The security & privacy stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
A viral post says Bengaluru men on dating apps are being asked to prepay a cab that does not exist. Here is the pattern and why a screenshot proves nothing.
Read more: Dating app scam: fake cab bookings used to trick men into payingIndia's festive orders are forecast to jump 27.1%, and online stores are turning to AI to catch fake orders and false refund claims without blocking real shoppers.
Read more: Online stores use AI to catch fake orders and false refund claimsCasap, a startup that uses AI to handle card disputes, raised $56 million. Honest customers could get refunds sooner while false claims get caught more often.
Read more: AI startup Casap raises $56 million to fight "friendly fraud" at banksA card company executive says wrongly blocked purchases can cost banks far more than fraud, and he wants a passkey built into the card to fix both problems.
Read more: Banks lose more to wrongly declined cards than to fraud, exec saysA US cyber agency says attackers are pairing a Linux flaw with two PHP flaws to take full control of web servers. Unpatched sites are at risk.
Read more: Hackers are chaining two flaws to take over Linux web serversAccertify, a fraud-prevention company, is letting payment and sales platforms offer its tools, so your provider may soon add fraud checks beyond checkout.
Read more: Fraud-prevention firm Accertify opens a partner program for payment and sales platformsFestive sales bring fake sites and risky payment requests. Five quick checks on the site, seller and payment screen can keep a bargain from becoming a loss.
Read more: Five quick checks to avoid online shopping fraud during salesEcommpay has launched an AI chatbot for small businesses that take card and online payments without a finance team. Details are still thin.
Read more: Payments company Ecommpay launches AI chatbot for small businessesMicrosoft fixed a bug that kept regular employees from logging into office PCs remotely. If your team works from home, it is worth a quick check with IT.
Read more: Microsoft fixes Windows update that blocked remote loginsShopify's Shop Pay wallet now works inside AI assistants like Copilot and Muse, and the company added a free fraud and dispute tool for merchants.
Read more: Shopify lets AI shopping assistants pay for items at its storesThe Larimer County Sheriff's Office says scammers are faking kidnappings and sheriff's calls to get money fast. Fear and urgency are the hook.
Read more: Fake kidnapping calls and fake sheriff calls are hitting Colorado homesBinance froze withdrawals after reports that a hacker took over $5.7 billion in crypto. If you keep money on an exchange, this is a reminder it can be locked.
Read more: Binance freezes withdrawals after reported $5.7 billion crypto theftClay County, Florida, has five cases of scammers posing as bank fraud staff and sending victims to hand cash to a courier in a cereal box.
Read more: Fake bank callers tell victims to hide cash in cereal boxesScammers are calling families of newly arrested people in Onondaga County, posing as the sheriff's office and asking for ankle monitor fees. Here is what to know.
Read more: Scammers call families of arrested people, demanding ankle monitor feesGuelph police say fraudsters are phoning seniors, then sending someone to the door to collect their bank cards and PINs. Thousands of dollars have been spent.
Read more: Scammers posing as banks are sending people to seniors' doors for their cardsFake texts claiming you owe an unpaid toll are aimed at drivers on fall trips, and one tap on the link can expose your card details.
Read more: Fake unpaid toll texts are targeting drivers on fall road tripsA campaign using fake AI models on Hugging Face came back days after takedown. One model was downloaded over 28,000 times and can take over GPU servers.
Read more: Fake AI models on Hugging Face secretly hijack servers to mine cryptoA hack at travel software maker Amadeus exposed data on about 92,000 Japan Airlines customers, and passengers of three other airlines also report impact.
Read more: Japan Airlines says a booking vendor leaked data on 92,000 flyersPolymarket stopped trading for about an hour after hackers used an outside website tool to push crypto-stealing code. About $2.5 million was traced to the attacker.
Read more: Polymarket pauses trading after hackers hijack a hidden website toolSuspected Chinese attackers rooted 25 servers, including firewalls tied to US government groups, in under 15 minutes each. Exposed admin pages were the way in.
Read more: Suspected Chinese hackers broke into 25 servers, including government-linked firewallsHundreds of online poker players were reportedly hit by malware that let a cheater see their screens, and it may have cost them millions of dollars.
Read more: Hacker may have used malware to see rivals' cards in online pokerA fake trading app on Apple's App Store has been tied to about $23,000 stolen from 27 Solana wallets. The trick was asking users to type in a secret key.
Read more: Fake crypto trading app on Apple's App Store drained 27 walletsA US startup will build a small solar plant in India that stores heat in ceramic pellets and can burn fuel when the sun falls short, without a separate backup plant.
Read more: A solar plant that can burn fuel when the sun is not enoughThe FTC says ads and phone pitches during open enrollment can mislead shoppers, so slow down before you sign up for any health plan.
Read more: Health insurance ads are everywhere now, and some are misleading
