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Law enforcement authorities in Europe have arrested five suspects in connection with an "elaborate" online investment fraud scheme that stole more than €100 million ($118 million) from over 100 victims in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. According to Eurojust , the coordinated action saw searches in five places across Spain and Portugal, as well as in Italy, Romania and Bulgaria. Bank accounts and other financial assets associated with the cybercrime ring were frozen. The main perpetrator behind the operation has been accused of large-scale fraud and money laundering by running an online investment platform for several years, tricking unsuspecting individuals into parting with their funds by promising them high returns on investments in various cryptocurrencies. Once the deposits were made, the funds were transferred to bank accounts in Lithuania to launder them. Victims who attempted to withdraw their assets from the platform were asked to pay additional fees, after wh...

The threat actors behind the Darcula phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform appear to be readying a new version that allows prospective customers and cyber crooks to clone any brand's legitimate website and create a phishing version, further bringing down the technical expertise required to pull off phishing attacks at scale. The latest iteration of the phishing suite "represents a significant shift in criminal capabilities, reducing the barrier to entry for bad actors to target any brand with complex, customizable phishing campaigns," Netcraft said in a new analysis. The cybersecurity company said it has detected and blocked more than 95,000 new Darcula phishing domains, nearly 31,000 IP addresses, and taken down more than 20,000 fraudulent websites since it was first exposed in late March 2024. The biggest change incorporated into Darcula is the ability for any user to generate a phishing kit for any brand in an on-demand fashion. "The new and remastered v...

Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) have announced independent actions to tackle cybercrime and disrupt services that enable scams, fraud, and phishing attacks. To that end, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) said it seized 240 fraudulent websites associated with an Egypt-based cybercrime facilitator named Abanoub Nady (aka MRxC0DER and mrxc0derii), who advertised for sale a phishing kit called ONNX. Nady's criminal operation is said to date as far back as 2017. "Numerous cybercriminal and online threat actors purchased these kits and used them in widespread phishing campaigns to bypass additional security measures and break into Microsoft customer accounts," Microsoft DCU's Steven Masada said . "While all sectors are at risk, the financial services industry has been heavily targeted given the sensitive data and transactions they handle. In these instances, a successful phish can have devastating real-world consequences...

Breaking News — The Nigerian prince and his allies who might have also asked you over an email for your assistance to help save "the first African astronaut lost in space" have finally been arrested by the FBI. Don't take it too seriously, as there's no Nigerian prince or an astronaut seeking your help. Instead, it was an infamous 'Nigerian 419' scam email template where fraudsters try to dupe you into making a quick online payment by offering a share in a large sum of money on the condition you help them transfer money out of their country. The FBI today announced the arrests of 281 suspects from around the world as part of an internationally coordinated law enforcement operation aimed at disrupting multi-billion-dollar BEC email and wire transfer scams. With no surprise, the largest number of arrests were made in Nigeria where authorities detained a total of 167 suspects, though a significant number of arrests were also made in nine other countrie...

A new computer worm is denying Facebook users access to their accounts. The worm, named "W32.Yimfoca" by the security company Symantec, spreads through Yahoo! Messenger and specifically targets Facebook users. It forces them to complete surveys before they can log into their profiles. The worm begins by sending an instant message containing a corrupted link. When a user clicks the link, the worm installs malware on their system. Later, when users visit Facebook, they see a message stating, "Your account is suspended. To make your account active, you need to complete one of these surveys," followed by a list of options like "Test Your Celebrity IQ here" and "Win a FREE iPhone 4." If users choose to fill out a survey, another message appears: "You have only 3 minutes to fill out the selected survey or you will not have access to your account." Each time a survey is completed, the creators of the worm earn $1, according to Symantec. The ...

When you see a post on a Facebook friend's wall that seems out of character, don't be too quick to click. Posts labeled "Pictures of girls in bikinis" or "All boys can stare at it but girls cannot" might be clickjacking attacks. These attacks typically don't carry malicious payloads, but they can certainly annoy any friends who fall for them. Here's how to avoid that scenario. Usually, the post itself uses a short, provocative phrase to spark your curiosity. If you fall for the attack currently making the rounds, you'll see a warning that the content might be inappropriate and a request to confirm that you're 18 or older. Once you click the button to confirm your age, you'll encounter another embedded dialog box. This one claims a need to verify that you're human, supposedly to avoid spam bots that are "putting an extra load on our servers." The box requests that you click numbered buttons in a specific order. Clicking th...