Latest news with #cybercrime
Malay Mail
an hour ago
- General
- Malay Mail
Nigeria jails 15 Asians, including Malaysian, for cyber-terrorism and internet scams
LAGOS, May 31 — A Nigerian court jailed 15 foreign nationals yesterday — all Asians — for 'cyber-terrorism and internet fraud', the national anti-graft agency said, one of the largest such cases in the country. Eleven Filipinos, two Chinese, one Malaysian and one Indonesian were sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of one million naira (about RM2,681) each in the commercial capital, Lagos, after pleading guilty, said Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) spokesman Dele Oyewale. They were accused of recruiting young Nigerians for 'identity theft and to hold themselves out as persons of foreign nationality'. 'The judges also ordered that the devices recovered from the convicts be forfeited to the federal government of Nigeria,' Oyewale said. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is saddled with a reputation for internet fraudsters known in local slang as 'Yahoo Boys'. The EFCC has busted several hideouts where young criminals learn their scams. Cybercrime experts also warn that foreign 'cybercrime syndicates' have set up shop in the country to exploit its weak cybersecurity systems. The EFCC said foreign gangs recruited Nigerian accomplices to find victims online through phishing scams, in which attackers typically try to deceive victims into transferring them money or revealing sensitive information such as passwords. The scams target mostly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans and Europeans, the agency said. In December, the EFCC arrested 792 suspects in a single operation in the affluent Victoria Island area of Lagos. At least 192 of the suspects were foreign nationals — 148 of them Chinese, the agency said. Dozens of other Chinese suspects are also standing trial for similar crimes. — AFP
Forbes
12 hours ago
- Health
- Forbes
Do Not Make These Calls On Your Smartphone, Warns Google
These calls are dangerous Republished on May 30 with further advice on staying safe as this fraud surges. Forget unpaid toll and undelivered package texts. The attack that's now targeting your data and your money is much harder to detect and is surging, "having more than doubled over the past few months.' Google is on a mission to warn phone and PC users to be more alert — do not make these calls on your iPhone or Android phone. 'Customer support scams, where fraudsters impersonate legitimate support to steal sensitive information, are evolving,' Google has just warned. Gone are the days of clumsy emails and messages, we're now at a new level. Scammers 'often rely on impersonating well-known brands," and are 'now exploiting user distress through social engineering and web vulnerabilities to display fake phone numbers.' Guardio warns that while such scams are not new, the current surge is 'closely tied to scammers using AI tools to scale their operations, allowing them to create convincing scams at scale.' And it's now all about tricking users into making phone call to as fake Microsoft or Google 1-888 number. If you do, a well-practiced scammer will be eagerly waiting to take your call and your money. Google says such scams are 'an increasingly prevalent form of cybercrime, aimed at extorting money or gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data.' And while it might start with an 'alarming pop-up warnings mimicking legitimate security alerts,' you might even see 'full-screen takeovers' before a helpful support number pops up. 'Even as people become better at spotting potential scams,' Google says, 'transnational crime groups continue to evolve their tactics and defraud people around the world. In 2024, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance reported that in just 12 months, scammers stole $1 trillion globally. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission recently shared data in March showing a 25% year-over-year increase in reported losses to fraud.' For transnational read Chinese. The likes of Smishing Triad and Panda Shop as outed by Resecurity are fueling a cybercrime epidemic that has 'no fear of FBI' and 'does not care about U.S. law enforcement agencies.' Operating out of China, the current standoff between Beijing and Washington makes these gangs feel untouchable. Tech support scams have also just been highlighted by TheStreet's Retirement Daily as the top scam 'targeting older adults.' This age group is targeted, it says, 'because scammers often view this age group as having more wealth, being more trusting, and sometimes being less familiar with the latest technology and digital risks. Plus, many retirees may be at home more often or dealing with cognitive decline, and it creates a dangerous combination that scammers are quick to exploit.' Do not make these calls. Again, TheStreet emphasizes that 'no legitimate tech company will contact you out of the blue,' advising retirees that 'if you see a pop-up or get a call, shut down the computer or hang up, and contact a trusted professional if you're concerned.' According to the FBI's 2024 cybercrime