Motherboard: Great, Dating Apps Are Getting More Hellish Thanks to AI Chatbots. “A group claiming to be disenfranchised ex-Tinder employees gone rogue has built an app that uses AI chatbots to talk to women for men on dating apps, in an effort to combat the ‘disadvantages the average man’ faces in online dating.”
Unseen Japan: Scam Website Steals Japanese Cosplayer’s Labor of Love. “A Japanese cosplayer was recently horrified to find that their homemade cosplay of a much-loved character — an outfit still sitting in their own home — was listed for sale on an online outlet under their own photo and some of their own words.”
Mashable: 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.”
FTC: FTC Issues Orders to Social Media and Video Streaming Platforms Regarding Efforts to Address Surge in Advertising for Fraudulent Products and Scams. “With fraud on social media surging, the Federal Trade Commission has issued orders to eight social media and video streaming platforms seeking information on how these companies scrutinize and restrict paid commercial advertising that is deceptive or exposes consumers to fraudulent health-care products, financial scams, counterfeit and fake goods, or other fraud.”
WA Today (Australia): Search engine pulls ads promoting controversial weight loss drug. “Shonky websites purporting to sell an in-demand Hollywood weight loss drug have been appearing above health warnings in Australian search engine results, as the regulator continues to crack down on the illegal sale of Ozempic.”
Telegraph India: Google pages of hill hotels defaced for fraud. “Google pages of many Darjeeling hotels, including premier properties, have been compromised en bloc in such a way that customers booking rooms are directed to pay advance amounts to bank accounts which don’t belong to the owners of the accommodations. The widespread tampering with the Google pages comes at a time there is a rush to book hotel rooms for the upcoming tourism season.”
Washington Post: They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam. . “Technology is making it easier and cheaper for bad actors to mimic voices, convincing people, often the elderly, that their loved ones are in distress. In 2022, impostor scams were the second most popular racket in America, with over 36,000 reports of people being swindled by those pretending to be friends and family, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission.”
Gizmodo: FTX Confirms $9 Billion in Customer Funds Vanished. “The folks handling the ongoing FTX bankruptcy admitted Thursday it is still on the hook for around $9 billion in customer funds that it simply cannot locate under the morass of financials left over from the exchange’s collapse.”
Reuters: Reuters reporters’ online accounts faked to approach China activists. “Two Reuters journalists had their identities faked by an unknown person or people who then used sham social media accounts to engage with Chinese activists on several online platforms over several months.”
Lifehacker: Why You Need to Stop Clicking Sponsored Google Links. “These links appear at the top of any given Google search, depending on who pays the most to be there. Even though these links can be largely irrelevant to what you’re actually searching for, sometimes they’re right on the money. However, even if it looks like a sponsored link applies to your search, don’t click it. It might be a scam.”
Engadget: 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.”
Washington Post: Leaked files reveal reputation-management firm’s deceptive tactics. “They look at first glance like ordinary news outlets serving up headlines from around the world. The hundreds of websites, seemingly unconnected to one another, come in six languages and purport to cover far-flung cities such as Paris, London and Chicago. But beneath the surface, the sites have something in common: They host frothy stories about clients of a little-known reputation-management company that promises to remake the online images of its customers.”
California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation: DFPI Launches Scam Tracker to Help the Public Spot Crypto Scams. “The Crypto Scam Tracker is a database that is searchable by company name, scam type, or keywords to learn more about the crypto specific complaints the DFPI has received. An accompanying glossary aims to help consumers better understand common scams.”
New York Times: Why Are You Seeing So Many Bad Digital Ads Now?. “…advertising experts agree that crummy ads — some just irritating, others malicious — appear to be proliferating. They point to a variety of potential causes: internal turmoil at tech companies, weak content moderation and higher-tier advertisers exploring alternatives.”
WIRED: Pig Butchering Scams Are Evolving Fast . “Researchers found that to stay relevant and ensnare more victims in recent months, so-called pig butchering attacks are developing both more compelling narratives to draw targets in and more sophisticated tech to convince victims that there’s big money to be made.”
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