Tag: scam
UK men offered £10K to pose as dads in visa scam, BBC investigation finds
‘The whole thing is a scam’: Trump blasts E. Jean Carroll verdict
Bodycam FPS Unrecord is “not a scam” and will have “no bias,” dev says
Ultra-realistic bodycam FPS game Unrecord launched its Steam page and a new trailer this week, highlighting movement and shooting mechanics, as well as hinting at some of the game’s story. Casting the player as a police officer, Unrecord is built to resemble actual footage recovered from a body camera, with the first gameplay trailer showing a gunfight in an abandoned building. Now, developer Drama answers questions about Unrecord, saying the game is authentic, built in Unreal Engine 5, and does not use VR. The developer also says that Unrecord will “avoid undesirable topics.”
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games on PC, Best police games, Best upcoming PC games
Financial Crime: Million-dollar son charged in million-dollar scam that also embroiled NFL legend Brett Favre
You Should Receive Fewer Scam Texts, Following New FCC Rules
Carriers are now required to block all text messages that appear to be scams. This is the FCC’s first attempt to squash scam texts through regulation—frankly, it’s long overdue. Unfortunately, the FCC’s anti-robocall actions haven’t been very effective, so we’re a bit skeptical about this new rule.
Read This Article on Review Geek ›
Twitter silent as hackers scam users with stolen high-profile verified accounts
Looking at Jase Robertson and David Dayen, you wouldn’t think the two of them have much in common. Robertson is known for his time on the A&E reality TV show Duck Dynasty. He currently hosts a show on the conservative digital outlet TheBlaze. David Dayen is a longtime progressive journalist and executive editor for The American Prospect magazine.
However, over the past few weeks, tweets from both Robertson’s and Dayen’s Twitter accounts have been sharing the exact same messaging.
Credit: Mashable Screenshot
“Hello twitter family !” begins the tweets posted to both accounts. “I have 10 MacBooks that I will personally sign myself , that you can purchase for $600 and free Shipping ! First come first serve basis , and all proceeds will be going to charity ! MY DMS ARE OPENED IF INTERESTED”
Included in each account’s tweets is the exact same photo of a MacBook Pro sitting on wood flooring. What’s going on here? Have Dayen and Robertson put their political differences aside and start an Apple reselling business?
No. They’ve been hacked, along with a slew of other legacy verified accounts on the social media platform. And, Twitter has been silent on the matter.
Even though some of these accounts have been hacked for weeks now, Twitter has not suspended the accounts, allowing the hackers to scam users of thousands of dollars, if not more.
Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Dayen tells Mashable that he was originally hacked last summer after clicking on a malicious link which provided bad actors with access to his account. He says his account was quickly suspended by Twitter then, well before Elon Musk acquired the company. When he regained access about a month later, Dayen quickly activated two-factor authentication on his account. Enacting this security measure should’ve made another hack extremely difficult to carry out.
However, here the @ddayen Twitter account is, just 6 months later, hacked and scamming the platform’s users.
Followers are falling for the scams
Mashable heard from at least one of Dayen’s followers who got scammed after seeing Dayen’s tweets. This person saw a tweet from a user they trusted and, not realizing Dayen was hacked, fell for the scheme in a moment of desperation.
“I fell for it,” the Twitter user told Mashable. “I desperately need a computer.”
Credit: Mashable Screenshot
This person shared the private DM conversation between themself and the person running the hacked @ddayen account. They also provided screenshots of the $1,500 transaction that they made to the scammer, which included payments from family members who also wanted to purchase a MacBook. The scammer required that they paid via Zelle, Cashapp, or Apple Pay – all peer-to-peer payment services that often don’t provide refunds to users who are scammed.
Dayen tells Mashable that he’s filed two support tickets with Twitter since he was hacked on March 12. He also sent replies to Twitter’s auto-reply asking for more information. In addition, he has tweeted publicly at Twitter’s official support account, @TwitterSupport. His account remains both hacked and active, the scammer’s tweets visible to all of Twitter.
“Amazing that @twittersupport hasn’t at least locked @ddayen after I reported the hack along with dozens of other people,” Dayen tweeted from his backup account, @david_dayen.
This is not an isolated incident
Duck Dynasty‘s Robertson was hacked even earlier, with the earlier scam tweet visible on his account’s feed appearing on March 2. Robertson announced he was hacked to his followers on a March 5 episode of his podcast.
Winnie Wong, a former senior political advisor to Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, was also hacked by these scammers. Although, they appear to be trying something different with her account.
