BuzzFeed News: How A Massive Facebook Scam Siphoned Millions Of Dollars From Unsuspecting Boomers. “Since 2015, Ads Inc. has made money — lots of it — by executing one of the internet’s most persistent, lucrative, and sophisticated scams: the subscription trap. The subscription trap works by tricking people into buying what they think is a single free trial of a celebrity-endorsed product. Although the customers would receive the product — which in most cases was not made by Ads Inc. itself — in reality, the celebrity has nothing to do with the offer. And in purchasing the free trial, the customer unwittingly commits to a pricey monthly subscription designed to be hard to cancel.” This might explain some of the Facebook account renting as well.
scams
#FacebookLockout: Facebook users report being locked out for reporting scammers and fake accounts (Mashable)
Mashable: #FacebookLockout: Facebook users report being locked out for reporting scammers and fake accounts. “If you received a suspicious Facebook message from your dead granny looking to tell you about a great new financial opportunity, you’d report the fraudulent account to Facebook, wouldn’t you? That’s exactly what many Facebook users said they did right before the company seemingly penalized them for doing so.”
Irish Examiner: Instagram adds new feature to tackle phishing emails
Irish Examiner: Instagram adds new feature to tackle phishing emails. “Instagram has added a feature it says will help users identify hoax emails from hackers pretending to be the social network, to help better protect them from email scams.”
Bleeping Computer: Beware of Google Alert Links Leading to Malware and Scams
Bleeping Computer: Beware of Google Alert Links Leading to Malware and Scams. “Google Alerts is s useful service that allows you to receive emails or an updated RSS feed when new pages appear in the Google search index that are related to specified keywords you are following. Unfortunately, whenever there is a good thing, people try to take advantage of them to push users towards scams and malware.”
Naked Security: Instagram phish poses as copyright infringement warning – don’t click!
Naked Security: Instagram phish poses as copyright infringement warning – don’t click!. “Last month, we wrote about an Instagram scam that presented you with what looked like a two-factor authentication (2FA) code. This time, the crooks are tapping into a concern that many of us have – falling foul of copyright law.”
CNET: Hackers set up a fake veteran-hiring website to infect victims with malware
CNET: Hackers set up a fake veteran-hiring website to infect victims with malware. “A website pretending to help find jobs for US military veterans was found to be infecting their computers with malware, Cisco Talos said Tuesday. The website was called hiremilitaryheroes.com, a Talos blog post said, and asked users to download a fake installer app that deployed malware and malicious spying tools.”
WTVD: Social media users falling for fake brand ambassador offers
WTVD: Social media users falling for fake brand ambassador offers. “The Better Business Bureau says companies are contacting people and asking if they are interested in becoming a ‘brand ambassador’ or influencer. They claim all the job requires is for the person to post pictures or videos of themselves using or wearing the company’s products and in exchange, they will get a commission, free products or more exposure for their account.”
