Tech Expert Trevor Long says we may “struggle to detect” online scams in the future with the introduction of AI chatbots.
“Frankly, there may be a bigger challenge ahead for us in that sense,” Mr Long told Sky News Australia.
“That’s why we have internet security technology and things like that.”
Hackers and scammers have recently been taking advantage of the excitement surrounding HBO’s new adaption of the popular video game franchise The Last of Us. Technology expert Prateek Jha from VPNOverview.com warns fans of the franchise of the two scams circulating right now.
Recently, Kaspersky researchers shared with VPNOverview details of two separate campaigns — a scam designed to inject PCs with malware and a phishing ploy designed to steal banking information and other financial data.
“Gamers are a popular target for cybercriminals because, in addition to personal information, passwords, and bank card data, scammers may steal their gaming accounts with internal currency and rare skins, for example, using stealers,” Kaspersky told VPNOverview.
Malware offering ‘The Last of Us Part II’ for PC scam
The first of the two scams involve a website offering “The Last of Us Part II” for download. Anyone who attempts to download this fraudulent game will get malware on their device.
“Most often, players get malicious software, stealing sensitive data, on their devices when trying to download a popular game from a third-grade website instead of buying it on the official one,” Kaspersky said. The researchers noted that malware could remain hidden on a device and go “undetected for years.” “Users will not know that something is wrong because it may not cause any visible harm while silently doing its job,” they said.
A PC remake of the original first part of The Last of Us is slated for a March 2023 release; both games are currently exclusive to PlayStation and not available for download. According to a 2022 Kaspersky report on gaming-related cyber threats by Securelist, between July 2021 and June 2022, approximately 384,224 gamers encountered thousands of malware disguised as games.
Phishing scam targeting payment data
The second scam involves a website that offers an activation code for The Last of Us on PlayStation. The phishing site bundles the code with a “gift,” such as a PlayStation 5 or a $100 Roblox gift card.
To receive the code and the…
In the lead-up to New Year’s, subscription scams are landing in people’s email boxes at a frightening rate. With the goal of making off with someone’s identity, cybercriminals are betting they can scam their share of the more than 40% of consumers who click on a link in a phishing email.
Subscription scams are a favorite of malicious actors because they know how to write an email so that it escapes an email server’s spam filters. You’ve probably received some of these “auto-renewal” emails yourself from companies masquerading as Norton, McAfee, Best Buy/Geek Squad, or Microsoft.
And, having received some ourselves, ConsumerAffairs can attest to how authentic they look. But not everyone may be as suspicious as we are and not be able to detect a real one from a fake one. Since much of the phishing action is tied to Norton-related emails, here are some telltale signs you can look for and things you can do to keep from getting fleeced.
Look for these mentions: “Annual Product Membership,” “Norton Total All Round Security,” “URGENT: Your Norton Subscription Expired,” and “Your Order Has Been Received.” When fact-checking website Snopes dug into the situation to find out if the Norton emails it received were fake or real, those subject lines or text in the emails were all found to be from fakers.
In its warning, Norton (the real one) emphasizes that use of the word “urgent” is a sign that the email is a scam. If the email sounds threatening in any way, that, too, is a red flag.
Look for “official” Norton email addresses:According to Norton, the only email addresses that should be trusted as being officials are:
[email protected], and
[email protected] (for China)
Before you do anything, confirm the email is legitimate. Never, ever click on any link in an email until you’ve confirmed that it’s legitimate, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) suggests. And if in fact, the email is a spoof report it as spam, block the sender and delete the email.
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