Wong tells Mashable that when she was first hacked and booted from her @WaywardWinifred account on March 13, the scammers originally started to post about the same MacBook scam. But then, after she started tweeting about her and Dayen being hacked from her other high-profile Twitter account, @People4Bernie, the scammers blocked her account from viewing tweets from the hacked accounts. Then, the scammers changed her Twitter profile and header in order to make the account look like an official Twitter profile.
The hacked @WaywardWinifred account then began to privately DM Wong’s contacts – including politicians and other influential users – pretending to be a member of Twitter’s support. The DMs informed the user that they broke Twitter’s policies and needed to fill out a form at a website “security-twitter.com/resetpassword,” a phishing website setup by the scammer to look like a Twitter page in order to trick the user into sharing their password so they can take over the account.
The phishing website currently forwards to an Instagram account @morcegoen, which appears to be connected to the scammer. A single photo on @morcegoen’s page has comments from verified Instagram users like actor John Cusack. Cusack himself had his Instagram account hacked at the time this account was made. Cusack’s Instagram account posted photos of MacBooks while it was hacked, along with the same “10 MacBooks” for sale text.
The same scammer hit other high-profile Twitter accounts earlier this year too. Actress Anya Taylor Joy‘s Twitter account was hacked and started tweeting out the MacBook scam in January. Actor Jonathan Frakes‘ account started doing the same in late December of last year too. However, both Joy’s and Frakes’ account has been restored to its rightful owner since then.
Credit: Mashable Screenshot
So far, all high-profile accounts that have been hacked are legacy verified accounts, meaning they were verified before Musk took over the platform and allowed users to purchase a Twitter Blue verified checkmark for $8 per month.
Twitter’s inaction on the matter is a problem. As Wong tells me, her concern isn’t so much that she can’t access her account, it’s that the accounts have not yet been suspended. This makes it possible for the hacker to continue to scam her followers as well as other Twitter users. She points out that the issue with the accounts that were stolen earlier this year, such as Anya Taylor Joy’s, were resolved at a time when Twitter had a larger workforce. Since those hacks earlier this year, Twitter has gone under additional rounds of layoffs.
Twitter could not be reached for comment by Mashable as the company no longer has a communications department under Musk.
FCC makes its first rule to block scam robotexts official
Last month, the FCC proposed a new set of rules designed to combat the nuisance of robotext scams. Those rules are now official: not only will carriers be required to block messages that are likely to be illegal, but the new order also takes the first steps toward closing a loophole that allows scammers to dodge Do-Not-Call Registry protections.
Specifically, the rule targets text messages that come from numbers that are “unlikely to transmit text messages,” citing unallocated, unused or invalid numbers, as well as numbers for government agencies and other “well-known entities” that don’t send text messages. The order also hopes to close the “lead generator loophole,” that allows companies to interpret a consumer’s “consent” to a call as permission for other marketers to add them to a robocall list.
The announcement makes a point of saying that while these kinds of robotexts already fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection act, the new rules will give carriers more tools to help them actively block scammers. Even so, the best way to prevent being scammed is to protect yourself.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fcc-makes-its-first-rule-to-block-scam-robotexts-official-191006311.html?src=rss
FCC chair proposes rules to reduce scam robotexts
The chair of the Federal Trade Commission has proposed new rules to tackle the scourge of text message scams. If the agency’s commissioners approve the rules at a meeting in March, providers would have to block robotexts that are “highly likely to be illegal,” chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
The FCC has yet to publish the full text of Rosenworcel’s proposal. If adopted, it will force providers to block text messages that appear to be from numbers on a do-not-originate list. They include unused, invalid and unallocated numbers, as well as those that government agencies and “other well-known entities” say they don’t send texts from. Messages from these numbers “are highly likely to be illegal and no consumer would want to receive them,” an FCC statement reads.
Moreover, providers would have to block texts from entities that the FCC flags for sending illegal robotexts. The proposed rules state that providers would additionally need to expand National Do Not Call Registry protections to include texts to prevent consumers from receiving unwanted marketing messages.
“Missing packages that don’t exist; confirmation of payments that didn’t happen; links to shady websites; and truncated ‘wrong number’ messages from strangers. These scam robotexts are a part of everyday life for too many of us,” Rosenworcel said. “I’m asking my colleagues to join me in adopting the first FCC rules to focus on shutting down scam texts. But we’re not stopping here. Because we are going to keep at it and develop more ways to take on this growing consumer threat.”
The robotext proposal follows measures the FCC has taken to stamp out robocalls. Both issues are on the agenda for the FCC’s open meeting next month, along with other items like a proposed framework “for increased collaboration between terrestrial mobile network operators and satellite service providers” to bolster phone service in areas where it is lacking. That could could come in useful for life-or-death situations in remote areas. Certain devices, such as the iPhone 14, now offer satellite connectivity for emergency use.