Las Vegas: Nigerian man gets 44 months prison for home rental scheme offering homes online; got $3.3 million from 3500 victims; used proceeds to buy used cars that he shipped to Nigeria
Scammers are now sending phony QR codes by mail or email; clicking on them may install malware
Fake crypto accounts now being used in other scams? Scammers often pretend to hire regular people to do work for them, which can include sending packages or collecting money, and many believe that they have been hired for real work by legitimate companies. But of course crooks don’t want to actually pay people for this work. So the same bogus crypto apps used for victims of crypto romance scams are now being used to serve the same purpose. The app shows money coming in, and appreciating in value, but it can never be withdrawn. Keep an eye out!
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, fake check fraudand crypto scams
Fraud News Around the world
- California: Orange county woman arrested for rental fraud; got at least $200,000
- Houston: Five men from India sentenced to prison for tech support fraud; callers from India claimed victims were due a refund and got access to online bank accounts
- UK: Man who is in prison for handling victims’ money in scheme that called impersonating police gets £250,000 fine
- Reasons victims fall for scams
- Ukrainian soldier calls Russian tech support to fix captured Russian tank
- New Jersey man arrested after he deliberately drove his car into a police station
- Shop Vac full of hornets stolen from truck of a beekeeper
- FTC loses court case alleging that Neora MLM was an illegal pyramid
- FTC inks agreement with Chile, Mexico, Peru and Columbia to work together in fighting fraud
- Supreme Court hears arguments on constitutionality of CFPB funding
- Boston: Man gets 29 months prison for PPP fraud; got $2.5 million
- Idaho: US Attorney announces a dozen or more PPP fraud cases in recent months
- Virginia: Business owner fined $350,000 for fraudulent paperwork to seek PPP loan
- Maryland: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got more than $1 million
- One Fifth of all US food stamp/SNAP benefits being stolen by scammers, including by skimmer fraud
- Detroit: Man gets five years prison for scam that got unemployment benefits in five states with ID theft; got $1.5 million
- Maryland: Man indicted in scheme to help others fraudulently apply for PPP loans
- Texas: Five men (from India?) plead guilty to PPP fraud
- Las Vegas: County government lost $.14 million to BEC scam; three romance scam victims arrested for acting as money mules in the scheme
- New York: Nigerian man gets 66 months prison for BEC fraud; got at least $2.5 million; two other defendants already sentenced
- Hits Johnson Controls, building systems company
- FBI warns ransomware groups are now hitting organizations with two different types of ransomware in the same time frame
- Ransomware gang claims it has hit hotel chain Motel One
- Chase Bank in the UK bans payments in crypto due to fraud concerns
- Connecticut police recover $3 million for victim of investment fraud
- Australia: Two Romanians arrested for ATM skimming; got $3.7 million; one defendant threw his phone from ten story building
- Thailand arrests couple from China for ATM skimming
- California: Chico police arrest four (Romanians?) for ATM skimming
- Costa Rica arrests 17 after series of raids on call centers that claimed to be with the US government and telling victims that they had won a sweepstakes
- Jamaica: Three arrested for lottery fraud
- New York: Man (Nigerian?) gets two years prison for laundering money from romance scam victims; worked with others in South Africa; handled $1.4 million
- Thailand arrests Nigerian romance scammer for the second time; believe he took in $800 million; operated on Facebook
- Boston: Man (Nigerian?) gets 40 months prison for romance and other frauds; got $1.3 million