Hacker News with Generative AI: Scams

Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans (wired.com)
Scam pulled off in Indian hackathon, won $85k just by rebranding Brave Browser (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.
Scamming scammers with AI callbot [video] (youtube.com)
A Princely Ploy: Inside the Ruse of a French-Armenian Scammer (publicdomainreview.org)
Hidden away in a villa on the outskirts of Paris lived a defrocked Armenian monk who fancied himself a prince.
Can't access my Google account, but scammers can (ycombinator.com)
About 15 years ago I created a secondary Gmail account.
Show HN: I built a tool to detect scams (scamchecknow.com)
Myanmar scam centres: Thousands who have been freed are now stuck in camps (bbc.com)
"I swear to God I need help," said the man quietly on the other end of the line.
1M Third-Party Android Devices Have a Secret Backdoor for Scammers (wired.com)
New research shows at least a million inexpensive Android devices—from TV streaming boxes to car infotainment systems—are compromised to allow bad actors to commit ad fraud and other cybercrime.
Github scam investigation: Thousands of “mods” and “cracks” stealing data (timsh.org)
While looking through the articles on a "social engineering" themed forum I discovered a relatively new scam scheme that shocked me.People create thousands of GitHub repositories with all sorts of things - from Roblox and Fortnite mods to "cracked" FL Studio and Photoshop.
The False Promise of Digital Public Squares Was Always a Scam (joanwestenberg.com)
The Ancient Greek agora was a place where students and citizens could freely gather, give speeches, engage in debate, and challenge each other.
Android 16 will fight scammers by blocking certain features during phone calls (androidauthority.com)
To combat these scammers, Google is working on a new security feature for Android 16 that blocks you from changing certain sensitive settings during phone calls.
Italian entrepreneurs got scammed by AI voice faking defense minister (lastampa.it)
Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams (bbc.co.uk)
The tall, shiny buildings which rise out of the cornfields on the Myanmar side of the Moei river are a sight so jarring you find yourself blinking to be sure you haven't imagined it.
Ask HN: Is Godaddy Running a Scam? (ycombinator.com)
Recently, I was trying to a buy a domain for which we had bid in Godaddy. We bid the suggested price in Godaddy. Our bid was rejected buy the owner.
Robocallers posing as FCC staff blocked after robocalling real FCC staff (arstechnica.com)
Robocallers posing as employees of the Federal Communications Commission made the mistake of trying to scam real employees of the FCC, the FCC announced yesterday.
FCC Proposes Nearly $4.5M Fine for Apparently Illegal Robocall Scheme (docs.fcc.gov)
The 'AI granny' driving scammers up the wall (theguardian.com)
An elderly grandmother who chats about knitting patterns, recipes for scones and the blackness of the night sky to anyone who will listen has become an unlikely tool in combatting scammers.
Fake CBC ads have flooded X with sketchy headlines. We looked for the source (cbc.ca)
Ads featuring fake CBC articles have inundated the social media platform X in recent weeks. The ads are designed to lure Canadians into a sophisticated scam that uses Russian internet infrastructure, CBC News has found.
Ask HN: How to protect yourself from coding challenge scam? (ycombinator.com)
These past months, I've seen several social media posts about people getting scammed during coding challenges or take-home tests.
Trump-crossposting X account advertises fake memecoins that make $1.25M (web3isgoinggreat.com)
FTC Sends $5M in Refunds to Consumers Harmed by Bogus Credit Repair Scheme (ftc.gov)
AI Brad Pitt dupes French woman out of €830k (bbc.co.uk)
A French woman who was conned out of €830,000 (£700,000; $850,000) by scammers posing as actor Brad Pitt has faced a huge wave of mockery, leading French broadcaster TF1 to withdraw a programme about her.
Apple's new AI feature rewords scam messages to make them look more legit (crikey.com.au)
Apple’s new artificial intelligence features are rephrasing scam messages and emails to iPhone and Mac users to make them look more legitimate and then flagging them as a priority, raising concerns that it will lead to more people falling for them.
The latest fake literary agencies (writerbeware.blog)
Fake agencies mentioned in this post:
The Psychology of Phishing: Why Smart People Fall for Scams (techsplicer.com)
Do you know that feeling of dread when you realize you’ve clicked on a suspicious link? I know it perfectly.
Over 3.1M fake "stars" on GitHub projects used to boost rankings (bleepingcomputer.com)
GitHub has a problem with inauthentic "stars" used to artificially inflate the popularity of scam and malware distribution repositories, helping them reach more unsuspecting users.
Over 3.1M fake "stars" on GitHub projects used to boost rankings (bleepingcomputer.com)
GitHub has a problem with inauthentic "stars" used to artificially inflate the popularity of scam and malware distribution repositories, helping them reach more unsuspecting users.
How Mayor Guo Turned Her Town Into a Hub for ‘Pig Butchering’ Scammers (msn.com)
Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video] (youtube.com)
Tracking Down the Bulgarian Marketplace Scams (sy1.sh)
This is rather an unusual article that I would be publishing. I usually don’t do threat hunting or any amount of hunting outside work, but this one got personal.