This week on the Lock and Code podcast, we speak with EFF Activism Director Jason Kelley about online age verification and the "grey web."

_This week on the Lock and Code podcast…_

The internet is cracking apart. It’s exactly what some politicians want.

In June, a Texas law that requires age verification on certain websites withstood a legal challenge brought all the way to the US Supreme Court. It could be a blueprint for how the internet will change very soon.

The law, titled HB 1181 and passed in 2023, places new requirements on websites that portray or depict “sexual material harmful to minors.” With the law, the owners or operators of websites that contain images or videos or illustrations or descriptions that “more than one-third of which is sexual material harmful to minors” must now verify the age of their website’s visitors, at least in Texas. Similarly, this means that Texas residents visiting adult websites (or websites meeting the “one-third” definition) must now go through some form of online age verification to watch adult content.

The law has obvious appeal from some groups, which believe that, similar to how things like alcohol and tobacco are age-restricted in the US, so, too, should there be age restrictions on pornography online.

But many digital rights advocates believe that online age verification is different because the current methods used for online age verification could threaten privacy, security, and anonymity online.

As Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, wrote in June:

“A person who submits identifying information online can never be sure if websites will keep that information or how that information might be used or disclosed. This leaves users highly vulnerable to data breaches and other security harms.”

Despite EFF’s warnings, this age-restricted reality has already arrived in the UK, where residents are being age-locked out of increasingly more online services because of the country’s passage of the Online Safety Act.

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Jason Kelly, activism director at EFF and co-host of the organization’s podcast “How to fix the internet,” about the security and privacy risks of online age verification, why comparisons to age restrictions that are cleared with a physical ID are not accurate, and the creation of what Kelley calls “the grey web,” where more and more websites—even those that are not harmful to minors—get placed behind online age verification models that could collect data, attach it to your real-life identity, and mishandle it in the future.

> “This is probably the worst thing in my view that has ever happened to our rights online.”

Tune in today to listen to the full conversation.

**Listen up—Malwarebytes doesn’t just talk cybersecurity, we provide it.**

Protect yourself from online attacks that threaten your identity, your files, your system, and your financial well-being with our exclusive offer for Malwarebytes Premium for Lock and Code listeners.

 “The worst thing” for online rights: An age-restricted grey web (Lock and Code S06E16) 

A carmaker has been found to be open to leaking vehicle data and customer information through their dealership portal.

A carmaker’s online dealership portal has been found leaking the private information and vehicle data of its customers. This also meant that anyone with access could remotely break into a car.

Researcher Eaton Zveare shared his discovery with TechCrunch. Although he said he has chosen not to disclose the vendor’s name, he revealed that it is a well-known automaker with several popular sub-brands and more than 1,000 dealerships across the United States.

Zveare says it wasn’t easy to find the flaw, but once he did, it allowed him to modify the code at the portal’s login page so he could bypass the login security checks. This permitted him to create a new national administrator account.

Not only did this allow him to access all the data of these dealerships, he also found a national consumer lookup tool that allowed any logged-in portal user to look-up the vehicle and driver data of that carmaker.

Real life tests learned that taking a vehicle’s unique identification number (VIN) from the windshield of a car allowed anyone with access to the portal to look up the name of the owner. It was also possible to pair any vehicle with a mobile account which could then be used to remotely control a car’s functions, such as unlocking the vehicle.

Since both a VIN or someone’s first and last name were enough to find and transfer ownership of an account to one under control of an attacker, they would—at least—be able to open the car and steal everything inside. The researcher did not test whether he was able to drive away in it.

Although he found no evidence of anyone else exploiting the flaw, the portals were a security nightmare waiting to happen. It even allowed administrator accounts, such as the one he was able to create, access to other dealer systems as if they were that user without needing their logins, and found personally identifiable customer data, some financial information, and telematics systems that allowed the real-time location tracking of rental or courtesy cars.

As we have said before, this is exactly the sort of thing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants car manufacturers to make harder for stalkers, not easier.

Zveare will be presenting his findings at Defcon. He reported the bugs he found to the car maker, and says it took them a week to fix them.

