Tourist sparks bomb alert in restaurant after mistakenly ordering 'grenade'
A man was arrested by armed police after confusing the Portuguese words for ‘pomegranate’ and ‘grenade’ when ordering a drink in Lisbon
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Florida: Two Nigerian men get 10 years and 7 years prison for inheritance fraud that sent letters supposedly from bank in Spain to older Americans claiming that they had an inheritance; demanded fees to get the money; laundered money through other victims; duo had been extradited from Spain
Enforcement efforts are working! New FTC report shows robocalls complaints have fallen to a five year low
New BBB Scam Tracker report on frauds hitting younger consumers
- Those 18-24 have highest median dollar losses than any other group
- Top three frauds for this group are online shopping, job frauds, and crypto investments
Three extradited to the US from Morocco and Romania; had run reshipping scheme from Russia that used stolen credit card information to order goods online and shipped within the US; then had goods reshipped to Russia and Eastern Europe; at least $48 million involved
Review and recommendation: I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk. It is fascinating. Creator of PayPal, Space X, Tesla, the Boring Company, and several other companies that would be great accomplishments standing alone. Plus now Twitter. And he’s not done yet. Like Ford, Edison, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Vanderbilt he’s made a big improvement in everyday lives
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
- Australia securities regulator has taken down 2500 scam investment sites since July 2023
- Puerto Rico: US Customs seizes counterfeit goods worth $873,000
- Fifteen documentaries about fraud
- Canada: Halifax regional police arrest man for grandparent fraud
- Sacramento: Man from France pleads guilty to fraud scheme that used identity theft to apply for unclaimed property held by State of California
- Hong Kong Police seize HK$67 million of counterfeit designer goods
- WSJ: Online scammers now on Twitter and the web impersonating airlines customer service to scam people
- Man who tries to steal car is foiled when a forklift operator hoisted it 20 feet into the air
- Tourist surrounded by armed cops after translation app he used to order pomegranates caused it to say “grenade”
- FTC resolves case with personal loan app Bright; alleges forced customers into monthly subscription; company to pay $18 million
- The FTC is sending $7 million in refunds to company that sold medical discount plans claiming they were health insurance
- FTC providing full refunds to victims of NTS tech support fraud
- FTC and Florida AG settle with company that challenged credit card disputes; Chargebacks911 to pay fines
- CFPB settles with Citi bank over claims it discriminated against Armenian-Americans who applied for credit cards; policy seems to have been intended to prevent fraud; company to pay $25.9 million
- Mastercard is using AI to fight financial scams
- Report finds huge increase in phishing emails; claim major increase in CHatGPT use in BEC frauds
- Virginia: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $1.2 million
- State of Michigan charges man with PPP fraud; got $41,000
- Atlanta: Guard at federal prison pleads guilty to PPP fraud
- Florida: Active duty member of the air force agrees to pay triple damages in civil claim for PPP fraud; has to pay $63,0000
- Reporter visits call center in Cambodia that engaged in crypto romance frauds; employees forced to work there were often tortured
- Cambodia deports 25 to Japan over online fraud call centers
- Hits group of five hospitals in southwest Ontario
- Boeing confirms attack that hit its parts and distribution operations
- Hits Japanese bicycle parts giant Shimano
- Attack on American Airlines pilot union
- Disrupts Ace Hardware system
- Crypto exchange FTX CEO Bankman-Fried convicted of fraud
- Man extradited from Serbia to face charges of online crypto investment and binary option fraud in both Texas and New York; got $70 million
- India arrests 18, including four from police, for crypto investment scheme that got $300 million
- DOJ moves to forfeit $54 million in crypto that was used to launder drug money
- Jamaica has arrested 80 for lottery scamming so far this year
- Las Vegas: Man gets 51 months prison for mailings to older victims claiming they had won and needed to send in $20 to claim winnings
- Hamas uses fake dating sites to attract and get information from Israel’s Defense Force soldiers
- Ontario Provincial Police arrest Toronto man for romance fraud
- Australian grandmother has been in jail for ten months in Japan for transporting 2 kg of meth; says she is a romance scam victim and is innocent