Tootfinder

The FBI says fraudsters bilked Americans out of $333.5M via bitcoin ATM scams from January through November 2025, up from roughly $250M in 2024 (Lucien Bruggeman/ABC News)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/scammers-notched-333-million-bitcoin-atm-scam…

Scammers notched $333 million from bitcoin ATM scams in 2025, FBI says
The kiosks allow users to send cash to a digital wallet anywhere in the world.

EU lawmakers agree on new rules that hold platforms like Meta and TikTok liable for financial scams that have been reported, requiring them to compensate banks (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/social-media-giants-meta-tik…

Social media giants liable for financial scams under new EU law
The new rules set a dangerous precedent, big tech companies say.

Chuckling about "Coinbase" teaching people how to <checks notes> "detect & avoid scams". 🤨
☑️ Coinbase Institute: Detecting and Avoiding Scams
https://www.coinbase.com/public-policy/advocacy/documents/detecting-and-avo…

The Trump phone goes the way of all Trump scams
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/25/2355369/-The-Trump-phone-goes-the-way-of-all-Trump-scams

Nick Shirley, a MAGA-friendly YouTuber, goes viral with video reports about alleged fraud in Minnesota, provoking approving responses from the FBI and JD Vance (Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/29/nick-shirley-minnesota-fraud-vance-fbi-somali

YouTuber Nick Shirley gets FBI response to Minnesota fraud probe
Shirley alleges billions were stolen in state scams.

It seems like 75% of new followers have chuffed(.)org and gaza-verified(.)org URLs in their profiles.
THEY GET INSTANT BLOCKS.
AFAICT, those are scams being run by a mix of Russian mobsters and spoiled rich kids. I do not care enough to determine otherwise.
I do care about the brutality inflicted upon the Palestinian people for many decades. I care about the millennia of bigotry inflicted upon Jews. In short: I have more immediate problems. I hope they can find peace w/o i…

The whole thing is optimized for scams, deception and other criminal behavior:
- user interface that deceptively pretends it's a human you're talking to
- claims from companies highly exaggerate capabilities
companies and "experts" constantly hype "AGI" which they (funnily enough) do to both make investors greedier and spread fear and as a distraction because these algorithms can't actually do what they keep promising
- large-scale accounting and financial fraud (e.g. what Nvidia is doing with circular selling)
- biggest case of copyright infringement in history
Note: I think the underlying technology is really cool, and definitely has use cases and can be used for actually good things. But: some technology just has more downsides than upsides, and some should only be used by experts in controlled environments. Leaded gasoline, asbestos and chlorofluorocarbon are also all really cool technology.
In this case perhaps the techology itself doesn't do anything inherently bad, however the people making it are lying about what it can do, the people selling it are motivated purely by greed and the people using it (often forced to do so) are being deceived.

From David Suzuki
The David Suzuki Foundation has been informed of several fake news stories, ads and videos circulating online that falsely claim to be endorsed by David Suzuki or the David Suzuki Foundation.
With the rise in AI-generated misinformation, it is increasingly difficult to determine if the content you see online is real or not.
These fake ads often link to websites selling products, sharing disinformation or promoting financial scams.
🧵1/6

🤚 Thailand seizes millions in assets and issues arrest warrants in scams crackdown
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/12/04/asia-pacific/crime-legal/thailand-assets-arrest-scams/

Thailand seizes millions in assets and issues arrest warrants in scams crackdown
Parts of Southeast Asia have become hubs for online fraud, with criminal networks earning billions from illegal compounds where trafficking victims are often forced to work.

2026 KREMLIN COLLAPSE! Ukraine intelligence scams FSB $500K sting as Trump seizes Russian tankers: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/10/kremlin-collapse-ukraine-intelligence-scams.html

A scammer’s blueprint: How cybercriminals plot to rob a target in a week
😶‍🌫️ #scamm

A scammer’s blueprint: How cybercriminals plot to rob a target in a week
Handbooks discovered in police raids detail how cyberfraud gangs groom victims for romance scams.

Two families sue Meta over teens' deaths by suicide, citing 'sextortion' scams (David Ingram/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/two-families-sue-meta-teens-deaths-suicide-citing-sextortion-scams-rcna248136
http://www.memeorandum.com/251217/p131#a251217p131

Man, today's Metacurity is packed with tons of critical infosec developments you should know, including
--Google sues Chinese smishing giant Lighthouse Enterprise for scams across 120 countries,
--UK proposes new cyberattack defenses,
--UK to allow tests of AI systems to gauge CSAM potential,
--Oz spy chief says China probed country's telecom networks,
--China blames US gov't for $13B LuBian theft,
--Google unveils Private AI Compute,
--M…

Google sues Chinese smishing giant Lighthouse Enterprise for scams across 120 countries
UK proposes new cyberattack defenses, UK to allow tests of AI systems to gauge CSAM potential, Oz spy chief says China probed country's telecom networks, China blames US gov't for $13b LuBian theft, Google unveils Private AI Compute, MSFT issues fixes for 63 flaws, much more

If "AI" actually worked there would be no need to call me 5 times a day with loan scams

Crypto scams received $14B on-chain in 2025, up from 2024's $12B and potentially rising to $17B as more wallets are found; impersonation scams jumped 1,400% (Chainalysis)
https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-scams-2026/

2026 Crypto Crime Report: Scams
Record $17 billion estimated stolen in crypto scams and fraud in 2025 as impersonation tactics and AI enablement surge.

