ChatGPT is bullshit (PDF) Ethics and Information Technology. AI = BS (NC, January 2023).
Canada: Operation Octavia, an RCMP investigation into tech support fraud, called nearly every number in Canada; police find 20 Indians who acted as money mules; arrest a Chinese man at airport when he returned to Canada
Nigeria: Woman arrested after she stabs and kills lover; he didn’t pay her share of proceeds from internet fraud against an Indonesian victim
Troubling new opinion from the 9th circuit court of appeals on fraud. In US v. Milheiserthe Court recently reversed the criminal conviction of several toner scammers. For years these companies called offices, told the receptionists that they were their regular supplier of toner for their copier, that the price was going up, but that they would send “more” at the old, cheaper, price. The victim companies had never in fact dealt with these scammers before. A jury convicted them of mail fraud.
The Court reversed the convictions, concluding that victims in fact did receive toner at the price disclosed in the call, thus concluding that the defendant’s lies were not “material” to victims. Needless to say, this decision is bound to cause trouble in future consumer protection cases, and I believe it is wrongly decided. But it reminds us that no matter what the legal standard is, it is important to have a solid theory of consumer injury – to explain why the lies matter to consumers.
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 fraud and crypto scams
Fraud News Around the world
- New BBB report on phishing scams; complaints double; used for BEC fraud, ransomware and other frauds
- Canada: Ontario man pleads guilty to selling fake artworks; described as biggest forgery operation in history
- UK seizes 580 tons of counterfeit goods from shipping containers
- Ireland reports fraud cases up 65% this year
- Connecticut: Postal worker arrested for stealing mail; identity theft
- Singapore: 307 scammers and mules under investigation for online fraud
- Canada: Halifax warns that fake bank employees now coming to homes and making victim’s surrender their credit cards; then go shopping with them
- Zambia: 22 Chinese get long prison sentences for international online fraud; among 77 arrested; nature of the scam not specified
- Fresno: Man indicted for tech support fraud; arrested when he went to pick up money from victim
- FBI warns that Mexican drug cartels are behind timeshare resale frauds
- Nigeria: EFCC arrests 127 for internet fraud
- Canada: British Columbia RCMP sends warnings to 12 money mules
- Singapore: Man gets 28 months prison for rental scams; had been charged three times before and released on bail
- Scammers copy websites of small businesses and then sell counterfeit goods
- Police seize $2 million of counterfeit goods from Palm Beach store
- Roche pharmaceuticals sues Indian company that sold on Amazon; alleges it sold counterfeit diabetes test strips
- Assessment of scams in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong released by Global Coalition to Fight Financial Frauds
- State by State breakdown of identity theft data in the US
- Nigeria: Police raid two night clubs; arrest 127 for internet fraud
- Overturned strawberry truck causes jam on highway
- Inmate who had a tattoo on his forehead reading “I’m a thief and an idiot” escapes jail just days before he was to be released
- South Carolina: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $480,000
- Texas: Two arrested for PPP fraud
- Atlanta: Former city attorney and police officer gets more than 7 years prison for PPP fraud; got $15 million
- Boston: Two get 17 and 15 months prison for PPP fraud; got $7.5 million
- New Hampshire: Woman gets a year prison for PPP fraud; got $200,000
- Miami: Hip Hop artist pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $600,000
- Chicago: Jury finds suburban tax preparer guilty of PPP fraud
- Major US debt collection business loses data on 3.2 million people
- Hits city of Dubai
- Attack on Australian rare earth mining giant
- Germany: Dozens of Israelis extradited for binary option investment fraud taking payment in crypto
- British Columbia: Clerk at convenience store saves senior who was trying to send money to tech support scammers at a bitcoin ATM
- Brooklyn DA seizes 70 domains, including on Facebook, used to defraud Russians in crypto frauds
- New York: Three from the UK charged with “rug pull” investment fraud selling NFT’s
- New Mexico: Nigerian man gets 51 months prison for romance and BEC fraud; got $868,000; fled US after arrest and later extradited from Hungary
- BBC: How Nigerian internet extortion scammers caused a 17 year old to kill himself