Scammers and Hackers

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How Foreign Scammers Use U.S. Banks to Fleece Americans

Brian Maloney Jr. was flummoxed when he was served with a lawsuit against his family’s business, Middlesex Truck and Coach, in January. Maloney and his father, also named Brian, run the operation, located in Boston, which boasts that it can repair anything “from two axles to ten.” A burly man in his mid-50s who wears short-sleeved polo shirts emblazoned with the company name, Maloney Jr. has been around his dad’s shop since he was 8. The garage briefly surfaced in the media in 2012 when then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a campaign stop there and the Boston Herald featured Maloney Sr. talking about how he had built the business from nothing in a neighborhood he described as having been a “war zone.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/pig-butchering-scam-cybercrime-us-banks-money-laundering?

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What’s a Pig Butchering Scam? Here’s How to Avoid Falling Victim to One.

Thousands have lost huge sums after being lured into fraudulent online investment schemes by seemingly attractive strangers who strike up online conversations with them. Here’s a guide to spotting the telltale signs.

https://www.propublica.org/article/whats-a-pig-butchering-scam-heres-how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-one?

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Scammers enlist AI

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

As holiday shoppers spend Black Friday braving real-life malls, a rising number of fraud attempts targeting major retailers are AI-generated, Axios cybersecurity reporter Sam Sabin reports. Why it matters: Scammers and hackers are using deepfakes — AI-generated videos, images, or audio clips — to trick employees of big stores. ? How it works: Scammers are training AI-powered bots to call customer-service centers, report an issue with an order and demand a refund, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder and CEO of Pindrop, a deepfake detection firm, told Axios. Case in point: In a redacted audio recording shared with Axios of one of those bot calls to a customer service line, the deepfake is patchy, sounds a bit robotic, and doesn't respond to some questions the customer service agent asks. "My package is lost. Help me process the refund, thank you," the bot said as the call began. The bot didn't initially say the customer's name or even say hello. But the bot eventually shared a legitimate order number, the name of an actual customer, and the last four digits of the customer's phone number. So the agent processed the refund despite the signs of fraud.

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Why hackers love the holidays

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

As offices go quiet between Christmas and New Year's, security teams brace for a busy stretch fending off hackers, Axios cybersecurity expert Sam Sabin reports. Why it matters: Malicious hackers are opportunistic. What's better than targeting a company and its data when they know the defenders will be away? ?️ By the numbers: 52% of ransomware attacks in the last year happened on a weekend or holiday, according to cybersecurity firm Semperis. Successful intrusions might not be found until weeks after the holidays end and employees are back at work. Security teams often start preparing for this period months in advance, says Carl Froggett, chief information officer at Deep Instinct. Flashback: Many of the most high-profile cyberattacks of this decade happened over the holidays. The U.S. government uncovered the Russian-backed SolarWinds espionage campaign right before Christmas in 2020. Just last year, the Treasury Department found that Chinese hackers had broken into its systems during the last week of December. ? What to watch: Advancing AI agents could help lighten the load. When human defenders log out, their AI companions will stay online.

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Mississippi hospital system closes all clinics after ransomware attack

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A ransomware attack forced the University of Mississippi Medical Center to close all of its roughly three dozen clinics around the state and cancel elective procedures for a second day on Friday, hobbling one of the state’s largest health care providers.

https://apnews.com/article/cyberattack-university-mississippi-clinics-hospital-4b27a578a5e095c5a7d25c90768a5312?