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Thursday, October 28, 2021

Man gets seven years for hacking personal information and using it to seek tax refunds; got $1.7 million

The Simpsons Library Instagram accounthas been documenting all of the books, magazines, and other printed matter that has appeared on the long-running sitcom.


In the Paine, Ellsberg and Assange cases, those in power moved quickly to silence their critics even by perverting the course of justice”.

Four Corners v Julian Assange: your ABC, their sneers


SEPTA rape case is latest in a U.S. pandemic of police lying. There must be consequences Will Bunch, The Inquirer


“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is issuing this announcement to alert and help the public recognize and avoid spoofed, or fake, unemployment benefit websites. Cyber criminals have created these spoofed websites to collect personal and financial data from US victims. These spoofed websites imitate the appearance of and can be easily mistaken for legitimate websites offering unemployment benefits. Cyber criminals register website domains and email addresses to appear like those which legitimately facilitate the processing of unemployment benefits. These domains and email addresses often will have misspelled words or will replace “[.]gov” with “[.]xyz.” For example, one such domain is “illiform-gov[.]xyz.” These domains lead victims to malign websites that are usually similar in appearance to legitimate counterparts. The fake websites prompt victims to enter sensitive personal and financial information. Cyber actors use this information to redirect unemployment benefits, harvest user credentials, collect personally identifiable information, and infect victim’s devices with malware. In addition to a loss of benefits, victims of this activity can suffer a range of additional consequences, including ransomware infection and identity theft…”



 FBI’s internet crime complaint center warns scammers are creating fake sites to apply for state unemployment benefits; collect personal information about people; ID theft risk high




Worldwide survey of scams by country; overall victims losing $47.8 Billion
 
FBI’s internet crime complaint center warns scammers are creating fake sites to apply for state unemployment benefits; collect personal information about people; ID theft risk high
 
South Africa: Eight Nigerians arrested with help of FBI and Secret Service, also head of local Black Axe chapter; engaged in romance fraud and other financial crimes
 
New FTC data spotlight looks at scammers impersonating Amazon; you get an email about a large order you supposedly placed, call scammers who move money from one account to another, claim they over refunded you and you need to return money; ask to remote into your PC; ask you to buy gift cards to “block” scammers. These are all tactics used by scammers in India with IRS or SSA scams.
 
Review and recommendation: I just watched the Outlaw Josie Wales again, which I had not seen for years.  I highly recommend it, not just because that it is a great Clint Eastwood western, but also because it deals with how the North and South dealt with and reconciled after the Civil War. That had to be incredibly difficult. 
 
BBB Studies. Here are links to the study topics: puppy fraudromance fraudBEC fraudsweepstakes/lottery fraud,  tech support fraudromance fraud money mulescrooked moversgovernment impostersonline vehicle sale scamsrental fraudgift cards and job scams.
 
Coronavirus 
 
Fraud News Around the world
Humor FTC and CFPB  Virus Benefit TheftRansomware  IRS and tax frauds Romance Fraud and Sextortion
North Carolina: Jury convicts Liberian of romance fraud; took in $1.5 million; traveled to see victims in person to get money; pretended to be love interest for other scammersWe