**Tips to keep a stalker from tracking your car**

Not all cars offer these options, and the tips may not apply to your situation, but here are some general tips for people that are afraid they are the target of a stalker:

*   Use the navigation app on your phone (such as Google Maps, Waze, etc), rather than the one built into your car.
*   Do not store places you visit regularly in the car’s navigation.
*   Consider using a VPN when you connect to your car’s hotspot.
*   Find out which devices can access the car or its location data using any “remote access” apps for the car, and remove the devices that are not under your control.
*   Familiarize yourself with the car manufacturer’s privacy policy so you know where your data might be sent. To give you an idea, data might end up with advertisers, law enforcement, service providers, the car manufacturer and its dealers, tech giants like Apple, Google, and Amazon, connected service providers, and government agencies.
*   Keep the software updated to make sure your car is equipped with the latest protection against potential intrusions.
*   If a suspected stalker has been near your vehicle, inspect it thoroughly for trackers and other unfamiliar hardware.
*   Try not to travel alone and always park in a well-lit, busy area if you are concerned about your physical safety.
*   If you have a dashcam that uses cloud storage, check who has access to the images. They can be used to track your movements.

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 Online portal exposed car and personal data, allowed anyone to remotely unlock cars 

A list of topics we covered in the week of August 4 to August 10 of 2025

August 7, 2025 - We found a host of blogspot pages involved in a malware campaign to promote their own content by using a LikeJack Trojan.

August 7, 2025 - Scammers are targeting Facebook users in this latest phishing campaign.

August 7, 2025 - TeaOnHer turns out to be at least as leaky as its female counterpart, Tea Dating Advice app.

August 7, 2025 - Hackers tricked workers over the phone at Google, Adidas, and more to grant access to Salesforce data.

August 7, 2025 - A jury has ruled that Meta accessed sensitive information from women's reproductive health tracking app Flo without consent.

 A week in security (August 4 &#8211; August 10) 

We found a host of blogspot pages involved in a malware campaign to promote their own content by using a LikeJack Trojan.

As the use of age verification to access adult websites increases in various countries around the world, shady websites with adult content have started a timely malware-fueled campaign to promote links to their own websites.

During our daily rounds on Facebook, looking for the latest scams, we noticed something odd about some posts pointing to adult websites. We found that several of the sites promoted in this way were hosted on blogspot\[.\]com, and that these sites linked to other similar sites.

Here’s one example:

Most of these sites promise the visitor explicit pictures of celebrities, most of which will undoubtedly turn out to be generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This in itself is not uncommon. However, what did stand out was that a few of the Facebook posts had a lot of Likes. Most people don’t like that type of content on Facebook since everyone can see who the Likes are from.

A high number of Likes for a post is great for the accounts posting these links, because when a Facebook profile or post gets more Likes it is more likely to show up in people’s feeds, which is basically more advertising for the same money.

So, how do the posts get these Likes?

It turns out the criminals use a Trojan to promote their posts and profiles. When clicking through links displayed on the adult sites some—selected–visitors will download a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) image file. So while surfing from one of these sites to the next one, sometimes, not always, it triggers a download.

Now, the cybercriminals are banking on the fact that SVG is not a filetype that will set off an alarm for most people, given that most people see it as an image file. But SVG files are not always simply image files.They are written in XML, and this allows them to contain HTML and Javascript code, which means that the cybercriminals can use them to get up to no good.

Here is the one provided by the adult sites:

Despite the heavy obfuscation of the second part of the script, for anyone able to read the code it is pretty clear this file is up to no good. In fact, it actually downloads another malicious javascript file, but it was hard to figure out which one.

Because the code in the SVG file uses a technique called “hybrid JSFuck” (how fitting) to hide its intentions we immediately assumed that it was malicious. From the easier to read parts of the script we can deduct that the script downloads and executes a malicious script from the domain crhammerstein\[.\]de, which was blocked by Malwarebytes.

JSFuck is a form of obfuscation that encodes JavaScript using only six characters: “\[ \] ( ) ! +”. There are several online deobfuscators available for pure JSFuck obfuscation, but the criminals used a hybrid method by adding the String.fromCharCode elements which is not that easy to unravel.

Opening the SVG file opens an empty Edge tab titled Process Monitor. This happens because SVG files on Windows are opened by Edge, even if the user has another browser set as their default.

