Google has filed a complaint in court that details the scam: > In a complaint filed Wednesday, the tech giant accused “a cybercriminal group > in China” of selling “phishing for dummies” kits. The kits help unsavvy > fraudsters easily “execute a large-scale phishing campaign,” tricking hordes > of unsuspecting people into “disclosing sensitive information like passwords, > credit card numbers, or banking information, often by impersonating well-known > brands, government agencies, or even people the victim knows.” > > These branded “Lighthouse” kits offer two versions of software, depending on > whether bad actors want to launch SMS and e-commerce scams. “Members may > subscribe to weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual, or permanent licenses,” Google > alleged. Kits include “hundreds of templates for fake websites, domain set-up > tools for those fake websites, and other features designed to dupe victims > into believing they are entering sensitive information on a legitimate > website.”...

Anthropic reports on a Claude user: > We recently disrupted a sophisticated cybercriminal that used Claude Code to > commit large-scale theft and extortion of personal data. The actor targeted at > least 17 distinct organizations, including in healthcare, the emergency > services, and government and religious institutions. Rather than encrypt the > stolen information with traditional ransomware, the actor threatened to expose > the data publicly in order to attempt to extort victims into paying ransoms > that sometimes exceeded $500,000. > > The actor used AI to what we believe is an unprecedented degree. Claude Code > was used to automate reconnaissance, harvesting victims’ credentials, and > penetrating networks. Claude was allowed to make both tactical and strategic > decisions, such as deciding which data to exfiltrate, and how to craft > psychologically targeted extortion demands. Claude analyzed the exfiltrated > financial data to determine appropriate ransom amounts, and generated visually > alarming ransom notes that were displayed on victim machines...

Long story of a $250 million cryptocurrency theft that, in a complicated chain events, resulted in a pretty brutal kidnapping.

Scammers are hacking Google Forms to send email to victims that come from google.com. Brian Krebs reports on the effects. Boing Boing post.