analysis: Did the royal commission fix banking or are banks back to behaving badly?
Good news for a change! Enforcement efforts by the FTC, FCC and DOJ seem to be making a difference. FTC releases annual report about Do Not Call list; robocalls down by half in 2022, from 3.4 million in 2021 to 1.8 million in 2022
BBB updates online shopping fraud study; complaints and losses are very high
New links!
Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: 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, free trial offer frauds, job scams, online shopping fraud, and crypto scams
Fraud News Around the world
- Ukrainian hacker wanted in the US is arrested in Geneva; used malware to steal bank login credentials and steal money
- Which? in the UK reports that the Home Office has little sense of the volume of fraud
- Fintrac in Canada reports that Black Axe organized crime group is also behind car theft, massive fraud there; real estate used to launder money
- Fake online reviews are a real problem, and the FTC and States ramp up plans for fighting them
- San Diego: Two women sentenced from group that did grandparent scam; one 57 months prison, the other time served; one ordered to pay $1.25 restitution
- Los Angeles: Customs seized $1 billion in counterfeit goods; included fake Lysol
- More than half of spam emails advertising black Friday deals are scams
- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes gets more than 11 years prison for massive fraud
- Consumers are complaining that it is hard to cancel auto-renewals of online subscriptions; FTC takes note
- How 1800’s bunco artists scammed people’s money in the shell game; the tricks they used are still working
- Drunk man arrested for threatening to blow up hotel in Nashville over potato chip dispute
- Man uses Uber to rob bank, has driver wait to take him home
- UK fugitive arrested after coming out of hiding to buy video game
- CFPB settles with Carrington Mortgage over illegal lending practices during the pandemic; to pay $5.25 million fine
- Court issues injunction against paint maker who claimed it provided insulation benefits; must pay $14,000
- St. Louis: FTC, DOJ, Wisconsin Attorney General file civil case for deception against 16 operating timeshare resale operation
- Couple from California were convicted of PPP/EIDL fraud; bailed out and fled; found in Montenegro and back to serve long prison sentences; got $20 million
- West Virginia; Man gets probation for PPP fraud; ordered to repay $41,666
- Michigan: Former state employee, three others, arrested for PPP fraud; got $1 million
- Did Russian gangs steal more in virus benefits than the US has provided to Ukraine?$600 billion lost
- Group of 40 State Attorneys General settles with Google over claims that that it didn’t track locations – but did; company to pay $391.5 million
- Massachusetts, with help from Google, alleged to have secretly installed spyware for Covid tracking on all cell phones in the state
- Ten defendants, seven of them from Georgia, charged with BEC fraud; targeted Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurers; got more than $11.1 million; some of the money went overseas
- Texas: Two men indicted for laundering money from BEC and romance scams; sent money overseas; got $2.4 million
- Former owner of FTX tries to explain himself
- How crypto theft became one of the top sources of income for North Korea
- SEC sues to stop registration of new crypto assets
- Ohio man arrested for $10 million crypto Ponzi scheme
- Seattle: Two men in Estonia arrested there and indicted for crypto fraud totaling $575 million; had people invest in mining equipment that didn’t exist; also had fake crypto bank that just stole money
Former FTC Chairman Mike Pertschuk dies at 89