Fraud & Scams

A week in security (September 14 – September 20)

A list of topics we covered in the week of September 14 to September 20 of 2026

New Android malware uses AI to steal bank logins and PINs

RatHat can navigate infected phones while stealing bank logins, authentication codes, and screen-lock PINs.

Did an AI really try to break free from human control?

An unreleased OpenAI model wrote instructions telling itself to ignore developer controls. Here’s what actually happened.

Fake parcel delivery messages steal your card and bank details

Parcel delivery phishing messages impersonate familiar couriers and use small fees or promised refunds to steal personal and finan…

Flock cameras are tracking people as well as cars

Two reports reveal how Flock’s license plate camera network tracks people’s movements while oversight continues to lag.

Revolut phishing texts appear days after data breach

Revolut customers received phishing texts only days after the digital bank acknowledged disclosing customer data to a government i…

Scammers Impersonating Law Enforcement and Government Officials in Fraud Schemes

FTC Announces Additional Payments to Consumers Stemming from FTC’s Amazon Prime Settlement

Image The Federal Trade Commission announced today that Amazon will accelerate and expand payments to eli…

FTC Takes Historic Action Against Multilevel Marketing Operator Amway for Unfair and Deceptive Business Practices

Amway Corp., one of the largest multilevel marketing companies in the U.S., and two of its affiliates—World Wide Group, L.L.C. (WW…

FleetCor Agrees to Pay $100 Million to Resolve Administrative Action After Federal Court Finds that It Violated the FTC Act by Charging Unauthorized Fees

FleetCor and its CEO will pay $100 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission administrative action alleging that the company ch…

12 celebrity deepfake websites seized by Manhattan DA

The largest known celebrity deepfake seizure has taken 12 websites offline, disrupting access to videos depicting some 1,200 peopl…

T-Mobile rewards points expiry texts are a phishing scam

A large phishing campaign is using fake T-Mobile rewards points and looming expiry dates to pressure recipients into clicking mali…

Alert: AI is Accelerating Targeted Social Engineering Attacks

AI tools are drastically improving the speed of the reconnaissance stage of targeted social engineering attacks, according to rese…

Warning: New Phishing Kit Targets Hundreds of Organizations

Attackers have used a new phishing platform called “BigBear 2.0” to target hundreds of organizations across more than forty countr…

Google Pixel owners urged to patch actively exploited modem flaw

Google’s September Pixel update fixes 110 vulnerabilities, including a modem flaw being used in limited, targeted attacks.

AI helps scammers build convincing antivirus renewal pages

A fake Avast renewal page shows how AI is helping scammers create more convincing traps with polished designs and fluent copy.

Attackers Use Passkey-Themed Phishing to Breach Cloud Environments

Researchers at Microsoft are tracking a social engineering campaign that uses passkey-themed lures to trick users into granting pe…

Phishing Emails Use New Technique to Bypass Microsoft 365 Security Filters

Threat actors are using phishing emails with blank SMTP sender fields to bypass Microsoft 365 security filters, according to resea…

How to opt out of AI chatbot training

ChatGPT contractors are reviewing real users' conversations. Here’s how to stop AI companies using your chats for model training.

CyberheistNews Vol 16 #37 [Bypassing the Gatekeepers] Global Phishing Turns Google into a Trust Proxy

FTC Publishes Price Transparency FAQs for Auto Dealers

Staff of the Federal Trade Commission today published frequently asked questions on price transparency to help the automobile indu…

HBO Max’s verified Reddit account hijacked to spread malware

Cybercriminals used HBO Max’s verified Reddit account to run 108 malicious ads that tricked people into installing information ste…

Meta AI builds detailed profiles of children from years of family posts

A mother says Meta AI pieced together names, birth details, photos, and location information about her young daughters from years…

Search results are sending people to fake Bitrefill checkouts

Fake Bitrefill checkout pages are appearing in search results and tricking people into sending cryptocurrency directly to scammers…

Social Engineering Campaign Uses Phony NDAs to Avoid Detection

Researchers at Gen Digital are tracking a sophisticated social engineering campaign that’s using phony NDA documents to trick empl…

Google’s new search redirects make links harder to check before you click

Google says its new opaque redirects tackle evolving abuse, but they also prevent users from checking a result’s destination by ho…

Warning: “Slop Squatting” Directs AI Users to Phishing Pages

Threat actors are increasingly leveraging AI hallucinations to plant phishing links and other malicious content in AI output, IEEE…

Revolut gave customer IDs and financial data to a government impostor

The digital bank was tricked into releasing sensitive customer information, including IDs, to an attacker using a legitimate gover…

A week in security (September 7 – September 13)

A list of topics we covered in the week of September 7 to September 13 of 2026

FBI Alert: OAuth Consent Phishing is Targeting Users of Messaging Apps

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued an advisory warning of a wave of OAuth consent phishing attacks targetin…