report, the over 60s age group lost more than any other age group and filed more complaints. And those losses were substantial — almost $5 billion, according to the bureau's report. Google wants brands to use its 'dedicated' search feature to formalize support numbers, but as attacks induce a sense of panic and urgency and then push a phone number on users, that doesn't help. Not unless those users know never to call. The recent Android and Chrome anti-scam upgrades will hopefully be more effective. Google says always 'seek out official support channels directly by using information from packaging or contracts. Avoid unsolicited contacts or pop-ups. Never grant remote access unless certain of official support. Always verify phone numbers for authenticity.' But just as with those unpaid tolls and undelivered packages — two of the other scams highlighted by Google, this won't be resolved unless and until users know that DMVs will never reach out with threatening texts, delivery services will never text parcel fees, and you must never call a support number on a popup or on-screen message. As TheStreet warns — and it's relevant for all age groups, 'fraudsters are evolving, but so are the tools and knowledge we have to fight back. The most powerful defense against scams is awareness. Talking about these threats with your financial adviser, your family and your community can help reduce your risk and protect others. If you're unsure about a phone call, email or offer you've received, don't act right away. Take a moment. Reach out to a trusted professional or family member before taking any steps. The pause could save you thousands — or more.'
The Sun
15 hours ago
- Health
- The Sun
How sick porn gangs draw up ‘hit lists' of women to steal nude snaps & target victims using creepy stalker-style tactics
IN shadowy bedrooms across the UK, perverted criminals are drawing up 'hit lists' of unsuspecting women in their local area, so their nude pictures can be stolen to order by twisted online pals. A Sun investigation has found how these ghouls are not only using sinister tactics to steal the intimate photos of targets as young as 16, but are tracking every detail of their day-to-day lives in a disturbing new crime trend that will terrify every parent. 6 Whistleblowers reveal that young men are trading the X-rated snaps "like Pokémon cards' on secret chat rooms, with thousands of potential victims targeted. One group we uncovered is feared to contain details of almost 700 women in Kent and is now being investigated by police, while high-profile sports stars are also believed to be targeted in similarly shocking chat rooms reported across the UK. The Kent chat room alone is believed to have been used by 132 men and boys to request and swap intimate images of women in the area. It was discovered on the popular messaging site Discord – which is used by 34.8 million Brits monthly and markets to young boys and gamers. Users were reportedly posting 'wins' lists and 'want' lists – boasting which women they had images of and requesting others whose photos they wanted to get their hands on. Other men are said to have been offering to fulfill trades by offering to ' catfish ' girls online to get hold of the images. Whistleblowers claim three arrests have been made so far, and that the server has been taken down by Kent Police. When asked to comment on the chat room, Kent Police said: 'On 21 November 2024, Kent Police received a report that an intimate image of a woman had been shared online without her consent. 'Officers are currently investigating, and a 34-year-old man from Sittingbourne was arrested on suspicion of harassment. He has since been released on bail whilst enquiries continue.' The force refused to make any further comment on the server's wider impact. Georgia Harrison opens up about overcoming her revenge porn ordeal and difficult journey Richard Garside, director of The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said he 'would not be surprised' if similar photo-exchanging sites existed on this scale across a wider part of the UK. An identical investigation took place in 2023 after reports that a Discord server was being used to anonymously trade images of women in Pembrokeshire. The server allegedly contained over 1,200 images of 217 women and girls in the area, with the youngest being just 16 years old. The Sun reached out to Dyfed-Powys Police, who said: 'Three men were arrested on suspicion of disclosing private sexual photographs with intent to cause distress and were released on bail. 'Further enquiries led to a caution being given to one of the men and no further action being taken against the other two. 