Threat actors behind the "Phantom Deal" campaign are studying companies in extreme detail, aiming to dupe midlevel employees into initiating large financial transfers.
September 3, 2026
Social engineers are trying to convince companies to make large-dollar transfers to their own accounts, under the guise of fake merger & acquisition (M&A) deals.
It's one of the oldest gambits in cybersecurity — the advance fee scam — for a new generation, and with more on the line. Gen, the parent company of cybersecurity brands Norton and Avast, was targeted by a ruse masquerading as a corporate acquisition. Gen investigated the attempted attack and discovered the company was just one of at least five targets, all of which were at risk of losing massive sums of money.
"Scams are becoming so convincing that even the most trained eye can have trouble spotting them," says Gen security evangelist Luis Corrons, who co-authored a report on the campaign with Martin Chlumecký, senior principal threat analysis engineer at Gen.
