Is It Or Is It Not an HP Scam?
These days it can be hard to tell if something is or isn’t a scam.
social engineering
Social Engineering People’s Credit Card Details
Good Wall Street Journal article on criminal gangs that scam people out of their credit card information:
Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations.
The texts are ploys to get unsuspecting victims to fork over their credit-card details. The gangs behind the scams take advantage of this information to buy iPhones, gift cards, clothing and cosmetics.
Criminal organizations operating out of China, which investigators blame for the toll and postage messages, have used them to make more than $1 billion over the last three years, according to the Department of Homeland Security…
[Cyber Security Awareness Month] Doppelgänger Promotes Incident Hiding: Why Saying Something When You See Something Is So Important
It can happen to the best of us.
This story happened a decade ago, when I was working at a Fortune 10 company. “Smartest” is subjective, but most of my former coworkers and external customers agreed the guy involved in this story was se…
Ransomware, extortion groups adapt as payment rates reach historic lows
Ransomware groups are facing an economic downturn of their own: In Q3 2025, only 23 percent of victims paid a ransom, and for data theft incidents that involved no encryption, the payment rate dropped to just 19 percent, according to Coveware. “C…
Researchers uncover ClickFix-themed phishing kit
Palo Alto Networks researchers have discovered and analyzed “IUAM ClickFix Generator”, a phishing kit that allows less skilled attackers to infect unsuspecting users with malware by using the increasingly popular ClickFix social engineering…
North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in cryptocurrency this year
North Korean hackers have stolen more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, and the year isn’t over yet. Though this year’s record losses are driven largely by the February attack on cryptocur…
Spyware Disguised as Signal and ToTok Apps Targets UAE Android Users
ESET warns of fake Signal and ToTok apps spreading Android spyware in the UAE, stealing contacts, messages, and chat backups from users.
Hackers launch data leak site to extort 39 victims, or Salesforce
Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters launched a data leak site over the weekend, aiming to pressure organizations whose Salesforce databases they have plundered into paying to prevent the stolen data from being released. Screenshot of Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters da…
Ransomware remains the leading cause of costly cyber claims
Cyber threats are shifting in 2025, and while large companies are still targets, attackers are turning their attention to smaller and mid-sized firms. According to Allianz’s Cyber Security Resilience 2025 report, hardened defenses at major corporates h…
Details of a Scam
Longtime Crypto-Gram readers know that I collect personal experiences of people being scammed. Here’s an almost:
Then he added, “Here at Chase, we’ll never ask for your personal information or passwords.” On the contrary, he gave me more information—two “cancellation codes” and a long case number with four letters and 10 digits.
That’s when he offered to transfer me to his supervisor. That simple phrase, familiar from countless customer-service calls, draped a cloak of corporate competence over this unfolding drama. His supervisor. I mean, would a scammer have a supervisor?…