Sam Rad 🔮

The Google Threat Intelligence Group has detected the first known instance of a threat actor using an AI-developed zero-day exploit in the wild. While the attackers planned a wide-scale strike, our proactive counter-discovery may have prevented that from happening. This finding is part of our new report on AI-powered threats.

This man built FAKE government websites and made £2M off 120,000 people In 2018, a 42 year old guy from Bristol named Thomas Gall noticed that when people needed to pay government fees online, they just Googled it and clicked the top result without checking the URL So he built 40 websites that looked exactly like the real UK government sites, same logos, same fonts, same layout Then he paid Google to list his fake sites at the top of the search results, right above the actual pages When people searched for things like the Dartford Crossing toll, London's ULEZ charge, fishing licenses or car tax registration, his fake websites were the first thing that came up A £2.50 toll became £7.50 on his site and he pocketed the £5 difference after forwarding the real payment Sometimes he didn't even forward the payment at all, so weeks later the victim got a penalty notice in the mail for not paying the toll they thought they had already paid He charged £20 to register a SORN with the DVLA, a service the government gives you for free Google suspended his ad account and the National Trading Standards team sent him warnings, but he just kept going Over two years, 120,000 people paid him for services they thought were going to the British government He made over £2 million before getting jailed for 2 years and 3 months Even Google made money selling his ads the entire time

JUST IN: Mt. Everest guides accused of “poisoning” climbers to trigger helicopter rescues as part of an insurance scam. The guides have allegedly been lacing hikers' food and pressuring them into taking expensive rescue helicopter evacuations. "Guides with the trekking agencies allegedly poisoned tourists by putting baking soda in their food to trigger severe gastrointestinal distress that mimicked altitude sickness or food poisoning," the New York Post reports. Operators would allegedly then forge medical documents and flight documents to charge international travel insurers. According to police, the groups have received $19.69 million in insurance payouts. Police in Nepal have charged 32 individuals for organized crime and fraud, including trekking company owners, helicopter operators, and hospital executives.