In the end we managed to figure out that the downloaded script was another javascript, detected as Trojan.JS.Likejack. This Trojan, also written in Javascript silently clicks a ‘Like’ button for a Facebook page without the user’s knowledge or consent, in this case the adult posts we found above. The user will have to be logged in on Facebook for this to work, but we know many people keep Facebook open for easy access.

Once we knew how this campaign worked, we found a huge amount of blogspot\[.\]com pages involved in this campaign:

**Conclusion**

Now that governments are imposing age verification upon adult sites that play by the rules, they are driving those interested in that type of content into the arms of those that don’t care about the rules, even to the extent that they are willing to deploy Trojans to get visitors to their sites.

An alternative is that those trying to access content use a VPN to visit the sites from locations that don’t impose these restrictions. Given those options we would obviously recommend using a VPN.

To be protected against this type of campaigns, it’s worth considering using real-time malware protection. Malwarebytes blocks the domains associated with this campaign.

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 Adult sites trick users into Liking Facebook posts using a clickjack Trojan 

Scammers are targeting Facebook users in this latest phishing campaign.

A few weeks ago we warned our readers of a phishing campaign targeting Instagram users that didn’t resort to the usual links to phishing websites, but used mailto: links instead. Now, it seems that these scammers have turned their attention to Facebook users.

It works like this: The target receives an email saying that your Facebook account was logged into from a new device. Even though the subject line says “We’ve Received a request to Reset your password for Facebook Account !”

> “A user just logged into your Facebook account from a new device iPhone 14 PRO Max. We are sending you this email to verify it’s really you.”

All the links you see in the email: “Report the user”, “Yes, me”, “unsubscribe”, and even the obfuscated email address at the bottom, do exactly the same thing.

They open your default email program with a pre-addressed message with a subject line that matches the button/text you clicked on.

The email addresses these messages will be sent to are the same as the ones we saw with the Instagram phish:

*   prestige@vacasa[.]uk.com (typosquat of vacasa.com vacation rentals)
*   ministry@syntec[.]uk.com (typosquat of syntechnologies.co.uk hardware provider)
*   technique@pdftools[.]com.de (typosquat of pdf-tools.com software provider)
*   service@boss[.]eu.com (several possibilities)
*   threaten@famy[.]in.net (science news site, possibly compromised)
*   difficulty@blackdiamond[.]com.se (known malicious domain)
*   anticipation@salomonshoes[.]us.com (typosquat of salomon.com running shoes)

This is kind of surprising since we found last time that several of the addresses were unresponsive.

The unusual Top-Level Domains (TLDs) like uk.com, com.de, eu.com, com.se, and us.com are actually second-level domain extensions operated by private entities, not official country-code top-level domains.

Though these domain extensions themselves are legitimate registration services, their openness and global accessibility mean they can be misused by phishers and other cybercriminals to make them look more legitimate or country-specific than generic .com domains. They may also be used to typosquat legitimate domains.

**How to avoid Facebook phishing**

Since we can expect to see more phishing campaigns that use mailto: links, here are some tips to avoid falling victim to such a scam.

*   As with regular links, scrutinize the destination of an email link. Even if the domain looks legitimate, your Facebook account isn’t secured by a shoe maker or vacation provider, or someone using a gmail address. The email address should be one that belongs to Facebook or Meta.
*   Remember that legitimate companies will not ask you to mail them your account details, credentials, or other sensitive information.
*   If there’s an urgency to respond to an email, take a pause before you do. This is a classic scammer trick to get you to act before you can think.
*   Don’t reply if the warning looks suspicious in any way. Sending an email will tell the phishers that your email address is active, and it will be targeted even more.
*   Do an online search about the email you received, in case others are posting about similar scams.
*   Use Malwarebytes Scam Guard to assess the message. It will tell you whether it’s a scam or give you tips how you can find out if it isn’t sure.

**We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

 Facebook users targeted in &#8216;login&#8217; phish 

TeaOnHer turns out to be at least as leaky as its female counterpart, Tea Dating Advice app.

Last week we reported about some serious leaks in Tea Dating Advice, an app that provides a space for women to exchange information about men they know, have met, or have dated in the past.

