scam

I have gotten a few new devices using trade-ins the last few years to find that they are "scam phones". Apparently, they are somehow manufactured or configured to to allow some kind of tracking or scanning people for further exploitation. That could be identity theft or other forms of theft and...

The FTC has fined Office Deport 25 Million Dollars over its use of basically fake AntiMalware software. "Using a program called PC Health Check, the FTC claimed in its complaint that Office Depot, its subsidiary OfficeMax, and its service provider Support.com ran a program that ostensibly...

The EFF and other groups have lambasted the latest FCC vote to keep text messaging classified as "information services" as another measure that elevates the power of corporations over the rights of consumers. The EFF notes that wireless providers such as Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint have already...

The FCC has voted to classify text messages as an "information service" under the Communications Act. This was done to give more leeway to wireless providers to fight spam messages and scam robotexts. Mass texting companies wanted text messaging reclassified as a "telecommunications service"...

Phone phishing scams are becoming more sophisticated as scam artists gain access to stolen data. They are now calling victims with spoofed Caller ID numbers that look like their financial institution and are armed with information like the last 4 digits of your credit or debit card, address...

The Adware Doctor app occupied the front page of the Apple App Store as the #4 highest rated app, but it had a dark secret. Instead of removing viruses and malware from iOS devices, it was collecting all browser history, app store purchases, and more to bundle into an encrypted file to be sent...

The game Abstractism, as sold on the Steam Store, has been accused by paying customers of turning their PCs into cryptocurrency miners. In this post, a customer asks the Steam community about Malwarebytes detecting the game as containing a virus and the developer chimes in to say,"These...

Sorry if this the wrong place for this, but it seems pertinent... I've been selling on eBay for just over twenty years now (not tech stuff) and it seems that nearly every year eBay does something to make the buyer/seller relationship worse - and increasingly dysfunctional. Small sellers always...

YouTube videos that link to scam versions of Fortnite for Android are causing lots of uninformed people to download the app and infect their device with malware. The fact that Google Play Store isn't hosting any of these Fortnite scam apps is the good news. However, these videos keep springing...

Not even a week after an ICO scam cost investors $660 Million, another exit scam has occurred costing investors $50 million. CoinTelegraph is reporting that the founder German-based startup Savedroid, Yassin Hankir, has absconded with the money raised from an initial coin offering, as well as...

Yet again, the unregulated world of ICO's cost investors $660M when the founders ran off with the money. This time it happened in Vietnam and the ICO was for Pincoin. This coin had bad investment written all over it with its promises of huge monthly returns and multilevel marketing, but some...

Twitter is stepping up its game and is blocking trolls that try to scam their customers out of cryptocurrency. According to Reuters an account was suspended last month after the fake Elon Musk account claimed it was giving away cryptocurrency. However, the more serious action taken by Twitter...

Since 2013, over 10,000 victims have paid scammers more than $54 million according to a report from CNBC. The scam reappears every year, with someone from the "IRS" calling to talk about "fraud," "back taxes," and "arrests" to get the victims attention. Once the scammer has the victims attention...

So, I tried to RMA an X99-WS E motherboard with Asus a few weeks ago. The board just stopped booting one day, code 00. I submitted the RMA, packed the board in it's original box (which was put in another box) with socket cover installed. I even took photos of the board while packing it (for...

I have been watching this story out of Lithuania for about a month now and it has come to somewhat of a head. Evaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian man, has been in custody since March of this year at the request of the U.S. Justice Department. He is suspected of swindling companies out of over...

Gearbox Software's distribution deal with G2A is in jeopardy after John "TotalBiscuit" Bain called the Bulletstorm publisher out for backing crooks on Twitter. After Mr. Bain opened "Pandora's Box" by threatening to not cover Bulletstorm or future Gearbox Software titles unless they cut ties...

The Department of Justice yesterday unsealed an indictment against a Lithuanian man who successfully swindled $100 million out of two American tech companies. (Here, have the verge link too, because reading bureaucrat can be tiring.) The 48 year old Latvian man reportedly opened a business in...