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Brian Krebs writes via KrebsOnSecurity: Fraudsters are flooding Discord and other social media platforms with ads for hundreds of polished online gaming and wagering websites that lure people with free credits and eventually abscond with any cryptocurrency funds deposited by players. Here's a closer look at the social engineering tactics and remarkable traits of this sprawling network of more than 1,200 scam sites. The scam begins with deceptive ads posted on social media that claim the wagering sites are working in partnership with popular social media personalities, such as Mr. Beast, who recently launched a gaming business called Beast Games. The ads invariably state that by using a supplied "promo code," interested players can claim a $2,500 credit on the advertised gaming website. The gaming sites all require users to create a free account to claim their $2,500 credit, which they can use to play any number of extremely polished video games that ask users to bet on each action. At the scam website gamblerbeast[.]com, for example, visitors can pick from dozens of games like B-Ball Blitz, in which you play a basketball pro who is taking shots from the free throw line against a single opponent, and you bet on your ability to sink each shot. The financial part of this scam begins when users try to cash out any "winnings." At that point, the gaming site will reject the request and prompt the user to make a "verification deposit" of cryptocurrency -- typically around $100 -- before any money can be distributed. Those who deposit cryptocurrency funds are soon asked for additional payments. However, any "winnings" displayed by these gaming sites are a complete fantasy, and players who deposit cryptocurrency funds will never see that money again. Compounding the problem, victims likely will soon be peppered with come-ons from "recovery experts" who peddle dubious claims on social media networks about being able to retrieve funds lost to such scams. [...] [T]hreat hunting platform Silent Push reveals at least 1,270 recently-registered and active domains whose names all invoke some type of gaming or wagering theme. Here is a list of all domains that Silent Push found were using the scambling network's chat API.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Andy Cohen happened to be 'dear friends' with the late British beauty, who was married to the 73-year-old Irishman for 15 years until her tragic skiing accident

Scotland Yard announced the move amid mass restructuring to cover the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff due to budget shortages.

Farmers fear there will be a shortage in supermarket freezers after consistently dry weather resulted in the earliest harvest in 14 years.

The top staffer to a Republican lawmaker running for Senate has found himself in hot water after rumors swirled about what him and his girlfriend were up to.

A software developer who built his own home server in response to Amazon's removal of Kindle book downloads now argues that self-hosting "is NOT the future we should be fighting for." Drew Lyton constructed a home server running open-source alternatives to Google Drive, Google Photos, Audible, Kindle, and Netflix after Amazon announced that "Kindle users would no longer be able to download and back up their book libraries to their computers." The change prompted Amazon to update Kindle store language to say "users are purchasing licenses -- not books." Lyton's setup involved a Lenovo P520 with 128GB RAM, multiple hard drives, and Docker containers running applications like Immich for photo storage and Jellyfin for media streaming. The technical complexity required "138 words to describe but took me the better part of two weeks to actually do." The implementation was successful but Lyton concluded that self-hosting "assumes isolated, independent systems are virtuous. But in reality, this simply makes them hugely inconvenient." He proposes "publicly funded, accessible, at cost cloud-services" as an alternative, suggesting libraries could provide "100GB of encrypted file storage, photo-sharing and document collaboration tools, and media streaming services -- all for free."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Two children enjoying an evening at their local pool were shot on Wednesday when a gunman opened fire at a recreation center in West Philadelphia.

Sir Keir's decision to threaten Israel by offering statehood - while terror group Hamas still rules the Gaza Strip and holds 50 captives - sparked another day of ferocious backlash.

The lure? Identity security and privileged access management tools to verify humans and... machines

Palo Alto Networks will buy Israeli security biz CyberArk in a $25 billion cash-and-stock deal confirmed today.…

Called the biggest divide in the show's history, the entire series has centred around the ongoing feud between the two groups of girls: Shakira, Toni and Yas versus Meg and Helena.

The joyless left is now branding buxom 'it' girl Sydney Sweeney a Nazi propagandist over an ad campaign for American Eagle jeans.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: Edward Saatchi isn't totally sure people will flock to Showrunner, the new AI-generated TV show service his company is launching publicly this week. But he has a vote of confidence from Amazon, which has invested in Fable, Saatchi's San Francisco-based start-up. The amount of Amazon's funding in Fable isn't being disclosed. The money is going toward building out Showrunner, which Fable has hyped as the "Netflix of AI": a service that lets you type in a few words to create scenes -- or entire episodes -- of a TV show, either from scratch or based on an existing story-world someone else has created. Fable is launching Showrunner to let users tinker with the animation-focused generative-AI system, following several months in a closed alpha test with 10,000 users. Initially, Showrunner will be free to use but eventually the company plans to charge creators $10-$20 per month for credits allowing them to create hundreds of TV scenes, Saatchi said. Viewing Showrunner-generated content will be free, and anyone can share the AI video on YouTube or other third-party platforms. [...] Fable's Showrunner public launch features two original "shows" -- story worlds with characters users can steer into various narrative arcs. The first is "Exit Valley," described as "a 'Family Guy'-style TV comedy set in 'Sim Francisco' satirizing the AI tech leaders Sam Altman, Elon Musk, et al." The other is "Everything Is Fine," in which a husband and wife, going to Ikea, have a huge fight -- whereupon they're transported to a world where they're separated and have to find each other. [...] Showrunner is powered by Fable's proprietary AI model, SHOW-2. Last year, the company published a research paper on how it built the SHOW-1 model. As part of that, it released nine AI-generated episodes based on "South Park." The episodes, made without the permission of the "South Park" creators, received more than 80 million views. (Saatchi said he was in touch with the "South Park" team, who were reassured the IP wasn't being deployed commercially.) [...] Out of the gate, Showrunner is focused on animated content because it requires much less processing power than realistic-looking live-action video scenes. Saatchi said Fable wants to stay out of the "knife fight" among big AI companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta that are racing to create photorealistic content. "If you're competing with Google, are you going to win?" Saatchi said. "Our goal is to have the most creative models," he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An alligator got sweet revenge on a Florida woman after she threw a pair of shoes at it. The now-viral moment was captured by Sarah Louise Martin who was vacationing in Kissimmee.

The 44-year-old actress and the 32-year-old Chicago native were matching in their attire as they both had on dark blue tops with pale blue denim jeans and Dodger caps.

The latest kerfuffle to stall flights in and out of Heathrow

Airlines canceled more than 100 flights across the UK on Wednesday after a "technical issue" with radar systems left air traffic controllers flummoxed.…

The teen, who posted frequently on social media from the crime-plagued city, had left her home in New Mexico and crossed the border with a family friend.

Experts are warning against using coffee makers made of a certain material over fears of it contains high levels of cancer-causing chemicals and flame retardants.

The future of the controversial Hulk Hogan biopic has been revealed - days after the WWE icon's shock death.

Leonardo DiCaprio has come under fierce fire for investing in a luxury hotel in Israel after the eco-resort received final approval to begin construction.

The Baywatch veteran was makeup free with her hair worn in soft curls as she added gold high heels for a touch of glamour. The mother-of-two has been promoting her new film Naked Gun.