Let’s Be Enemies Aurelian, Trying to Understand the World. Carl Schmitt.
Top Stories
BBB releases annual scam tracker risk report
- Total complaints and losses down slightly in 2022
- Online purchases still tops the list for most complaints
- Employment scams increases to number two, passing crypto
- Often these are work at home, where the “employer” sends you a check for needed items such as a laptop, and you are told to deposit that and send money to a supposed third party. But the check is fake
Canadian grandmother flew to visit romance scammer and was given clothes to deliver to him in Hong Kong. But buttons were filled with cocaine, and she is in jail there; scammer also arrested in Hong Kong
Need an expert witness for consumer protection or fraud issues? Let me know.
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
- New tools being developed to detect deepfake video and audio; its an arms race against scammers
- US Postal Service allows scammers and others to do change of address forms without showing ID’s (they do send a postcard to the “old” address)
- Prison for two that ran foreign exchange investment program; took victims for $30 million
- Houston: Man gets five year probation for selling counterfeit Native American artwork
- US Treasury puts financial sanctions on eight companies and three members of Mexican drug cartel, says that they used timeshare resale fraud proceeds to fund smuggling of fentanyl and other drugs
- Scam reports up 6.5% in the UK last year; losses of £2 billion; online shopping most common
- Grandparent scams now using AI to fake the voice of real grandchilden
- UK: Police get convictions against three for impersonating banks on the phone and then stealing victim money
- Eleventh man sentenced to prison in scam that called US Spanish speakers from Peru and scammed them; gets 65 months prison; he provided lists to call and processed victim payments
Humor
- Georgia cops bust robbery getaway Tesla when it has to stop for charging
- Man with beer and pot calls cops after locking himself out of his car
- Dutch cop monitoring spy balloon learns it was just bird poop on his windshield
FTC and CFPB
- FTC and DOJ get permanent injunction against Utah company that had advertised essential oils and supplements as preventing and curing Covid
- Republican FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson to depart end of March; Holly Vedova, Director of the Bureau of Competition, also resigns
- FTC sending $2.4 million in refunds to those who were victims of online trading platform Raging Bull
- FTC investigating Twitter to see if it was abiding by earlier order; seeks personal communications from Elon Musk
Virus Benefit Theft
- Los Angeles:15 arrested to date, many of them Romanians, who used skimmers to steal food stamp benefits
- Las Vegas: Man gets 30 months prison for PPP fraud; got $1 million
- Louisiana: Woman pleads guilty to PPP fraud; made 110 applications; got more than $1 million
- San Diego:Romanian man arrested for theft of California unemployment benefits; worked with 214 others in scheme
- Miami: Woman who was social media influencer pleads guilty to doing ID theft to get PPP loans; got $1.5 million
- Los Angeles: Man gets more than 24 years prison; used ID’s of prison inmates and others to get unemployment benefits, stolen identity refund fraud, and drug charges; got more than $5.5 million
- San Diego: Romanian man arrested for ID theft to get unemployment benefits; worked with 214 other Romanians in scheme; got more than $5 million
- New York: Two men plead guilty to unemployment fraud; got more than $100,000
- Virginia: Jury convicts woman of PPP fraud; got $2.5 million
Ransomware
- Police in Germany and Ukraine take down a ransomware gang
- Russian ransomware gang post photos stolen from Pennsylvania clinic, including photos of unrobed breast cancer patients
- Hits City of Waynesboro, Virginia
- Attack on hospital clinic in Barcelona
Data Breaches
- Dark Web market BidenCash dumps 2 million credit cards for free to celebrate its first birthday
- Hackers claim they breached T mobile 100 times during 2022; goal was to do SIM swapping and get phone and texts
- Major breach in DC gets information on hundreds of lawmakers and staff
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
- Winnipeg police recover most of the money from a victim of a crypto investment fraud; get $155,000 of $168,000 lost
- Cleveland: Three charged with operating illegal bitcoin ATM’s; 52 machines seized
- SEC freezes assets and closes BKCoin, claiming it is a Ponzi crypto scheme; company took in $100 million
- Egyptian police arrest 29 for crypto investment fraud
Romance Fraud and Sextortion
- Houston: Woman indicted for acting as a money mule for romance scammer from Ghana, who is also in custody
- Virginia: Woman in the US army indicted for romance fraud; worked with others; also applied for unemployment benefits using stolen ID’s
- India arrests six Nigerians for romance fraud
- BBC: Crypto romance scams from Asia