The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has disclosed that people in the United States lost a record $10 billion to fraud in 2023, a 14% increase from 2022. Nearly half of the losses were due to investment scams. “Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams—more than $4.6 billion—than any other category in 2023. That amount represents a 21% increase over 2022,” the FTC says.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it comes as no surprise that Egress’ Threat Intelligence team is starting to see an uptick in romance-based phishing attacks. In particular, they noted a staggering 43% increase in attacks impersonating well-established dating apps including Tinder and Hinge between January 1, 2024, until February 5, 2024, compared to 2023. This is only likely to increase as the day draws closer.

A few ways you can identify if a text message is fake is if its context is irrelevant to you; it’s claiming to be someone you know from an unknown number; it displays a sense of urgency; it’s asking you to click on a link; and it contains spelling, grammatical errors or both. In recent years, there has been an abundance of fake text messages targeting individuals to steal their personal information – placing victims at risk of having their identity stolen and losing money.

New research shows a 704% increase in deepfake "face swap" attacks from the first to the second half of 2023. A report from biometric firm iProov warns that "face-swapping" fraudsters are increasingly using off-the-shelf tools to create manipulated images and videos.

2023 repeated some familiar payment fraud trends from 2022.There were some shifts in the prevalence of different fraud types, according to data from Verifi. The persistence of phishing remains at the forefront, posing significant challenges for businesses and consumers. Notably, friendly fraud became the second most prevalent fraud seen in 2023.

Last year, text scammers prowling around on messaging platforms like WhatsApp sent a staggering 19 million messages in December alone. When ploys like these can rake up over $10 million in a matter of months, it’s easy to see why. Which WhatsApp messages are real this year, and which are not? With social engineering attacks, it's increasingly harder to tell. Here’s a look at the most probable WhatsApp scams in 2024 and what you can do to avoid them.

Since January 13th, 2024, our Threat Intelligence team has seen a steep rise in the number of fraudulent payment attacks using Venmo. By hacking existing or setting up new Venmo accounts, cybercriminals are using legitimate Venmo communications to trick users into approving fraudulent payments.

Cybercriminals are notoriously adept at evolving their strategies and tactics to defraud individuals and businesses out of their hard-earned money. One perfect example of the evolution of effective and illusive financial fraud is card skimming. But is card skimming still a thing in 2024? Very much so. According to the FBI, card skimming fraud still costs financial institutions and American consumers more than $1 billion yearly—and it’s growing.

A new scam relies on a victim's sense of curiosity, brand impersonation, and the hopes of a new login to compromise Facebook credentials. We’ve all seen one of those posts on social media about some actor, musician or famous person that has passed away. Feeling a sense of sadness and wanting to know more details, these posts garner a lot of attention.

From overacting to poorly crafted characters, it’s crucial to recognize red flags in cyber-scripts, weak dialogue, and fake chemistry in online interactions.