'Although the investigation is now closed, it can be re-opened if any new evidence comes to light.' Stalker forums Another website has reportedly come under police investigation after it emerged men were using it to share the private information of hundreds of women. Speaking to The Sun, one whistleblower alleged that images of a popular female sports team appeared on the site. He said: 'There was a UK-wide server and it was basically the same as this Kent case. And I wish I was joking – they put up these girls' work times, the way they go home and where they go out." The site has since been taken down. Another website The Sun uncovered allows men to share and request photos of women within location-based servers. Online abuse of this kind, better known as revenge porn, is classified as a criminal offence thanks to the Criminal Justice and Courts Act of 2015. Speaking to The Sun this month, former model Jess Davies revealed her horror at finding naked photos - which had been taken of her when she was asleep - in a group chat on her boyfriend's phone. The women's rights campaigner, 32, warned: "People's sons, brothers and friends are trading these photos like Pokémon cards and the women in the images have no idea that someone they trust is doing this." Revenge porn is defined as 'the sharing of private, sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person without their consent and with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress." The Government also states that those guilty of the crime could face up to two years behind bars – but evidence points towards a failure from cops to crack down on perpetrators. Speaking to The Sun, head of crime and justice at Policy Exchange and former Detective Chief Inspector David Spencer said: 'Cases where predators operate online are a real challenge for the police who are woefully behind the times when it comes to technology. 'A sea change in the approach of the police and the criminal justice system can't come soon enough.' National crisis 6 6 Netflix 's blockbuster Adolescence recently received critical acclaim for shining a light on the dangers of private messaging sites that are influencing young men like Discord, Telegram and the online game Roblox. The sites, which generally market to kids, have been found to be hubs for misogyny, sadism and sexual abuse – with people sharing shocking content such as guides on 'how to rape a girl'. The four-part limited series follows the family of 13-year-old boy Jamie Miller, who brutally murders a young girl after consuming the harmful content. Stephen Graham, who wrote the show and stars as Jamie's father, said the idea was inspired by the online 'manosphere'. 'I read an article about a young boy stabbing a young girl,' the actor explained. 'And then maybe a couple of months later, on the news there was [another] young boy who'd stabbed a young girl, and if I'm really honest with you, they hurt my heart.' He added: 'It's just being mindful of the fact that not only we parent our children, and not only the school educates our children. 'But also there's influences that we have no idea of that are having profound effects on our young culture, profound effects, positive and extremely negative. So it's having a look at that and seeing that we're all accountable.' What is revenge porn? By Kevin Adjei-Darko Sickos who post explicit snaps or videos of exes online without consent are being hunted down and locked up as Britain cracks down on revenge porn. The vile trend, which involves sharing private sexual images to humiliate or control someone, became a crime in 2015. But a fresh law under the Online Safety Act 2023 has made it even tougher — now, prosecutors no longer need to prove the intent was to cause distress. If you share an intimate image without permission, you're breaking the law. Creeps also face jail for creating or spreading deepfake porn - twisted AI-generated nudes - using someone's face without their knowledge. Offenders can get up to two years in prison, slapped with fines, and even end up on the sex offenders register. Love Island's Georgia Harrison made headlines after ex-boyfriend Stephen Bear was jailed for secretly filming them having sex and sharing it on OnlyFans. Her fight has helped drive legal change and support for victims. Help is out there. The Revenge Porn Helpline (0345 6000 459) offers confidential advice and can help get sick content taken down fast. The show has also captured the attention of multiple MPs and officials – with Daventry MP Stuart Andrew saying 'Adolescence has got everyone talking', and that it 'demonstrates the reach of such productions'. It even sparked discussion in PMQs after Sir Keir Starmer revealed to The Commons that he had been watching Adolescence with his own teenage children. Later, he told BBC 5Live that the UK 'may have a problem with boys and young men that we need to address.' The PM also revealed he planned to have a chat with former England football manager Gareth Southgate, who recently gave a BBC lecture saying 'toxic influencers trick young men.' 6 6 Influencer Andrew Tate has been blamed for the rise of toxic masculinity and sexual violence, and was even referenced in the Netflix drama. An Ofcom spokesperson told The Sun: 'The prosecution of individuals who post illegal content online is a matter for law enforcement agencies. 'This month, new duties came into force under the Online Safety Act that mean tech companies must now take steps to protect their UK users from illegal content, including intimate image abuse. 'Ofcom's job is to make sure platforms do that, and we're currently assessing industry compliance with these new laws.'
