#sms-scams

#sms-scams

Tech Live Connect processed fraudulent charges using real customer data, including names and addresses, to make the charges appear legitimate and maintain a low chargeback ratio.

Mirax integrates advanced Remote Access Trojan (RAT) capabilities, allowing threat actors to fully interact with compromised devices in real time, enhancing its operational value significantly.

"It's disappointing to see the spike in robocalls in March, after six consecutive months averaging less than 4 billion robocalls," YouMail CEO Alex Quilici said in a prepared statement about the report.

"These incidents involve the intentional use of deceptive or illegal practices to fraudulently obtain money, assets, or information from individuals or institutions, and include actions carried out over cyber channels."

They have to have a real name or organization. They have to have a physical address. There has to be a phone number. There has to be some type of tax ID or other type of financial identification so you know exactly who you're dealing with.

The spammers are spoofing our email address - this means they are falsely setting GSMArena.com as the sender of the email. Specifically, it looks like the email came from tpjdlgcj@gsmarena.com, but that's not an active account on our server (that random jumble of letters is clearly randomly generated). Instead the emails are coming from a server owned by Microsoft (52.103.140.27) and one owned by Oracle (92.5.13.127), neither of which is part of our infrastructure.

Last month, I sat across from one of the brightest people I know as he explained how he'd lost nearly everything to a sophisticated scam. This wasn't some naive teenager or technophobe. This was my friend from university days, a retired executive who'd navigated corporate politics for decades and made shrewd investment decisions his whole life. Watching him piece together how it happened was like watching someone solve a puzzle in reverse.

I told him I am happy to give him some money if he needs money but I don't know what he's talking about. My dad is on the naive end of the spectrum of adults but he is very, very, very kind-hearted and generous. If ever there was a time when I needed money, my dad would send me basically the entire contents of his bank account without hesitation.

EE said the messages were sent via RCS, a more advanced type of messaging than SMS, and it is unable to block them (unlike SMS, which it can). EE said it was working with Apple and Google on the problem. Vodafone said its customers were mostly not receiving the texts (labelled as coming from Vodafone) because RCS is not enabled by the carrier on iPhones. However, people on other networks are receiving them.

QR codes are two-dimensional images with glyphs of various sizes that store not just numbers, but text. When scanned, your phone extracts the encoded information and can act on it. For example, QR codes often embed URLs, allowing you to scan, say, a parking meter to launch a webpage where you can pay online.

The links are sent to people seeking a range of services, including those offering insurance quotes, job listings, and referrals for pet sitters and tutors. To eliminate the hassle of collecting usernames and passwords-and for users to create and enter them-many such services instead require users to provide a cell phone number when signing up for an account. The services then send authentication links or passcodes by SMS when the users want to log in.

The ease of use means the ease of stealing. There are pieces of software and devices that are doing exactly the same thing that a point of sale does and it's transacting on your phone or on your credit card and if you don't have a thumbprint or a biometric on your phone, they can walk up and if you're not paying attention in a crowded area, they get close enough and they touch your phone they can do a transaction.

The email seen by at least some customers of the Emma email platform was a phishing scam. Hackers hoped to inspire instant panic with the words, 'As part of our commitment to supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), we will be adding a Support ICE donation button to the footer of every email sent through our platform.'

Tycoon 2FA, a Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) platform, enabled thousands of cybercriminals to steal login credentials and session tokens. Even accounts secured with MFA could be compromised via a single email. The service had been active since at least 2023 and quickly grew to become one of the most widely used phishing platforms in the world.

The phone rings at 2:47 AM. Your heart pounds as you fumble for the receiver. "Grandma?" The voice is shaky, desperate. "I'm in trouble. I got arrested. Please don't tell Mom and Dad." The voice sounds just like your grandson. He uses the nickname only family knows. He remembers that trip you took together last summer. Everything about this call feels real because, in many ways, it is.