The app aims to provide a platform where people can share relevant information about, say, potentially abusive partners. However, it leaked images and private messages, leading to 10 potential class action lawsuits in federal and state courts for negligent data practices.

Now it has been revealed that the male equivalent, TeaOnHer, has exposed users’ personal information as well, including government IDs and selfies.

TeaOnHer, which ranks high in the Lifestyle apps category for iOS, allows men to share photos and information about women they have dated. It appears to have been designed with a sense of vengeance against the Tea Dating Advice app: It uses similar language in the App Store description, and as it turns out, it’s just as leaky.

TechCrunch reports it found at least one vulnerability that allows any user access to other users’ email addresses, driver’s licenses, self-reported location, and selfies. Perhaps most distressingly, the news outlet also discovered that guest users could view explicit images of women, likely shared without consent.

TechCrunch also found an email address and password of the app’s creator. Although it didn’t test that hypothesis for legal reasons, it seems likely using those credentials might provide access to the administrator panel of the app.

It is disappointing that apps made for sharing private information and ranked so high in the App Store apparently have such a poor security standard.

TeaOnHer’s creator did not respond to emails from TechCrunch asking where to report the flaws, so TechCrunch only shared the fact that the flaws exist without going into much detail. This is commendable given the sensitivity of the shared data.

****Protecting yourself after a data breach****

While there are no indications that anyone else has accessed this data, it is an option we can’t ignore. There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.

*   **Check the vendor’s advice.** Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened and follow any specific advice they offer.
*   **Change your password.** You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
*   **Enable two-factor authentication (2FA).** If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
*   **Watch out for fake vendors.** The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you using a different communication channel.
*   **Take your time.** Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
*   **Consider not storing your card details**. It’s definitely more convenient to get sites to remember your card details for you, but we highly recommend not storing that information on websites.
*   **Set up identity monitoring.** Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online and helps you recover after.

 TeaOnHer, the male version of Tea, is leaking personal information on its users too 

Hackers tricked workers over the phone at Google, Adidas, and more to grant access to Salesforce data.

At the heart of multiple data breaches against sophisticated and robust companies, including Google, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel, was a rudimentary attack method that required little technical finesse—making a phone call.

By disguising themselves as IT support personnel on the phone, hackers belonging to the group “ShinyHunters” successfully tricked the employees at several multinational corporations into handing over the data within their own Salesforce platforms. The attacks underscore the vulnerability that all businesses face—large or small—in preventing cyberattacks that begin through basic social engineering scams.

In a bizarre twist of irony, security researchers at Google Threat Intelligence Group (GITG) originally uncovered the hacking campaign in June, only to announce that Google itself had been hit by the very same tactic this week. Other victims in the hacking campaign include Allianz Life, the airline Qantas, and the jeweler Pandora.

The data breaches all leverage a Salesforce feature that allows users to connect to various, external apps. This functionality allows business owners and employees to, for instance, connect their Salesforce data to mapping tools to visualize the locations of a customer base, or to connect their Salesforce data with a newsletter platform to deliver email marketing campaigns to specific customer segments.  

In the attacks, the hackers trick employees into connecting to a fraudulent version of Salesforce’s “Data Loader” app, which lets users import, export, update, and delete large quantities of data that are stored or managed within Salesforce itself. The process for connecting to an external app is simple, as employees just enter an 8-digit code when prompted by Salesforce. But once ensnared in the phone scam, employees are tricked into entering an 8-digit code that will connect to a data exfiltration program owned and operated entirely by the hackers.

Once connected, the hackers are free to roam inside the company’s Salesforce data and steal what they see fit. Some attacks reportedly included an expansion by the hackers into other corporate online accounts, including Microsoft 365, which could reveal a company’s emails and other sensitive messages.

In the attack against Google, the hackers accessed a Salesforce “instance,” which is a term used to describe a company or user’s implementation of software and the data they manage through that software (Think of it like when a hacker breaches an online account and then pilfers all the data related to that account and what it can access). In the Google attack, the Salesforce instance “was used to store contact information and related notes for small and medium businesses.”

