Colorado: Two men get ten and four years prison; worked for data brokers who sold information on millions of people to scammers for use in fake prize mailings and supposed psychic scams such as Maria DuVal
Twelve countries take action against Lockbit ransomware gang
- Four arrests; servers seized
- French arrest develop; UK arrests two
- Spain seized 9 servers; arrest administrator of bulletproof hosting service
- US and UK issue sanctions; UK sanctions 15 Russians
- US indicts Russian man
Scammers are now posting fake QR codes on parking meters; send people to scam websites where their credit card information is stolen; growing problem
India busts four rooms at 32 locations doing tech support calls; arrest 26
Ivory Coast arrests eight for phishing scam; scams posed as buyers on small business web sites; used QR codes to take people to fake payment sites and snagged credit card information; took in $1.4 million
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
Massachusetts: Quincy police arrest two for tech support fraud
India: In effort to fight cybercrime; deactivates 80 apps and shuts down 600,000 phones
Canada: Brampton police arrest man for grandparent fraud; sent courier to get money; second man sought
Social Security IG warns that scammers are now using emails to claim your SSN number has been compromised and that lead to several different scam types, including crypto romance frauds
Police officer stops elderly man from sending $1000 from a bitcoin ATM
UK: Man charged with rental fraud; offered properties on Facebook marketplace
CFTC warning about scams that claim to help victims get their money back
UK: Which? finds one third of those shopping at sites selling second hand goods have been scammed during the last two years
New York: Man (Chinese?) arrested after he went to victim home to pick up money for apparent romance scam that began with a spam text message
Rhode Island: Two men, one from Ontario, arrested after they scammed a man claiming his social security number was compromised and he needed to move his money to a “safe” government account; had to pay with gold; arrests when scammers went to his home to collect the gold
Pakistan closes and seals factory that was making counterfeit detergent and soap labeled with major brands
India shuts down 2 million phone lines used by scammers
Canada: Five arrested in Quebec for scam that pretended to be bank security warning people that their money was compromised and needed to be moved to a “safe” account; sent accomplice to victims homes
Canada: Ontario woman gets a year house arrest in Winnipeg for acting as a money mule for grandparent fraud
Arizona: Man gets 2.75 years prison for gift card cloning; put dummy cards into stores
Springfield, MO: Man gets 3 years, seven months prison for stealing mail and using identities to get credit cards
Australia: Facebook and Instagram take down 8000 fake celebrity ads in joint effort with banks
Humor FTC and CFPBVirus Benefit Theft
- New Jersey: Woman pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $465,000
- Rhode Island: Man from the Dominican Republic gets two years prison for theft of foodstamp benefits; got $213,000
- St Louis: Former pro basketball player pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $272,000
- Sacramento: Woman gets nine years prison for using stolen identities to get unemployment benefits; got $1.1 million
- Maine: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud
- West Virginia: Man pleads guilty to unemployment fraud
- Memphis: Prison for five former IRS employees over PPP fraud got over $1 million
- Myanmar scam call centers revive after China softens pressure
- India reports that 29,000 of its citizens have disappeared to Southeast Asia, apparently to scam centers
- Cambodian reporter who wrote about scam call centers is arrested
- India rescues 67 from scam compound in Cambodia
- North Carolina: Two men plead guilty to laundering money for BEC and romance frauds and turning it into crypto
- Minnesota: Two Nigerian men indicted in apparent BEC scheme where they had healthcare employees divert payments to the scammers; got $13 million
- Australia recovers $777,000 that had been stolen in BEC fraud
- Washington: Nigerian man extradited from the UK gets seven years prison for BEC fraud against entities in Texas and North Caroline; got millions
- Hits hospital in Lubbock, Texas
- Attack on public schools in Cincinnati
- Hits Indiana school system
- Attack on City of Richardson, Texas