A lot of their strategies are like spammers and phishers: they’re kind of stupid, they’re kind of lazy, but they just spend all day trying — and they only have to catch somebody off guard once. And so while they lazy it up, we have to remain in a state of ceaseless vigilance…because as we all know from phishing scams, everybody slips up eventually.

US announces ‘strike force’ to counter Southeast Asian cyber scams, sanctions Myanmar armed group https://therecord.media/strike-force-southeast-asia-scams

Waitwaitwait... you mean NBA basketball, fixed/rigged games, money laundering, wire fraud & criminal betting scams... all in the one video? 🤨
▶️ Someone is About to Talk - TheFlightMike
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gAw-VPNfhx0&si=rDdM4AMcaJ8-la8X
<…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/11/12/cryptocurrency-task-force-dc-pirro/
Pirro targets cryptocurrency scams with new federal task force

Pirro targets cryptocurrency scams with new federal task force
The scams are intricate, with fake websites and smartphone apps made to look like real investment platforms, and they often run for weeks or months.

Phishing alert
If you have #Wordpress sites, beware emails telling you that you need to renew your subscription.
They look authentic til you notice the sender address.
#scams #phishing

One evening in early 1976, a bushy-haired Jeffrey Epstein
showed up for an event at an art gallery in Midtown Manhattan.
Epstein was a math and physics teacher at the city’s prestigious Dalton School,
and the father of one of his students had invited him.
Epstein initially demurred, saying he didn’t go out much, but eventually relented.
It would turn out to be one of the most fateful decisions he ever made.
At the gallery, Epstein bumped into another Dalton…

The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich
For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society.

AI deepfakes are now part of our everyday online life—from fake posts w/ high-profile figures to cloned voices that sound like someone you know.
Even if AI makes these scams look more convincing, the tactics behind them haven’t changed: create pressure so you act before you think.
That’s where #digitalmindfulness comes in.
A short pause can make all the difference.

U.S. Government Websites Are Hosting PDFs Promoting Porn and Scams
https://gizmodo.com/u-s-government-websites-are-hosting-pdfs-promoting-porn-and-scams-2000699133

Sagenhaft gut recherchierter Artikel der #nytimes, wie Jeffrey #Epstein sein Vermögen erschwindelte. Investigativer Journalismus at it's best:

The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich
For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society.

If you live in Arizona and ever get one of these very convincing looking text (or other type of) messages like I just got, know that they are a scam, because fun fact, Arizona HAS no toll roads. 😂 Nice try, though. Very official looking.
#FUCKScammers #scams

Nervt euch diese betrügerische #Werbung, die ihr auf gewissen Plattformen seht? Mich auch!
Vor allem, seit ich weiss, dass einige dieser Plattformen dank solcher Scams Milliardengewinne machen, so z.B. #Meta, die Mutter von

RE: https://flipboard.com/@thenewsdesk/business-nbfr4cs7z/-/a-RH7fll4gT26CakFu_TNxVw:a:43591897-/0
It's as if scams have mass, causing them to clump together.

https://therecord.media/north-korea-us-sanctions-it-worker-scams-cybercrime
Treasury sanctions 8 for laundering North Korea earnings from cybercrime, IT worker scheme

Treasury sanctions 8 for laundering North Korea earnings from cybercrime, IT worker scheme
An IT company, a financial institution and eight men accused of aiding cybercrime and IT worker scams are now on the U.S. government's list of sanctioned North Korean entities.

So blöd, auf Love-scam hereinzufallen ist doch keiner. So würde ich normalerweise urteilen.
Leider kenne ich schon 2 Fälle aus meinem unmittelbaren Umfeld, die fest überzeugt waren, dass ihr neuer Online Fake-Gesprächspartner echt ist. Dabei waren sie bereit, auch die verrücktesten Erzählungen für bare Münze zu nehmen.
Deshalb ist diese ZDF Doku sehr wichtig, auch wenn sie erzählerische Mängel hat.