“Analysis revealed that data was retrieved by the threat actor during a small window of time before the access was cut off,” Google said. “The data retrieved by the threat actor was confined to basic and largely publicly available business information, such as business names and contact details.”

According to the outlet Bleeping Computer, the ShinyHunters cybercrime group is still stealing business data through this attack campaign. Once the hackers have the data, they then extort the victims to pay a hefty ransom or risk having the data exposed online.

****How to stay safe from the Salesforce scam****

Because this attack is so targeted—every corporate victim uses Salesforce—the defense strategies are clear and actionable. Here’s how you can help yourself and your staff in avoiding this attack.

*   **Audit your Salesforce access**. Ensure that the only employees or staff who have access to Salesforce are those who need to use it for their job. When there are fewer employees who can access Salesforce, there are fewer entry points for hackers.
*   **Train your staff**. Recognizing a social engineering scam is important for any workforce, no matter the size. Inform your employees and yourself about your current IT support provider so that any rogue phone calls are immediately caught.
*   **Use multifactor authentication (MFA) for important accounts**. The hackers in these attacks managed to gain access to other cloud applications like Microsoft 365. Protect all your employee accounts on sensitive platforms with MFA.

Social engineering scams are some of the most effective and serious threats to small businesses. It’s important to recognize them when they happen. And for all else, use always-on cybersecurity to protect your business from malware, viruses, and nefarious break-in attempts.

 How Google, Adidas, and more were breached in a Salesforce scam 

A jury has ruled that Meta accessed sensitive information from women's reproductive health tracking app Flo without consent.

A jury has ruled that Meta accessed sensitive information from a woman’s reproductive health tracking app without consent.

The app in question is called Flo Health. Developed in 2015 in Belarus to track menstrual cycles, it has evolved over the years as a tracking app for highly detailed, intimate aspects of women’s reproductive health.

Flo Health user Erica Frasco bought a class action lawsuit against the company in 2021, following a damning report about its privacy infractions by the Wall Street Journal in 2019.

Since she downloaded the app in 2017, Frasco, like its other users, regularly answered highly intimate questions. These ranged from the timing and comfort level of menstrual cycles, through to mood swings and preferred birth control methods, and their level of satisfaction with their sex life and romantic relationships. The app even asked when users had engaged in sexual activity and whether they were trying to get pregnant.

According to the complaint, Flo Health promised not to share this data with third parties unless it was necessary for the provision of its services. Even then, it would not only share information relevant to web hosting and app development, it promised. It would not include “information regarding your marked cycles, pregnancy, symptoms, notes and other information entered by \[users\]”, reported the original complaint.

Yet between 2016 and 2019 Flo Health shared that intimate data with companies including Facebook and Google, along with mobile marketing firm AppsFlyer, and Yahoo!-owned mobile analytics platform Flurry. Whenever someone opened the app, it would be logged. Every interaction inside the app was also logged, and this data was shared.

Flo Health didn’t impose rules on how these third parties could use the data. “In fact, the terms of service governing Flo Health’s agreement with these third parties allowed them to use the data for their own purposes, completely unrelated to services provided in connection with the App,” the complaint went on.

By December 2020, 150 million people were using the app, according to court documents. Flo had promised them that they could trust it.

Users were “trusting us with intimate personal information,” it said in its privacy policy. “We are committed to keeping that trust, which is why our policy as a company is to take every step to ensure that individual user’s data and privacy rights are protected.”

The Federal Trade Commission investigated these allegations and settled with Flo Health in 2021, imposing an independent review of its privacy policy and mandating that it not misrepresent its app.

The class action lawsuit claims common law invasion of privacy, breach of contract and implied contract, unjust enrichment, and breach of the Stored Communications Act and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. It seeks damages for plaintiffs, along with some of the company’s profit.

Google and Flo Health have both settled with plaintiffs already, but Meta has not. The jury ruled that Meta intentionally “eavesdropped on and/or recorded their conversations by using an electronic device,” and that it did so without consent.

This case is important on so many levels. Aside from general privacy concerns, women’s menstrual health is an area of particular contention after the US Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022. That year, Meta came under scrutiny for providing police with private message data between a mother and her daughter planning medication to abort a pregnancy.

