Get the latest tech news
Scammers Are Creating Fake News Videos to Blackmail Victims
“Yahoo Boy” scammers are impersonating CNN and other news organizations to create videos that pressure victims into making blackmail payments.
A WIRED review of posts on Telegram by self-styled Yahoo Boys shows the cybercriminals are impersonating television stations based in the US and sharing tutorials about how to create the blackmailing videos. David Maimon, the head of fraud insights at SentiLink and a professor at Georgia State University who first spotted the CNN video in December, says the fraudsters have made a number of “disturbing” changes to their blackmailing tactics in recent months, including trying to humiliate people and potentially targeting those outside of English-speaking countries. Within one Telegram channel, which has 10,000 subscribers, a scammer explained the steps needed to create false news videos and mocked-up front pages of newspapers over a series of messages.
Or read this on Wired