extortion

January 10, 2017

Extortionists Wipe Thousands of Databases, Victims Who Pay Up Get Stiffed

This post was originally published on this siteTens of thousands of personal and possibly proprietary databases that were left accessible to the public online have just been wiped from the Internet, replaced with ransom notes demanding payment for the return of the files. Adding insult to injury, it appears that virtually none of the victims have paid the ransom have gotten their files back because multiple fraudsters are now wise to the extortion attempts and are competing to replace each other’s ransom notes. At the eye of this developing data destruction maelstrom is an online database platform called MongoDB. Tens of thousands of […]
June 23, 2017

FBI: Extortion, CEO Fraud Among Top Online Fraud Complaints in 2016

This post was originally published on this siteOnline extortion, tech support scams and phishing attacks that spoof the boss were among the most costly cyber scams reported by consumers and businesses last year, according to new figures from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 report released Thursday correctly identifies some of the most prevalent and insidious forms of cybercrimes today, but the total financial losses tied to each crime type also underscore how infrequently victims actually report such crimes to law enforcement. Source: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). For example, the IC3 said it received 17,146 extortion-related […]
February 4, 2021

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter Target Resellers of Hacked Accounts

This post was originally published on this siteFacebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter this week all took steps to crack down on users involved in trafficking hijacked user accounts across their platforms. The coordinated action seized hundreds of accounts the companies say have played a major role in facilitating the trade and often lucrative resale of compromised, highly sought-after usernames. At the center of the account ban wave are some of the most active members of OGUsers, a forum that caters to thousands of people selling access to hijacked social media and other online accounts. Particularly prized by this community are […]