We could simply say “Don’t use Flo Health”, but the app was trusted until it was found out. How many others are sharing data in similarly irresponsible ways? Increasingly, we lean toward simply not using apps to track sensitive data of this kind at all.

However, then there are the websites to worry about. A report by Propublica found that online pharmacies selling abortion pills were sharing sensitive data with Google and others. This could give law enforcement evidence in cases against women, it said. Technology promised us convenience, but its misuse also brings serious dangers to users.

**We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.

 Meta accessed women&#8217;s health data from Flo app without consent, says court 

Malwarebytes has been awarded the prestigious MRG Effitas Android 360° Certificate, one of the toughest independent tests in mobile security.

We’re excited to announce that MRG Effitas, a globally recognized security assessment firm, has awarded Malwarebytes the prestigious MRG Effitas Android 360° Certificate, one of the toughest independent tests in mobile security.   

Our mobile protection received the highest marks, achieving a near-perfect detection rate in MRG Effitas’ rigorous lab testing, reaffirming what our customers already know: Malwarebytes stops threats before they can cause harm. 

Our smartphones have become more than just a device; they are our digital lifelines. With this evolution comes an increased vulnerability to cyber threats.  

Our research showed that half of mobile users face scam attempts daily, and two-thirds admit it’s difficult to spot the difference between a scam and the real thing.  

The consequences can be serious: 52% of scam victims experienced financial loss or fraud, and 27% lost access to important accounts, devices, or files. 

There’s no doubt that people should be protecting their mobile devices in the same way they protect their computers.

Speaking about the award, our founder and CEO Marcin Kleczynski said:

> “At Malwarebytes, we know that mobile threats are constantly evolving—and so are we. Independent certifications like the MRG Effitas 360° Certificate aren’t just badges; they’re proof of our relentless focus on security, innovation, and protecting real people against real threats.” 

MRG Effitas’ Android 360° certification requires a 99% effectiveness rate, making it one of the most challenging benchmarks for mobile protection. MRG Effitas tests a variety of real-life scenarios and in-the-wild pieces of malware, like SMS payments, banking trojans and spyware, alongside benign samples to test for false positives. 

Chris Pickard, CEO of MRG Effitas, commented:

> “There are no participation trophies with this test; it’s a real achievement. Malwarebytes mobile security stood out in our real-world scenarios, confirming its ability to stop and block dangerous mobile threats.” 

We believe in earning trust the right way, with real-world results and transparent testing. That’s why we regularly engage with respected labs like MRG Effitas and AVLab.  

Recently, Malwarebytes Premium Security was also awarded the May 2025 AVLab Seal of Excellence for outstanding performance in its Advanced In-The-Wild Malware Test. 

But we’re not stopping there. We’re constantly looking at new ways to protect you while using your mobile devices. Here are some recent updates we’ve made to Malwarebytes Mobile Security: 

*   **Scam Guard:** We’ve enhanced Malwarebytes’ AI-powered scam detector to streamline the submission process for users, including a new welcome screen and media picker experience.  

*   **Advanced text filtering:** Recent updates to our text filtering feature have more than quadrupled efficacy for keeping scams and junk out of a user’s inbox**.** The Android solution now denotes URL shorteners for more advanced scanning and identification of malicious links. Additionally, text message content may now be flagged for suspicious concepts, such as romance themes or money requests, providing an additional layer of detection and protection.  

*   **Expanded Safe Browsing**: Our Safe Browsing feature now supports Brave, DuckDuckGo, Edge and Outlook—protecting users wherever they connect. (\*Android only) 

Download Malwarebytes Mobile Security and stay one step ahead of scams, spyware, and mobile malware.

 Malwarebytes earns MRG Effitas Android 360° Certificate for mobile threat detection  

Weight loss scams prey on insecurities, and scammers are abusing celebrities and fake news sites to deceive people.

It seems like it’s hard to move on social media without some kind of mention of weight-loss injections these days. And, sure, these drugs can have a positive affect for many people, but not all these cases of weight loss are real, nor are the people promoting them who they say they are.

Weight-loss scams have been around for many years. Remember when senators grilled a then-popular television physician called Dr. Oz over his miraculous weight loss claims? That was 11 years ago.

