7 Tips for Safe Holiday Shopping

Holiday shopping should bring excitement, not unexpected charges or stolen information. Between tempting deals, unfamiliar online stores, and delivery notifications arriving from every direction, scammers have plenty of opportunities to catch shoppers off guard. A few practical habits can help you protect your money and personal information without taking the fun out of the season. Before you start checking off your gift list, consider these seven tips, including one simple way to make suspicious credit card charges easier to spot. READ FULL STORY

Scammers Retire On Your Investment Nest Egg

You spent decades putting money away for retirement. Unfortunately, scammers are spending their time figuring out how to get it. The FBI's latest Internet Crime Report shows that investment fraud remains the single most expensive category of cyber-enabled crime, with more than $8.6 billion in reported losses during 2025. Even more alarming, the FBI documented cases where victims were convinced to cash out retirement accounts, sell homes, or take out loans to send money to scammers. Your 401(k) may be sitting quietly in the background, but criminals are increasingly trying to convince you to turn that nest egg into their payday. READ FULL STORY

A $500 iPhone? That Sounds Phishy. And It Is!

A $500 voucher for a brand-new iPhone sounds like the kind of deal worth jumping on. Unfortunately, that is exactly what scammers are counting on. AARP is warning about a phony Apple website promoting a $500 voucher tied to the new foldable iPhone Duo. The offer looks convincing, but the real prize for criminals is not your money. It is access to your phone, passwords, photos, messages, and potentially financial information. And in this case, simply visiting the wrong website could be enough to put an older iPhone at risk. READ FULL STORY

FBI Employee Data Leak: When the Feds Get Phished

A data breach involving the FBI is raising some serious questions after the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed to steal sensitive information belonging to thousands of FBI employees and job applicants. The reportedly stolen data goes far beyond names and email addresses, with records said to include home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, family information, and details about employees working in sensitive areas. Reports also indicate that medical and psychiatric information may have been exposed. The FBI is investigating, but the full scope of the incident remains unclear. READ FULL STORY

Fake Update Ads Steal Your Passwords

We know the cyber-cheats are always out there using every trick in the book to steal our money, identities and whatever else they can get their hands on. So, the next time you’re alerted to a software update, especially one appearing in an online ad, it’s time to step back and take a closer look before tapping “Download.” A latest malvertising campaign lures users into downloading a fake software update. The now custom, improved malware is being used at this very moment and surely will continue doing damage well into the new year. READ FULL STORY

AI Voice Scams Are Here And Working

Scammers of all kinds are finding artificial intelligence (AI) an immensely helpful tool. In particular, they are having serious success with AI-enabled voice swindles. It only takes three seconds to clone a person’s voice and use it for a variety of scams, including a distressed “impostor” phone call to family or friends, to put these scams in motion. Knowing this, the more you can help keep out of the grips of AI voice-cloning scams with financial rip-off consequences. READ FULL STORY

Overlays For Androids For Criminal Convenience

Android Overlays are a powerful feature in the Android operating system. Theses allow apps to display content over other apps or over the system user interfaces. Ultimately this results in the user experience being more, well, user-friendly. So why is it important? This is useful in many ways, such as for displaying persistent notifications, those cheeky Android chat heads that float around the screen, or for using accessibility features. But those handy capabilities can also be misused by cybercriminals to create deceptive interfaces, tricking you. READ FULL STORY

Money Mule Scams Are More Common Than You Would Expect

A money mule scam is when someone sends money to you and asks you to send a portion of it to someone else. They often ask you to use gift cards or wire transfers. The money they are providing you is likely stolen. Drug trafficking and human tracking are also common sources of the money, and they're lying about the reason they need you to send it. The relationship, job, prize or other reason they use is not real and they are only using you to launder money.  READ FULL STORY

Ways To See If Your Data Has Been Stolen

With all the data breaches, whether by intrusion or accident lately, it’s likely your information was exposed somehow to someone you didn’t intend. After all, the marketing company Exactis, exposed hundreds of traits on us in 350 million records. Yahoo let out email addresses and passwords on billions of people, and of course who can forget the massive breach of Equifax just last year. There is a lot of information that gets leaked on us and the more the bad actors have on us, the more targeted their phishing campaigns can be. Checking on whether or not your data is available in the underground can help you mitigate any fraud or identity theft. READ FULL STORY

What's Behind Man-In-The-Middle Attacks and How to Avoid Them

It’s not the game many of us played as kids, but it is a distorted take on the same idea. Man-in-the-middle (MitM) cyberattacks do put someone in the middle of two sides, but that someone is a cybercriminal. And those on either side are clueless victims. In reality, MitM attacks are anything but a game. A typical MitM attack can disrupt operations, intercept usernames and passwords, emails, banking, and other financial details. Read on about how MitM attacks play out, including ways to avoid being caught up in these crimes. READ FULL STORY

Slow Browser? It May Have Been Hijacked By Malware

Before calling your internet provider to complain about a slow browser think about this:  It’s no secret malware loves to hide in all kinds of things like adware, spyware, scareware, and fake browser updates. Finding your browser is not only slow, but also acting strangely is a sign something isn’t quite right. If after going through the internet provider's standard toolbox for troubleshooting doesn't help, it’s time to think about malware. READ FULL STORY

Think Paying the Ransom Ends the Nightmare? Think Again

When ransomware criminals demand payment, many victims hope paying will make the problem disappear. New research suggests the opposite may be true. According to Proofpoint's 2026 AI-Era Ransomware Report, more than one-third of organizations that paid a ransom were later hit with another extortion demand. The findings reinforce what cybersecurity experts have warned for years: Paying cybercriminals offers no guarantee you'll get your data back, and it may paint an even bigger target on your back for future attacks. READ FULL STORY