IT WAS SIXTY YEARS AGO TODAY: The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, 60 years later: “Life went from black and white to color.”
Identity Theft Assistance Center releases 2023 report, data breaches up 72% from 2022; affected 353 million individuals
FBI IC3 warns of sharp increase in tech support scams asking people to buy gold and other precious metals and then send couriers to pick it up
UK reports fraud was down 13% last year, it still the most reported type of crime; tech support and lottery fraud down
Europol: In extensive European effort police arrest 15 in major crackdown on Nigerian confraternities engaged in smuggling drugs, human trafficking and fraud
Huge amount of romance fraud enforcement this week. As you can see below, a huge amount of great work has been done recently. Why? Possibly it will promote education efforts around Valentine’s Day. But whatever the reason, these are welcome efforts.
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
- Pennsylvania: Man from India gets 57 months prison for laundering money from victims of a variety of frauds from India; handled $584,000
- Illinois Attorney General brings criminal charges against man from Chicago suburbs over nonexistent puppy sale scam
- Illinois: Orland Park police arrest man who went to victim’s house to pick up money from grandparent fraud
- San Francisco: Police charge Nigerian man with large online rental scam over apartments he didn’t own; began investigation looking at romance fraud
- UK: Man gets probation for collecting money from victims of scams claiming to be selling shipping containers on Facebook
- Florida: Miami police arrest man who picked up victim money in grandparent fraud
- Youtube removes 1000 videos that were deepfakes of celebrities promoting medicare scam
- Ireland: Two get jail for selling counterfeit goods on Facebook
- Australia: Man from Kenya gets one year in prison for pet fraud; faces deportation as well
- Australia sees increase in travel scams at booking.com by 600%
- Amish horse and buggy stolen from Walmart parking lot while family shopped
- Cruise passengers arrested after police find 112 pounds of marijuana in their luggage
- FTC gets $2 million penalty from Kubota Tractors over claims that replacement parts were Made in the USA
- CFPB pays $6 million to settle discrimination claims of black and hispanic employees
- FTC sends seven more warning letters to VoIP companies about allowing robocalls into the US
- FTC resolves case against company that made illegal calls to those promised jobs but who were instead pitched for online courses; to pay $28.7 million
- St Louis: Former professional basketball player arrested for PPP fraud
- Detroit: Man gets prison for meth sales and also for theft of unemployment benefits
- California: Monterrey caterer indicted for PPP fraud
- Scranton: Man gets three years prison for ID theft and PPP fraud
- Tennessee: Woman gets 18 months prison for ID theft to get Covid unemployment benefits; got $550,000
- North Carolina: Business owner pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $1.2 million
- Colorado: Man gets three years prison for ID theft to get unemployment benefits
- Boston: Man gets six months prison for PPP fraud
- New York: Woman from the Dominican Republic gets 79 months prison for ID theft to get unemployment benefits; got $16 million
- Florida: Fort Lauderdale police recover $1.2 million stolen in BEC scam
- Florida: Man pleads guilty for laundering money from BEC and romance fraud and sending it to Nigeria
- Attack on Kansas City metro bus system
- Hits Schneider electric
- Attack on City of Huber Heights, Ohio
- Hits emergency system of Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Johnson Controls pays ransom of $23 million after attack
- SEC sues Hyperfund crypto company and asserts it was a fraud that took victims for $1.7 billion
- Baltimore: Three indicted over Hyperfund investment fraud scheme
- Germany seizes €2 billion of bitcoin in case against internet piracy
- UK: Two (from Ghana?) get prison for romance fraud; one 5 12/ years, the other 18 months; also laundered money from other victims
- Wisconsin: Three from Nigeria indicted for handling money from romance fraud victims
- Florida: Jacksonville woman gets two years prison for tax fraud and for acting as a money mule for romance frauds despite warning by police
- India busts major international crypto romance fraud ring, arrest one; involved operations in Cambodia
- NBC: New study shows Nigerian Yahoo boys responsible for meeting boys online for sextortion and then extorting money
- Canada: Toronto police charge man with romance fraud
- Florida: Woman gets two years prison for acting as money mule for romance fraud despite warnings
- South Korean crypto exchanges blocked $82 million in funds for romance frauds last year
- South Africa court finds it can extradite people to US for prosecution for romance fraud
- Connecticut: US citizen indicted for laundering money from romance scams; had been living in Venezuela and was arrested coming into the US from Colombia
- Sweden finds romance scam money being used to buy scrapped cars and ship them to Nigeria
- Romance fraud up 75% in the Netherlands; victims report €7.6 million lost there last year
- Salt Lake City: Nigerian woman gets six years prison for romance fraud; final defendant from this gang; responsible for over $6 million lost