And what would work better than celebrities promoting these scams? In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission posted a warning about scammers impersonating celebrities on social media. That warning was not about weight-loss scams in particular, but you get the drift.

So it was fortuitous timing that I noticed a familiar face in my Facebook friend suggestions.

Scammers, be warned: at some point I get curious and try to figure out what your angle is. So, I put on my best starstruck face and clicked the “Add friend” button.

Jodie must be very desperate to meet a man her own age, because she was quick to accept.

At first, I decided to play the waiting game. In my experience, scammers get to the point more quickly when they are the ones taking the initiative.

But Jodie’s patience outlasted mine and so I sent her a Direct Message to tell her how much of a fan I am and how happy I was she had accepted my friend request.

Apparently she is very busy, and she outlasted my patience again. So, I decided to look at her Facebook profile.

What I found was that her profile gets tagged extremely often. The posts she is tagged in are a mix of explicit content and weight-loss scams. Those include a lot of “before and after” pictures. In some of them the models even seem to be wearing the same clothes.

Weight-loss scams are a common threat on social media platforms like Facebook, and scammers have become increasingly sophisticated in their tactics.

Scammers tag fake celebrity profiles in their posts to increase visibility, hoping fans or unsuspecting users will see, share and click on the posts.

The goal is to sell products like keto supplements, apple cider vinegar gummies, CBD gummies, and many more that will allegedly help you lose weight without exercising and dieting.

The end goal is to ask exorbitant prices for useless products and get victims to pay—preferably repeatedly—for said products. The offers often resort to the fine print hidden under a huge discount that subscribes victims to a monthly plan which is notoriously hard to cancel or get refunds for.

The scammers operating Jodie’s profile like to use a redirect service, hosted at litewo.xyz. The service works similar to a URL shortener except for the fact that most of the URLs are not getting shorter by using it—about as effective as the weight-loss pills they are selling, you might say.

This weight-loss scam focuses on a few countries and has dedicated pages for each language area. The pages in English are all Kelly Clarkson themed.

Kelly Clarkson is an interesting subject for this type of campaign because she spoken publicly about her weight loss, but she didn’t achieve this by using any of the products the scammers are selling. She is also not affiliated with any of these scams, nor is Jodie Foster.

As usual the scammers try to hurry potential customers along by implying that their wonder cure is about to be sold out.

The scammers list the products at unbelievable prices, but the end result will sadly not be what you hope for. If you’re “lucky” you won’t receive anything. If you’re less fortunate you’ll receive some dangerous concoction that could ruin your health.

**Avoiding weight-loss scams**

Celebrities are well known for their brand collaborations and sponsored content. But to find out whether a celebrity is actually promoting something or if you’re looking at a scam, there are a few pointers you can use:

*   Search online for the celebrity’s name plus “scam” and you’re likely to find out that others have fallen for a particular scam.
*   Look at an official channel associated with the celebrity and see if the endorsement can be found there.
*   Do not get rushed into buying anything.
*   Read the fine print. Often this will tell you that you are signing up for a monthly subscription model instead of a one-time payment.
*   Research the name of the product the scammers are selling. In many cases you will learn that the name is associated with scams.
*   If you have bought one of these products, keep an eye on your financial accounts, because some scammers might use your card for other transactions.
*   Use an active security solution that blocks malicious domains.

**Malicious domains**

Domains we found to be associated with this weight-loss scam campaign:

litewo.xyz (redirect service)

lpuslanocio.com (Kelly Clarkson)

ssusfoeollu.com (Kelly Clarkson)

dauspouexoc.xyz (Kelly Clarkson)

dauswopqclz.xyz (Kelly Clarkson)

cbdefiapa.xyz (German)

cbdefiapa.xyz (German)

dehaoyunlai.xyz (German)

hysokmxy.xyz (Dutch)

blaoewoen.xyz (French)

frpieocoa.xyz (French)

**We don’t just report on scans—we help detect them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. If something looks dodgy to you, check if it’s a scam using Malwarebytes Scam Guard, a feature of our mobile protection products. Submit a screenshot, paste suspicious content, or share a text or phone number, and we’ll tell you if it’s a scam or legit. Download Malwarebytes Mobile Security for iOS or Android and try it today!

Source

Malwarebytes