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With severe financial losses to fraud reported worldwide, we deep-dive into the ever-increasing onslaught of online scams and explore the latest cyber threats in April 2024 informed by our experts.
Summary
From AI deepfakes and stolen biometric data scams to key insights about the impact of scamming worldwide, this month’s F‑Alert covers recent developments in online scams.
Discover resources teaching you how to identify and avoid scams in our scam protection hub.
Explore Vietnam’s hidden “click farms” cultivating likes and comments on social media and find out whether your user data is safe in ChatGPT with examples of recent security flaws.
Exposing online scams: an epidemic
The news is rife with scams. A quick Google search will bring you hundreds of thousands of articles posted mere hours apart. Crypto scams. Romance scams. Even government imposter scams. With people all over the world affected by fraud, we bring you key insights from the Global Anti‑Scam Alliance’s global state of scams report — from why we fall for scams to the top affected countries.
Scammers steal faces in AI attack
Goldpickaxe, a sophisticated new malware developed by Chinese threat actor GoldFactory, has been targeting biometric data to bypass banking security and steal money from victims. Ash Shatrieh, Threat Intelligence Researcher at F‑Secure, investigates the story and details every step — from luring victims and distributing malicious links, to obtaining victims’ biometric data and bypassing banking security.
Click farms scam algorithms
Vietnam is known for its rice farms. But there’s a different type of farm operating from shadowy basements around the country that’s attracting the attention of cyber sleuths: click farms. Laura Kankaala, Threat Intelligence Lead at F‑Secure, explains what click farms are, how fake news and fabricated social media engagement is damaging, and what this means for you as an internet user.
ChatGPT: is your data safe?
ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, generating 1.7 billion monthly users in just one year. To put this impressive rate of growth into perspective, it took almost 20 years for the internet to reach 1 billion monthly users. AI is now a part of everyday life — but it inevitably comes with security flaws. Khalid Alnajjar, Threat Data Researcher at F‑Secure, explores the latest security vulnerabilities discovered.
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