Latest news with #ScamBlocker
CNET
18 hours ago
- Business
- CNET
DuckDuckGo Can Now Warn You About Fake Crypto Exchanges and Other Online Scams
DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine, announced Thursday that it updated its browser's Scam Blocker to guard you against more online threats. The company said online that its Scam Blocker can now warn you about fake crypto exchanges, scam e-commerce storefronts and fraudulent virus warnings. Scam Blocker could previously help protect you against phishing sites, malware and other common online scams. Read more: DuckDuckGo Offers a VPN and More in New Privacy Subscription Service According to a report from the Federal Trade Commission, people lost about $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024 -- a 25% increase from 2023 -- with online shopping scams being the second most reported type of fraud. DuckDuckGo said online that Scam Blocker is intended to help protect you from these scams while maintaining your privacy. When using Scam Blocker on your browser, you'll still see pop-ups and links to malicious sites. But according to DuckDuckGo, if you click on these links, Scam Blocker won't load them. The company wrote online that Scam Blocker will show you a warning message to let navigate away from the page safely. DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo designed Scam Blocker in-house, and the company said the feature utilizes a feed of malicious site URLs from the independent cybersecurity company Netcraft. According to DuckDuckGo, Scam Blocker maintains your anonymity by storing Netcraft's list of malicious site URLs on DuckDuckGo servers. Then, the company says it passes the list to your browser every 20 minutes to keep your list as up-to-date as possible. The list is then stored locally on your device. "Scam Blocker uses local storage to minimize the number of times your device communicates with our servers," DuckDuckGo told CNET in an email. "That, along with an anonymized hashing solution that obscures the sites you've visited, means your browsing remains anonymous. And after you load the dataset for the first time, fewer network requests make subsequent checks faster." Scam Blocker is free and available on DuckDuckGo's mobile and desktop browsers. According to the company, it's on by default, so you don't have to search through menus to enable it. For more on DuckDuckGo, here's what to know about the privacy-focused search engine, five reasons why you should use it and what to know about its VPN service.
Engadget
18 hours ago
- Engadget
DuckDuckGo's browser now protects you from fake crypto exchanges and scareware
DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused web browser and search engine, has expanded the scope of its Scam Blocker tool. In addition to being able to protect you from standard phishing and malware attempts, Scam Blocker now also covers fake e-commerce storefronts, survey sites and cyptocurrency exchanges, as well as "scareware" pages falsely claiming that your device is infected and want you to click a button or a link to clean it. If the tool determines that you've clicked on a link leading to one of those websites, it blocks the page from loading altogether. Instead, it shows you a warning message telling you that the website may be a security risk and that it has been flagged for "trying to manipulate people into transferring money, buying counterfeit goods, or installing malware." The warning also lets you safely navigate away from the scam website without loading it. DuckDuckGo built Scam Blocker itself, and it doesn't rely on any Google technology like other browsers do. The company said it means it doesn't send data to any third parties and it doesn't track your activities. It constantly refreshes its list of malicious URLs from independent internet services provider Netcraft and passes the updates to its browser every 20 minutes. That list of dangerous sites lives locally on your device, and the tool checks URLs you're visiting against it to determine whether to show you a warning message. Scam Blocker is completely free on desktop and the web, and it's switched on by default. If you're paying for DuckDuckGo's $10-a-month Privacy Pro subscription service, Scam Blocker will even protect you while using other browsers.
