Wired is reporting on Chinese darknet markets on Telegram. > The ecosystem of marketplaces for Chinese-speaking crypto scammers hosted on > the messaging service Telegram have now grown to be bigger than ever before, > according to a new analysis from the crypto tracing firm Elliptic. Despite a > brief drop after Telegram banned two of the biggest such markets in early > 2025, the two current top markets, known as Tudou Guarantee and Xinbi > Guarantee, are together enabling close to $2 billion a month in > money-laundering transactions, sales of scam tools like stolen data, fake > investment websites, and AI deepfake tools, as well as other black market > services as varied as ...

Interesting article on the variety of LinkedIn job scams around the world: > In India, tech jobs are used as bait because the industry employs millions of > people and offers high-paying roles. In Kenya, the recruitment industry is > largely unorganized, so scamsters leverage fake personal referrals. In Mexico, > bad actors capitalize on the informal nature of the job economy by advertising > fake formal roles that carry a promise of security. In Nigeria, scamsters > often manage to get LinkedIn users to share their login credentials with the > lure of paid work, preying on their desperation amid an especially acute > unemployment crisis...

Scammers are generating images of broken merchandise in order to apply for refunds.

The FBI is warning of AI-assisted fake kidnapping scams: > Criminal actors typically will contact their victims through text message > claiming they have kidnapped their loved one and demand a ransom be paid for > their release. Oftentimes, the criminal actor will express significant claims > of violence towards the loved one if the ransom is not paid immediately. The > criminal actor will then send what appears to be a genuine photo or video of > the victim’s loved one, which upon close inspection often reveals inaccuracies > when compared to confirmed photos of the loved one. Examples of these > inaccuracies include missing tattoos or scars and inaccurate body proportions. > Criminal actors will sometimes purposefully send these photos using timed > message features to limit the amount of time victims have to analyze the > images...

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.”...

Microsoft is warning of a scam involving online payroll systems. Criminals use social engineering to steal people’s credentials, and then divert direct deposits into accounts that they control. Sometimes they do other things to make it harder for the victim to realize what is happening. I feel like this kind of thing is happening everywhere, with everything. As we move more of our personal and professional lives online, we enable criminals to subvert the very systems we rely on.

Good Wall Street Journal article on criminal gangs that scam people out of their credit card information: > Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. > Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City > Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations. > > The texts are ploys to get unsuspecting victims to fork over their credit-card > details. The gangs behind the scams take advantage of this information to buy > iPhones, gift cards, clothing and cosmetics. > > Criminal organizations operating out of China, which investigators blame for > the toll and postage messages, have used them to make more than $1 billion > over the last three years, according to the Department of Homeland Security...

CNN has a great piece about how cryptocurrency ATMs are used to scam people out of their money. The fees are usurious, and they’re a common place for scammers to send victims to buy cryptocurrency for them. The companies behind the ATMs, at best, do not care about the harm they cause; the profits are just too good.

I just heard about this: > There’s a travel scam warning going around the internet right now: You should > keep your baggage tags on your bags until you get home, then shred them, > because scammers are using luggage tags to file fraudulent claims for missing > baggage with the airline. First, the scam is possible. I had a bag destroyed by baggage handlers on a recent flight, and all the information I needed to file a claim was on my luggage tag. I have no idea if I will successfully get any money from the airline, or what form it will be in, or how it will be tied to my name, but at least the first step is possible...

A few years ago, scammers invented a new phishing email. They would claim to have hacked your computer, turned your webcam on, and videoed you watching porn or having sex. BuzzFeed has an article talking about a “shockingly realistic” variant, which includes photos of you and your house—more specific information. The article contains “steps you can take to figure out if it’s a scam,” but omits the first and most fundamental piece of advice: If the hacker had incriminating video about you, they would show you a clip. Just a taste, not the worst bits so you had to worry about how bad it could be, but something. If the hacker doesn’t show you any video, they don’t have any video. Everything else is window dressing...