JIM TREACHER: Happy Friday the 13th to Those Who Celebrate —You’re entitled to your religious beliefs.
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UK fraud reporting system Action Fraud to be replaced; scams account for 42% of all crimesFBI warns that grandparent scams now using couriers to pick up money from elderly victims; includes Uber and Lyft drivers
Solar Winds hackers got into email systems of federal prosecutors
Spanish-speakers most likely victims of grandparent scams says AARP
New Jersey: Two from India plead guilty; worked with scams impersonating Social Security and with tech support scams; took in $618,000; used robocalls
Scammers are now using QR codes
Coronavirus Fraud News Around the world
- Texas: Eight years prison for Nigerian who was living in Canada over theft of benefits from Texas retirement system; got nearly $1 million
- Spain and Portugal bust counterfeit goods ring; fake clothes, shoes, accessories actually made in Portugal; fake labels came from China; €16.5 million worth; eight arrested
- UK Victims lost £2.6 million to pet scams in the last year; 20% increase
- EFCC in Nigeria arrests 55 for internet fraud
- Las Vegas police arrest five for movers scam
- India arrests 63 in bust of call center impersonating FBI, DEA, and other government agencies
- DOJ gets $160 million from Florida company over diabetic test strip fraud
- Singapore: More than seven years prison for woman who laundered victim funds for her Nigerian boyfriend
- Mississippi: Man from India gets 15 months prison for tech support fraud
- Pennsylvania AG sues Florida company that mailed notices to small businesses claiming to be from the State and charging for a “certificate of good standing.”
- Massachusetts man indicted; used social media to ask for people’s bank accounts so he could deposit counterfeit checks
- Microsoft gets 6500 tech support complaints every month
- Live camera in Wales set up to record crime – and it is stolen
- New Zealand grannies fight off thieves at bingo night wielding chairs, purses
- FTC settles with auto dealer group in TX and NM over falsified information on finance applications; to pay $450,000
- FTC returning $2.3 million to victims of credit card interest rate reduction fraud
- FTC sending $1.5 million in refunds to victims of internet marketing scam
- FTC is sending refunds of $350,000 to people who bought Willow Curve, advertised to cure pain
- Minneapolis: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; took in $9.6 million
- Texas: Man pleads gets more than 11 years prison for $24 million PPP fraud
- Florida: Man gets 33 months prison for PPP fraud; sought $7.2 million
- Two Montana men charged with $1 million PPP fraud
- Los Angeles: Nigerian Ray Hushpuppi has indictment against him, six others, unsealed; charged with BEC; scammed Qatari school
- Prominent Nigerian policeman also charged
- Ireland arrests five for BEC fraud
Ransomware
- Attacks cost US healthcare organizations $20.8 billion in 2020
- Hits Illinois Attorney General’s office
- Shuts down Italian vaccine sites
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
- Brooklyn: Promoter of crypo investments pleads guilty to securities charges
- The US government is seizing crypto – and trying to figure out what to do with it
ATM skimming
- Poland arrests two from Russia; connected devices to ATM’s to make them spew cash
- Philadelphia: California man gets more than six years prison for ATM skimming
- Pennsylvania: More than six years prison for skimming at gas stations
- Hong Kong: 24 domestic workers arrested for laundering money for Nigerian romance scammer
- Georgia AG indicts man for romance fraud
- Korea arrests eight Liberians for romance fraud
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.
This encouraging sentiment is the opening line of the poem “Courage” by Amelia Earhart, who was not only a pioneering aviator but also an accomplished writer and poet. And she certainly knew something about courage. The poem, written in 1927 shortly before Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, is an intimate peek into the trailblazer’s mind and motivation. She reflects that courage brings joy, and the willingness to push boundaries is the cost of admission to a fulfilling and vibrant life. It is no small price to pay, because bravery can only exist where there is also fear. But without courage, we can't experience true freedom or inner peace.