Wall Street Journal
15 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
How Much Do You Know About Cyber Scams? Take the Journal's Quiz.
The cyber scammers are still stealing your money, and, in many cases, they seem to be getting better at their chosen field, according to recently released data from the FBI. The 2024 Internet Crime Report is the latest edition of an annual report on cybercrime scams reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It combines information from 859,532 complaints of suspected internet crime and details reported losses exceeding $16 billion.
WIRED
16 hours ago
- Politics
- WIRED
Cops in Germany Claim They've ID'd the Mysterious Trickbot Ransomware Kingpin
Matt Burgess Lily Hay Newman May 30, 2025 9:22 AM The elusive boss of the Trickbot and Conti cybercriminal groups has been known only as 'Stern.' Now, German law enforcement has published his alleged identity—and it's a familiar face. Photograph:For years, members of the Russian cybercrime cartel Trickbot unleashed a relentless hacking spree on the world. The group attacked thousands of victims, including businesses, schools, and hospitals. 'Fuck clinics in the usa this week,' one member wrote in internal Trickbot messages in 2020 about a list of 428 hospitals to target. Orchestrated by an enigmatic leader using the online moniker 'Stern,' the group of around 100 cybercriminals stole hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of roughly six years. Despite a wave of law enforcement disruptions and a damaging leak of more than 60,000 internal chat messages from Trickbot and the closely associated counterpart group Conti, the identity of Stern has remained a mystery. Last week, though, Germany's federal police agency, the Bundeskriminalamt or BKA, and local prosecutors alleged that Stern's real-world name is Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev, a 36-year-old, 5'11' Russian man who cops believe is in his home country and thus shielded from potential extradition. A recently issued Interpol red notice says that Kovalev is wanted by Germany for allegedly being the 'ringleader' of a 'criminal organisation.' 'Stern's naming is a significant event that bridges gaps in our understanding of Trickbot—one of the most notorious transnational cybercriminal groups to ever exist,' says Alexander Leslie, a threat intelligence analyst at the security firm Recorded Future. 'As Trickbot's 'big boss' and one of the most noteworthy figures in the Russian cybercriminal underground, Stern remained an elusive character, and his real name was taboo for years.' Stern has notably seemed to be absent from multiple rounds of Western sanctions and indictments in recent years calling out alleged Trickbot and Conti members. Leslie and other researchers have long speculated to WIRED that global law enforcement may have strategically withheld Stern's alleged identity as part of ongoing investigations. Kovalev is suspected of being the 'founder' of Trickbot and allegedly used the Stern moniker, the BKA said in an online announcement. 'It has long been assumed, based on numerous indications, that 'stern' is in fact 'Kovalev',' a BKA spokesperson says in written responses to questions from WIRED. They add that, 'The investigating authorities involved in Operation Endgame were only able to identify the actor stern as 'Kovalev' during their investigation this year,' referring to a multi-year international effort to identify and disrupt cybercriminal infrastructure, known as Operation Endgame. The BKA spokesperson also notes in written statements to WIRED that information obtained through a 2023 investigation into the Qakbot malware as well as analysis of the leaked Trickbot and Conti chats from 2022 were 'helpful' in making the attribution. They added, too, that the 'assessment is also shared by international partners.' The German announcement is the first time that officials from any government have publicly alleged an identity for a suspect behind the Stern moniker. As part of Operation Endgame, BKA's Stern attribution inherently comes in the context of a multinational law enforcement collaboration. But unlike in other Trickbot and Conti-related attributions, other countries have not publicly concurred with BKA's Stern identification thus far. Europol, the US Department of Justice, the US Treasury, and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office