Meta, Chime file lawsuit against alleged phishing scam on Facebook, Instagram

Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it had filed a joint lawsuit with digital banking company Chime against two Nigeria-based individuals who engaged in phishing attacks to deceive people and gain access to their online financial accounts.

The lawsuit, which is the first joint complaint between Meta and a financial services company, alleged that the defendants used Facebook and Instagram accounts to impersonate Chime and lure people to fake branded phishing websites with the aim of obtaining their Chime account login information and withdrawing funds.

In the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Meta said the defendants used a network of computers to control more than 800 impersonating Instagram accounts and five Facebook accounts, in order to conceal their activity and evade technical enforcement measures.

Reuters could not immediately reach the defendants for comment.

"Impersonation scams are a serious challenge, and this action represents a major step forward in cross-industry collaboration against this abuse," Meta's director of platform enforcement and litigation Jessica Romero said in a blog post.

Fintech company Chime was launched by former Visa Inc executive Chris Britt and Comcast Corp alumnus Ryan King in 2012. Reuters exclusively reported last month that Chime had asked Goldman Sachs to help it with IPO preparations.

Meta said it had taken several previous actions against the defendants since June 2020 for violating its terms, including disabling their accounts, blocking impersonating domains on its platforms and sending cease and desist letters. (Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York; Additional reporting by the Lagos bureau; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

-reuters-

Second apparent leak of hacked celebrity nude pictures: US media

LOS ANGELES - More nude celebrity photos, purportedly including reality star Kim Kardashian, circulated social media Saturday, in what appeared to be the second massive hacking-related leak in less than a month, US media reported.

The pictures, which also included nude shots of actress Vanessa Hudgens and US soccer star Hope Solo, appeared briefly on 4chan and Reddit, before being removed, celebrity gossip site TMZ reported.

BuzzFeed said that personal videos and photos belonging to actresses Aubrey Plaza, Mary-Kate Olsen, Hayden Panettiere and Leelee Sobieski were posted, in addition to previously unseen pictures of Jennifer Lawrence.

Hackers first released a trove of nude starlets' photos on September 1, after snatching them from Apple's iCloud in what the tech giant has called a "targeted attack."

The company has denied its cloud storage system was breached, suggesting that the celebrities had their accounts hacked by using easy-to-guess passwords, or by giving up their personal data to cybercriminals posing as Apple, a technique known as "phishing."

In addition to Lawrence, celebrities whose pictures were allegedly stolen and posted online in early September included model Kate Upton, singer Avril Lavigne and actress Gabrielle Union.

source: www..abs-cbnnews.com

Phishing scam hits World of Warcraft

Not even "Mist of Pandaria," the latest expansion for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is exempt from phishers.

Security vendor Trend Micro said it started seeing increased phishing in "World of Warcraft" after its maker Blizzard started closed-beta testing in March.

"In these new rounds of phishing attempts, scammers are trying to abuse the WoW’s in-game mail system. In this phishing attempt, the malicious URLs are sent via in-game mail and are received by players in their in-game mailboxes," it said in a blog post.

Under the new racket, a scammer encourages victims to join the "Mist of Pandaria" beta testing and get an exclusive in-game item, the Dragon Turtle Mount.

However, the victim would have to visit and register at their so-called "website," which closely resembles the real Battle.net website.

"If unsuspecting users input their Battle.net credentials it will definitely result to Battle.net account theft. Battle.net is the central account management for all Blizzard games like World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and Diablo III," Trend Micro said.

Trend Micro also noted recent scamming attempts appeared to target lower-level characters and not high-level or level-capped ones.

It theorized this may be an attempt to avoid detection.

On the other hand, Trend Micro said Blizzard had stepped up its security measures, publishing a dedicated security page to help users understand their security commitment.

Blizzard also promoted its authenticator, available as an iOS or Android app, as a keychain fob. — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com