Related papers: Dial One for Scam: A Large-Scale Analysis of Techn…
Technical Support Scams (TSS), which combine online abuse with social engineering over the phone channel, have persisted despite several law enforcement actions. The tactics used by these scammers have evolved over time and they have…
Phone scams remain a difficult problem to tackle due to the combination of protocol limitations, legal enforcement challenges and advances in technology enabling attackers to hide their identities and reduce costs. Scammers use social…
Social media platforms have become the hubs for various user interactions covering a wide range of needs, including technical support and services related to brands, products, or user accounts. Unfortunately, there has been a recent surge…
The mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies has led to a surge in wallet-related issues reported by ordinary users on social media platforms. In parallel, there is an increase in an emerging fraud trend called cryptocurrency-based technical…
Phone scams pose a significant threat to individuals and communities, causing substantial financial losses and emotional distress. Despite ongoing efforts to combat these scams, scammers continue to adapt and refine their tactics, making it…
Toll scams involve criminals registering fake domains that pretend to be legitimate transportation agencies to trick users into making fraudulent payments. Although these scams are rapidly increasing and causing significant harm, they have…
Mobile network operators implement firewalls to stop illicit messages, but scammers find ways to evade detection. Previous work has looked into SMS texts that are blocked by these firewalls. However, there is little insight into SMS texts…
Social engineering scams (SES) has been existed since the adoption of the telecommunications by humankind. An earlier version of the scams include leveraging premium phone service to charge the consumers and service providers but not…
Over the years, online scams have grown dramatically, with nearly 50% of global consumers encountering scam attempts each week. These scams cause not only significant financial losses to individuals and businesses, but also lasting…
Despite living in the era of the internet, phone-based scams remain one of the most prevalent forms of scams. These scams aim to exploit victims for financial gain, causing both monetary losses and psychological distress. While governments,…
AI-enhanced scams now employ deepfake technology to produce convincing audio and visual impersonations of trusted family members, often grandchildren, in real time. These attacks fabricate urgent scenarios, such as legal or medical…
As a major component of online crime, email-based fraud is a threat that causes substantial economic losses every year. To counteract these scammers, volunteers called scam-baiters play the roles of victims, reply to scammers, and try to…
Online financial scams represent a long-standing and serious threat for which people seek help. We present a study to understand people's in situ motivations for engaging with scams and the help needs they express before, during, and after…
The short message service (SMS) was introduced a generation ago to the mobile phone users. They make up the world's oldest large-scale network, with billions of users and therefore attracts a lot of fraud. Due to the convergence of mobile…
Malicious calls, i.e., telephony spams and scams, have been a long-standing challenging issue that causes billions of dollars of annual financial loss worldwide. This work presents the first machine learning-based solution without relying…
Conversational scams, such as romance and investment scams, are emerging as a major form of online fraud. Unlike one-shot scam lures such as fake lottery or unpaid toll messages, they unfold through multi-turn conversations in which…
Technical Debt, considered by many to be the 'silent killer' of software projects, has undeniably become part of the everyday vocabulary of software engineers. We know it compromises the internal quality of a system, either deliberately or…
Scammers are increasingly harnessing generative AI(GenAI) technologies to produce convincing phishing content at scale, amplifying financial fraud and undermining public trust. While conventional defenses, such as detection algorithms, user…
Today, many different types of scams can be found on the internet. Online criminals are always finding new creative ways to trick internet users, be it in the form of lottery scams, downloading scam apps for smartphones or fake gambling…
Online romance scams are a prevalent form of mass-marketing fraud in the West, and yet few studies have addressed the technical or data-driven responses to this problem. In this type of scam, fraudsters craft fake profiles and manually…