did not immediately respond to WIRED's requests for comment. Several cybersecurity researchers who have tracked Trickbot extensively tell WIRED they were unaware of the announcement. An anonymous account on the social media platform X recently claimed that Kovalev used the Stern handle and published alleged details about him. WIRED messaged multiple accounts that supposedly belong to Kovalev, according to the X account and a database of hacked and leaked records compiled by District 4 Labs but received no response. Meanwhile, Kovalev's name and face may already be surprisingly familiar to those who have been following recent Trickbot revelations. This is because Kovalev was jointly sanctioned by the United States and United Kingdom in early 2023 for his alleged involvement as a senior member in Trickbot. He was also charged in the US at the time with hacking linked to bank fraud allegedly committed in 2010. The US added him to its most wanted list. In all of this activity, though, the US and UK linked Kovalev to the online handles 'ben' and 'Bentley.' The 2023 sanctions did not mention a connection to the Stern handle. And, in fact, Kovalev's 2023 indictment was mainly noteworthy because his use of 'Bentley' as a handle was determined to be 'historic' and distinct from that of another key Trickbot member who also went by 'Bentley.' The Trickbot ransomware group first emerged around 2016, after its members moved from the Dyre malware that was disrupted by Russian authorities. Over the course of its lifespan, the Trickbot group—which used its namesake malware, alongside other ransomware variants such as Ryuk, IcedID, and Diavol—increasingly overlapped in operations and personnel with the Conti gang. In early 2022, Conti published a statement backing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a cybersecurity researcher who had infiltrated the groups leaked more than 60,000 messages from Trickbot and Conti members, revealing a huge trove of information about their day-to-day operations and structure. Stern acted like a 'CEO' of the Trickbot and Conti groups and ran them like a legitimate company, leaked chat messages analyzed by WIRED and security researchers show. 'Trickbot set the mold for the modern 'as-a-service' cybercriminal business model that was adopted by countless groups that followed,' Recorded Future's Leslie says. 'While there were certainly organized groups that preceded Trickbot, Stern oversaw a period of Russian cybercrime that was characterized by a high level of professionalization. This trend continues today, is reproduced worldwide, and is visible in most active groups on the dark web.' Stern's eminence within Russian cybercrime has been widely documented. The cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis does not publicly name cybercriminal actors and declined to comment on BKA's identification, but the company emphasized that the Stern persona alone is one of the all-time most profitable ransomware actors it tracks. 'The investigation revealed that stern generated significant revenues from illegal activities, in particular in connection with ransomware,' the BKA spokesperson tells WIRED. Stern 'surrounds himself with very technical people, many of which he claims to have sometimes decades of experience, and he's willing to delegate substantial tasks to these experienced people whom he trusts,' says Keith Jarvis, a senior security researcher at cybersecurity firm Sophos' Counter Threat Unit. 'I think he's always probably lived in that organizational role.' Increasing evidence in recent years has indicated that Stern has at least some loose connections to Russia's intelligence apparatus, including its main security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB). The Stern handle mentioned setting up an office for 'government topics' in July 2020, while researchers have seen other members of the Trickbot group say that Stern is likely the 'the link between us and the ranks/head of department type at FSB.' Stern's consistent presence was a significant contributor to Trickbot and Conti's effectiveness—as was the entity's ability to maintain strong operational security and remain hidden. As Sophos' Jarvis put it, 'I have no thoughts on the attribution as I've never heard a compelling story about Stern's identity from anyone prior to this announcement.'
