Scam Prevention

How to Protect Your Finances When Your Bank or Debt Collector Uses Insecure Email If you’ve been contacted by a debt collector, a mortgage administrator, or even your own bank via email, you might assume the message is secure. Recent reporting suggests that’s not always a safe assumption. A June 2026 article in NL Times highlighted that many financial administrators handling sensitive cases—especially those involving people in debt or financial difficulty—are using email systems with weak security. That puts vulnerable individuals at greater risk of phishing, identity theft, and fraud. ...

How to Spot Malware Disguised as a Signed Productivity App If you use apps like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Notion, you probably trust them because they come from well-known companies. That trust is exactly what a new malware campaign called TamperedChef is exploiting. The malware hides inside seemingly legitimate productivity applications that have been digitally signed—sometimes with stolen certificates, sometimes with fake ones. Once installed, it delivers information stealers and remote access trojans (RATs), giving attackers control over your system. ...

Hackers Are Hiding Malware in Common Productivity Apps – Here’s How to Stay Safe If you routinely download free tools like Notepad++, 7-Zip, or PDF editors from third-party download sites, a recent malware campaign should give you pause. Security researchers have identified a fresh wave of attacks, dubbed “TamperedChef,” that uses signed installers of popular productivity software to slip information stealers and remote access trojans (RATs) onto victims’ computers. ...

1 in 3 Americans Have Been Scammed Shopping Online — Here’s How to Stay Safe If you’ve ever clicked a too-good-to-be-true ad, entered your card info on a lookalike site, or paid a “seller” via a payment app for something that never arrived, you’re not alone. New research from the Pew Research Center shows that about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That’s roughly one in three online shoppers who have lost money, had their identity stolen, or dealt with a fraudulent transaction. ...

Don’t Get Hooked: How to Spot Online Shopping Scams Before You Click Every holiday season, government agencies like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs publish warnings about shopping scams. But the threat doesn’t disappear after December. Fake websites, phishing emails, and too-good-to-be-true deals appear year-round, often targeting people who may not follow tech news closely. Recent alerts from VA News (.gov) and a Fox News article about ID.me highlight how scammers are getting more sophisticated. Knowing what to look for can save you money, stress, and potential identity theft. ...

New Malware ‘TamperedChef’ Hides in Signed Productivity Apps – What to Watch For On May 21, 2026, cybersecurity researchers disclosed a newly identified malware campaign named TamperedChef. It targets everyday users by disguising malicious installers as legitimate productivity software—and it uses stolen digital certificates to make those installers look authentic. If you download tools like Notepad++ or 7-Zip from unofficial sources, this campaign is worth understanding. ...

New Malware ‘TamperedChef’ Hides Inside Signed Apps – How to Stay Safe If you’ve ever downloaded a free productivity tool from a site you don’t quite trust, you’re not alone. Many of us do it to save money or time. But there’s a new threat that exploits that habit with a nasty twist: malware that carries a valid digital signature, making it look legitimate right up until the moment it steals your passwords or gives an attacker remote control of your machine. ...

Warning: Malware Disguised as Signed Productivity Apps—How to Stay Safe A new malware campaign dubbed TamperedChef is using a trick that makes even cautious users let their guard down: digitally signed software. The attackers are taking legitimate productivity applications—PDF editors, note-taking tools, and similar freeware—modifying them to include information stealers and remote access trojans (RATs), and then signing them with valid code signing certificates. The result is malicious code that appears to come from a trusted publisher. ...

How to Spot Fake Signed Productivity Apps That Steal Your Passwords A new malware strain called TamperedChef is making the rounds by exploiting something most of us take as a green light: a digital signature on an app installer. The attackers package information stealers and remote access trojans inside installers that appear to be legitimate productivity tools—and those installers are cryptographically signed to look trustworthy. If you rely on that signature alone to decide whether an app is safe, this campaign is a reminder that the system has cracks. ...

TamperedChef Malware Hides in Signed Productivity Apps: How to Protect Yourself Intro A new malware campaign called TamperedChef is making the rounds, and it’s worth paying attention to if you regularly download or update productivity apps like Office suites, PDF editors, or project management tools. What makes it particularly tricky is the use of valid digital signatures — meaning the malicious files initially look legitimate to both users and many security tools. The campaign delivers information stealers and remote access trojans (RATs), which can lead to stolen credentials, data exfiltration, or full system compromise. ...