Articles about Scam

With Black Friday on the horizon and peak holiday shopping underway people are expecting deliveries. When shoppers are tracking multiple orders at once they are far more willing to trust a parcel that arrives unexpectedly and a new quishing scam is looking to exploit that.

If scammers have your name and address from previous data breaches, scraped social media posts or public directories, they cab easily make a fake parcel look authentic. Adding a QR code makes people think it’s related to tracking or returns so they’re likely to scan it without thinking.

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A new survey from Bitdefender, of more than 7,000 consumers worldwide, finds that 14 percent of respondents (one in seven) report falling victim to scams in the past year, with an additional four percent unsure.

Based on an average scam loss of $545, that equates to over $534,000 lost among survey participants alone. The US led in scam victims at 17 percent, followed by the UK (16 percent) and Australia (16 percent), while France had the lowest at 11 percent.

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Avast has introduced Scam Guardian and Scam Guardian Pro for mobile devices, expanding its AI-driven scam protection from desktop to smartphones and tablets. The new tools, part of Avast Mobile Security and Avast Premium Mobile Security, aim to address the rising wave of scam and social engineering attacks on mobile platforms.

Avast, part of Gen, said that over 80 percent of mobile threats blocked by Gen Threat Labs this year were scams. In fact, on average, four mobile scam attempts are stopped every second. Scam Guardian and its Pro version extend Avast's existing protection ecosystem to mobile users on Android and iOS.

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Microsoft was the most impersonated brand in worldwide phishing attacks during the third quarter of 2025. 40 percent of such attempts used the company’s name, according to Check Point Research’s Brand Phishing Report for Q3.

Google took the second spot with 9 percent of global phishing activity, while Apple was third with 6 percent. Together, those three names accounted for more than half of all brand impersonation attempts in the period.

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Scams and fraud are an ever present threat on the internet and the rise of AI means that they’re getting harder to spot with the old giveaways of bad grammar and dodgy attachments largely eliminated.

Google is announcing a range of new tools and initiatives to help people remain safe online. These include improved app features, new account recovery tools and better education and awareness programs.

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Cybersecurity researchers at Malwarebytes say they have uncovered a phishing campaign in which scammers pose as Netflix recruiters to target jobseekers, particularly marketing professionals.

The goal is to trick victims into handing over their Facebook credentials, potentially compromising both personal and business accounts.

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WhatsApp is now an essential communication tool for both personal and business use, and its popularity means that it is also a prime target for scammers. As such, the company has just announced the rollout of a new series of tools designed to help keep users informed and protected.

Among these new tools is a safety warning for group chats that warns about being added to new chat groups by unknown contacts. There are also tools and advice for individual chats, which are also targets for scams.

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A new analysis of smartphone security habits reveals that Android users are safer online than their iPhone counterparts. Based on data from over 1,300 people in the US, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, the report from Malwarebytes highlights key differences in how Android and iPhone users behave, and how those choices impact their chances of falling for online scams.

According to the research, Android users more often use security tools, make smarter purchasing decisions, and protect their accounts with stronger passwords. They are also less likely to fall for scams.

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A new report shows that security leaders have false confidence in their capabilities and employees when it comes to mobile security. While 96 percent are confident their employees can spot a phishing attempt, 58 percent have reported incidents where employees fell victim to executive impersonation scams via text message.

The study from Lookout, of more than 700 security leaders globally, underscores a critical need for organizations to rethink their cybersecurity strategies, particularly around the human-risk factors for social-engineering attacks.

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Online scams are evolving quickly, and while younger people often adapt with ease, older adults may not be keeping up.

According to Avast, nearly 60 percent of older loved ones have already fallen victim to cybercrime. Even when younger family members raise the alarm, the message does not always get through. Although 84 percent of adults say they have spoken to older relatives about potentially risky online habits, only 53 percent of those warned have taken the advice seriously and made changes

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The run up to the holiday period is a prime time for cyber attackers as they try to exploit the rise in online activity to launch phishing and spoofing attacks, distribute malware, and create fraudulent schemes.

Online retail brands are a prime target. Last year UK shoppers lost  more than £11.5 million to online scammers between November and January.  However, it’s important to remember that the risks also extend to other industry sectors, as employees may use work devices for last minute festive shopping and other end-of-year activity. Here we explore how scammers take advantage of this annual trend and how to protect against these threats.  

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We've all become used to scam phone calls of various kinds, but it seems AI is allowing them to become more sophisticated.

According to NordVPN, scammers are now able to create realistic voice clones from samples collected online and use them to extort money and data from victims' friends, relatives, or colleagues.

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We know that fraud is on the increase and by their very nature scams can be hard to spot because… Well because they're scams.

Step forward Bitdefender with the launch of a new, free scam detection service designed to help users verify fraudulent online schemes delivered by email, embedded links, text, and instant messaging through collaboration with a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence.

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Ever keen to jump aboard a passing bandwagon, scammers are looking to make a quick buck by exploiting eager vacationers trying to save money when booking travel deals.

But new research from Bitdefender Antispam Lab finds that only 38 percent of analyzed travel-themed spam emails received during a three-month analysis were marketing lures, with the remaining 62 percent marked as scams.

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Cybercriminals and fraudsters have long relied on a dark web community to exchange information on vulnerable businesses and individuals as well as trading fraud-as-a-service schemes.

In an effort to turn the tables, Sift is launching a new online community called 'Sifters' to allow its customers to learn from, interact with, and share information with each other, including on any emerging fraud threats they encounter.

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