Scam alerts
Scams to watch out for
Why keeping your date of birth private can help protect against identity theft
The article warns that criminals use personal details such as date of birth to make impersonation calls, for example posing as a bank, to appear legitimate. It suggests entering a false date of birth or leaving the field blank when creating online accounts to reduce identity theft risk.
Take Five warns of impersonation scams ahead of Halloween
UK Finance's Take Five campaign warns that fraudsters impersonate individuals, organisations and police year round, not just at Halloween. Scammers research victims in advance to lower their guard, making these attacks harder to spot.
US charges five over AI-assisted ghost student loan fraud, seizes over $750,000 in crypto
The US Department of Justice has charged five individuals in what it describes as the first broad federal crackdown on "ghost students", fraudsters who use the identities of hundreds of Americans to enrol as fake students and obtain student loans. The DOJ said the scheme relied partly on AI, and that data analysis helped flag likely fraudsters before it seized over $750,000 in cryptocurrency from a network associated with Kenyan nationals.
Criminals exploit ebook downloads with malware, fake search pages and phishing
Kaspersky describes how attackers target ebook readers through pirate sites that deliver malware disguised as books, including a miner and infostealers hidden in fake PDFs. Search spam pages, fake Goodreads and Orell Füssli adverts, and clones of pirate libraries such as Z-Library are used to harvest card details and credentials. The article also notes a 2024 Z-Library clone leak of about 10 million user records and a 2025 Kindle vulnerability that could allow account hijacking.
Talos IR Q3 2026: Help desk vishing grows, ransomware rises to 27 percent of engagements
Talos IR found phishing was the top initial access method at just over one-third of engagements, down from over 50 percent, with vishing and help desk impersonation used to get victims to allow remote access via legitimate RMM tools. Exploitation of public-facing applications, mainly edge devices, accounted for one-third. Ransomware and pre-ransomware activity reached 27 percent, involving The Gentlemen, Qilin, Rhysida, Interlock and the newer VYPR, with EDR disabled via vulnerable drivers or WDAC.