Wladimir Kaminer Q & A
At Deutsche Welle Rayna Breuer has a Q & A with the German-writing Russian born author, Wladimir Kaminer: 'Putin lives in the past'.
He notes:
When you shed a little light on this dark head, you see how incredibly backward, uncivilized and unqualified Putin and his colleagues, former KGB officers, are. It is a catastrophe that such unqualified personnel run the government of a country.
Whistleblowers and Disinformation — Roundtable #2: The Public Sector
New York: Ghanaian man pleads guilty to receiving money from victims of romance and other scams, including EIDL virus loans for small businesses; sent much of the money to Ghana; handled $35 million
History fact on Ukraine and Russia: In 1932 Ukraine, an area the size of Illinois and Indiana, and which has much of the best farmland in Europe, resisted Stalin’s demand that they form collective farms. So he confiscated their food, sold much it internationally, and about 4 million Ukrainians starved to death. So is it hard to understand why they don’t want to be absorbed by Russia?
BBB Studies. Here are links to the study topics of my studies: puppy fraud, romance fraud; BEC fraud, sweepstakes/lottery fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud, gift cards, job scams, and online shopping fraud.
Fraud News Around the world
- Amazon and DocuSign most impersonated companies worldwide for phishing attacks
- Singapore: 244 people being investigated for scams or money muling
- Illinois: Owners of Florida telemarketing room indicted for fraudulent sales of health insurance; follows FTC civil case
- Microsoft sues tech support operation headquartered in Indiana
- Massachusetts warehouse found filled with goods of hundreds of people ripped off by crooked moving scam
- AARP: Man fell victim to a tech support fraud by doing an internet search for number of HP; happy ending
- Montreal police arrest two for grandparent scam
Humor
- Amish buggy driver arrested for DUI tells cops he had a “couple of beers”
- Driver arrested for driving at 130 mph claims he was only going 100
FTC and CFPB
- Delaware: Federal court grants interlocutory appeal to the 3d circuit on constitutionality of the CFPB
- Head of FTC’s Bureau of Economics resigns; dispute with Chair over pharmacy study
- CFPB announces intention to move against car repossessions by lenders
- FTC and Florida AG settle with credit card debt reduction company; consumers out $5.3 million
Virus Benefit Theft
- Oakland: Woman gets three years prison for $1 million PPP fraud
- Massachusetts: Jury convicts man of PPP fraud; got $13 million
- New Jersey: Woman pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $246,000
- New York: CEO of SBA lender MBE capital arrested for PPP fraud; got $70 million
- Pennsylvania: Woman sentenced over PPP fraud; got $232,000
- DOJ to announce a new top prosecutor to address virus benefit theft
Business Email compromise fraud
- Tewksbury, Massachusetts loses $100,000 to BEC scam
- Indiana: Chicago man gets two years prison for BEC scam
Ransomware
- US warns of ransomware attacks resulting from sanctions on Russia
- Backing up data no longer effective against ransomware
- Attack on Nvidia
- 82% of ransomware attacks included data leaks in 2021
- Ukrainian leaks info on Russian ransomware gang
- Shuts down computers of International Logistics company Expeditors International
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
- US indicts Indian founder of crypto company BitConnect, allege it was a Ponzi scheme; took $2 billion from investors
- North Korea uses sophisticated methods to steal and launder crypto
- Michigan: Three get prison for laundering money with a Bitcoin business
- Crypto exchanges turn down Ukraine’s request that they freeze Russian accounts
ATM skimming
- North Carolina arrests man for ATM skimming; he wasout on bail for fraud
- Pakistan busts ATM skimming gang
Jamaica and Lottery Fraud
Romance Fraud and Sextortion
- Police in Calgary arrest man for romance fraud
- Nine arrested in Hong Kong for defrauding men in romance fraud; got HK$10 million
- St Louis: 81 year old romance fraud victim who acted as a money mule after being warned gets five years probation
- Colonel in US Army finds that there are hundreds of accounts using his information for romance fraud