Most intellectuals and most artists belong to the same type. Only the strongest of them force their way through the atmosphere of the bourgeois earth and attain to the cosmic. The others all resigned themselves or make compromises.
— Hermann Hesse
Massive data breach: hackers get all data on almost all AT&T customers
Chainalysis releases in depth study of money laundering through crypto for fraud and other crimes
FTC, 26 other countries, release report on “dark patterns” of online subscription; find 81% do not have ability for consumers to turn off auto renewals
Interpol announces worldwide effort against Nigerian Black Axe organized crime group; 300 arrested; 720 bank accounts blocked
New trend? UK: Scammers try to blackmail Liverpool restaurant by threatening to post thousands of negative reviews unless they paid
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
- Michigan: Man convicted by jury of telemarketing fraud; had a call center in Pakistan offering discount cable and satellite services it did not actually provide
- Nigeria convicts 60 of internet fraud
- Montreal man arrested for rental fraud
- Singapore police investigating 528 people for online fraud
- Virginia:Postal letter carrier gets 20 months prison for stealing mail
- India: Mumbai police arrest three who acted as money mules for scam that called pretending to be FedX, claiming drugs found in a package, and demanding a fine; three collected money, converted it to crypto, and sent it to China
- Connecticut: Woman gets a year in prison for acting as a money mule for grandparent fraud; sent funds to the Dominican Republic
- Fraud reports in the UK hit a ten yearhigh
- California: Chinese man arrested when he went to home of tech support victim to pick up 13 pounds of gold
- UK entrepreneur launches Ask Silver, where you can send dodgy ads or texts and it not only let you know if they are likely scams but also report them to law enforcement
- UK: Fraud now makes up almost half of all reports to police
- Hong Kong: Police report big jump in tech support fraud in English language scams
- US sanctions Mexican accountants working with drug cartel on timeshare resale fraud
- Chinese man arrested in Silver Spring, Maryland when he goes to home of elderly woman to collect gold bar from tech support scam
- Supreme Court reversing Chevron deference to agencies seen to have little effect on the FTC
- FTC and FDA send warning letters to companies selling children’s snacks that contain THC
- San Francisco: Man sentenced to 65 months prison for PPP and other frauds
- New Orleans: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud
- North Carolina: Man indicted for PPP fraud; got over $1 million
- Virginia: Gang of 24 indicted for PPP fraud
- Maine: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $215,000
- Colorado: Couple indicted for PPP fraud; got $5 million
- Owner of peer to peer crypto platform Paxful pleads guilty to allowing money laundering on its site
- Surge in scams using Bitcoin ATM’s
- Florida: Man from Jamaica and two others charged with lottery fraud; got at least $9.5 million
- Jamaica: Police arrest man wanted in the US for lottery fraud
- Virginia: Jamaican man gets ten months prison for lottery fraud where he laundered proceeds from victims
- US victims lost $1.4 billion to romance scams; 40% started on social media
- Nigeria: Six men gets six months prison each for romance fraud
- Philippines arrests 14 Nigerians for romance and other frauds
- Washington, DC: DOJ files case to forfeit $2.5 million in crypto from crypto romance fraud; funds held in Thailand