Crime Factories: ZDF-Doku über die brutalen Machenschaften der Love-Scamming-Mafia aus Asien
Online-Flirts werden zur grausamen Betrugsmasche: Hinter Pig Butchering-Scams stecken Kriminelle in Asien, die Menschen versklaven, zum Scam zwingen.

Multiple US citizens plead guilty to helping North Korean IT workers earn $2 million https://therecord.media/multiple-us-nationals-guilty-pleas-north-korean-it-worker-scams

Check out today's packed Metacurity for the most critical infosec developments you should know, including
--Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA was hit by a cyberattack,
--Coupang's founder failed to show at parliamentary hearing,
--Vast majority of parked domains foist scams and malware,
--FTC orders Nomad to pay victims after hackers stole cryptocurrency,
--noyb alleges data exposure by TikTok, Grindr and AppFlyer,
--Hackers exploit critica…

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA was hit by a cyberattack
Coupang's founder didn't show at parliamentary hearing, Majority of parked domains foist scams and malware, FTC orders Nomad to pay victims after hackers stole cryptocurrency, noyb alleges data exposure by TikTok, Grindr and AppFlyer, Hackers exploit critical flaws in Fortinet products, much more

The US urged UN members to take a tougher stance against North Korea IT worker scams and crypto thefts; an October 2025 report said 40 countries were affected (Jonathan Greig/The Record)
https://therecord.media/40-countries-impacted-nk-it-thefts-united-nations

More than 40 countries impacted by North Korea IT worker scams, crypto thefts
Eleven countries led a session at the UN headquarters in New York centered around a 140-page report released last fall that covered North Korea’s extensive cyber-focused efforts to fund its nuclear and ballistic weapons program.

Their plan seems NOT to try and eliminate or at least minimize these ads, but rather to see if they can extract premium rates because the ads have been IDENTIFIED as scams.
JFC, why would anyone do business with this company. Why would functioning governments (this sadly excludes the US rn) allow this company to operate within its borders.
This is not a whoopsie. This is a deliberate corporate decision to allow users to be preyed upon and profit from it.

Internal documents: Meta earned $18B in annual ad sales from China in 2024, making up 10% of its global revenue, with $3B linked to fraudulent ads like scams (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-tolerates…

These #steam "Vote for my team" phishing scams are boring, when the scammer starts ignoring your time wasting questions.
But the phishing site itself is quite clever. Fake login popup, but the shown QR code is real!
Turning your steam "2"FA app against you (if you don't verify the location and IP of the login attempt before accepting)
scan it with the steam a…

Sources: India raises concerns about the misuse of Indian phone numbers on WhatsApp, which banned 9.8M Indian accounts per month on average in 2025 to October (Kiran Rathee/The Economic Times)
https://econom…

Concern over misuse extent even as WhatsApp bans 1 cr numbers a month
The Indian government is concerned about the widespread misuse of Indian mobile numbers on platforms like WhatsApp, with millions of accounts banned monthly for violations. Officials are discussing with WhatsApp how to curb this, as the platform's refusal to share banned numbers hinders efforts to combat cyber fraud and scams.

Only one day left in a very news-heavy work week, so don't miss today's Metacurity for the crucial cybersecurity news you should know, including
--Operation Endgame dismantled Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium,
--DC US Attorney launches investigation into crypto scams,
--APT exploited Citrix Bleed2 flaws in Cisco ISE,
--CISA orders patching of Cisco ASA and Firepower devices,
--Extremist group 764 member faces charges related to online child exploitatio…

Operation Endgame dismantled Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium
DC US Attorney launches investigation into crypto scams, APT exploited Citrix Bleed2 flaws in Cisco ISE, CISA orders patching of Cisco ASA and Firepower devices, Extremist group 764 member faces charges related to online child exploitation, Musk fumbles X security key switchover, much more

I'm occasionally browsing Facebook Marketplace, and it's 80% scams and prostitution.
Kind of amazing at how badly it's curated, you'd think their systems could filter this stuff out easily.

Treasury sanctions 8 for laundering North Korea earnings from cybercrime, IT worker scheme https://therecord.media/north-korea-us-sanctions-it-worker-scams-cybercrime

"...the scams perpetrated during the Corbyn period by Labour Together, CCDH and its sock-puppet ‘Stop Funding Fake News’ (SFFN) to topple Corbyn and install Starmer in his stead, have led directly to the burgeoning police state Starmer is building against the people of this country, their rights and their freedoms, all to protect Israel and its interests."
Starmer's attempt to destroy Corbyn reaches US

Starmer's Corbyn smear accusations FINALLY go global with US coverage
Starmer's attempt to bring down Corbyn was notably investigated in The Fraud - which is now making its way over to American audiences

Criminals Using Altered Proof-of-Life Media to Extort Victims in Virtual Kidnapping for Ransom Scams (IC3.gov News)
https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA251205
http://www.memeorandum.com/251206/p2#a251206p2

🎣 Feds seize $15 billion from alleged forced labor scam built on “human suffering”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/feds-seize-15-billion-from-alleged-forced-labor-scam-built-on-human-suffering/

Feds seize $15 billion from alleged forced labor scam built on “human suffering”
Scams like this one net billions from well-educated victims.

