud categories. The second […]
Google expands Android AI scam detection to more Pixel devices
Google has announced an increased rollout of new AI-powered scam detection features on Android to help protect users from increasingly sophisticated phone and text social engineering scams. The tech giant says these features come in response to AI-assisted scam campaigns that, according to statistics from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, have defrauded people of over $1 […]
California man steals $50 million using fake investment sites, gets 7 years
A 59-year-old man from Irvine, California, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement in an investor fraud ring that stole $50 million between 2012 and October 2020. Allen Giltman and other fraudsters used over 150 fraudulent sites impersonating financial institutions that advertised various investment opportunities (primarily certificates of deposit with higher than […]
Pastor who saw crypto project in his “dream” indicted for fraud
A pastor at a Pasco, Washington, church has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly operating a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded investors of millions between 2021 and 2023. The US Department of Justice says the pastor, Francier Obando Pinillo, 51, used his position to recruit investors into a fraudulent cryptocurrency venture called “Solano Fi,” which […]