Criminals Using Altered Proof-of-Life Media to Extort Victims in Virtual Kidnapping for Ransom Scams
https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA251205

European police bust Ukraine-based call center network behind $11 million in scams https://therecord.media/european-police-bust-ukraine-based-call-centers

Each week, Metacurity is pleased to offer our free and premium subscribers a weekly digest of the best long-form (and longish) infosec-related pieces we couldn't properly fit into our daily news crush.
Check out this week's selection, which includes
--Kids turn from cybercrime to real-world violent thefts,
--How retailers profit from crypto ATM scams,
--Integrated web browsers are insecure out of the box,
--An MIT railroad club led to modern-day hackers,…

Best infosec-related long reads for the weeks of 12/13/25, 12/30/25, and 1/3/26
Kids turn from cybercrime to real-world violent thefts, How retailers profit from crypto ATM scams, Integrated web browsers are insecure out of the box, An MIT railroad club led to modern-day hackers, AI coding tools are susceptible to attacks, LLM guardrails are inherently exploitable

A look at CollectiveMetrics.org, a new nonprofit founded by two ex-Meta ad executives that aims to bring more transparency to digital advertising to fight scams (Craig Silverman/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/scam-ads-are-flooding-so…

Scam Ads Are Flooding Social Media. These Former Meta Staffers Have a Plan
Rob Leathern and Rob Goldman, who both worked at Meta, are launching a new nonprofit that aims to bring transparency to an increasingly opaque, scam-filled social media ecosystem.

Internal documents: Meta earned $18B in annual ad sales from China in 2024, making up 10% of its global revenue, with $3B linked to fraudulent ads like scams (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-tolerates…

Metacurity is pleased to offer our free and premium subscribers a weekly digest of the best long-form (and longish) infosec-related pieces we couldn't properly fit into our daily news crush.
This week's selection covers
--Europe needs to break free of American cybersecurity,
--The horrifying truth of those employment text scams,
--How Treasury's Cfius really doesn't protect national security,
--How hackers made Microsoft's Kinect cool,
…

Best infosec-related long reads for the week of 11/1/25
Europe needs to break free of American cybersecurity, The horrifying truth of those employment text scams, How Treasury's Cfius really doesn't protect national security, How hackers made Microsoft's Kinect cool, Why Ukraine's offensive cyber ops should be studied

More than 40 countries impacted by North Korea IT worker scams, crypto thefts https://therecord.media/40-countries-impacted-nk-it-thefts-united-nations

Alice Guo, Chinese national who ran huge scam centre while Philippines mayor, sentenced to life in prison
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/20/alice-guo-chinese-nat…

Alice Guo, Chinese national who ran huge scam centre while Philippines mayor, sentenced to life in prison
Guo, who pretended to be Filipina to become mayor, found guilty of human trafficking after raid on compound where more than 700 people were forced to run scams

"Already paranoid about scams, hacks and market turmoil, wealthy crypto investors have lately become terrified about a much graver threat: torture and kidnapping."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/business/how-to-not-get-kidnapped-for-you…

How to Not Get Kidnapped for Your Bitcoin
Escaping zipties, hiring bodyguards and other practical lessons in self-defense for crypto traders, after a series of gruesome crimes spooked the community.

South Korea to require facial recognition for new mobile numbers https://therecord.media/south-korea-facial-recognition-phones

Isn't it ironic? The cofounder of RektSurvivor, a free, non-profit community for people who've lost funds in crypto scams, was scammed himself and lost his entire crypto portfolio worth in the low six figures.
https://www.cryptopolitan.com/singapore-entrepreneu…

India's digital transformation has exposed citizens to scams like "digital arrests", where victims are coerced into transferring funds under false accusations (Bloomberg)

The complexity and effort that went into this scam are amazing.
Inside a Wild Bitcoin Heist: Five-Star Hotels, Cash-Stuffed Envelopes, and Vanishing Funds
https://www.wired.com/story/bitcoin-scam-mining-as-service/

Inside a Wild Bitcoin Heist: Five-Star Hotels, Cash-Stuffed Envelopes, and Vanishing Funds
Sophisticated crypto scams are on the rise. But few of them go to the lengths one bitcoin mining executive experienced earlier this year.

Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr denounce the EU's €120M X fine (Liv McMahon/BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9kejzvw0o

Elon Musk's X fined €120m over 'deceptive' blue ticks
The European Commission says the social media site is opening its users up to scams and impersonations.