When someone searches for an obscure song — no name, no artist — it's called lostwave. The hunt is experiencing a golden age... more »
The real rich people hide money and poor people show off …
Chinese Scientists Report Using Quantum Computer To Hack Military-Grade Encryption The Quantum Insider
Seattle: Prison inmate and his Nigerian accomplice indicted for calling the Veteran’s Administration supposedly on behalf of seriously ill veterans and having benefits redirected to themselves
New UN report on the International Organized Crime and Scam Centers in Southeast Asia
- Between $18 and $37 billion in losses in 2024
- Extensive money laundering efforts
- Building services for other scam gangs; grown to “industrial proportions”
- Convergence with drugs, illegal gambling, pornography
- Rely on crypto, especially Tether and Stablecoin
- Rapidly developing use of AI and deepfakes
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
Baltimore: Two Chinese men get 57 and 54 months prison for scheme that returned counterfeit iPhones to Apple and got refunds; got more than $1 million
Romania seizes €600,000 worth of counterfeit pesticides
Nigeria: EFCC arrests 43 for online fraud
California: Chino police seize 10,000 stolen gift cards
Washington State: Police arrest Canadian man (Chinese?) when he went to victim’s homes to pick up money for tech support fraud
Nigeria: 39 convicted of internet fraud and sentenced to jail
India: Police bust three call centers, arrest 36, were offering fake loans and illegal drugs
Europe: Police seize 27 million counterfeit Covid masks; ten arrested in Greece
Ohio: Four arrested who stole checks from City government, washed them, and withdrew money; got over $200,000
Texas: Ukrainian man extradited from the Netherlands pleads guilty to scam that installed malware to steal data; over $1 million stolen
St Louis: Five (from India?) arrested for tech support fraud; got $8 million; went to victim’s houses to pick up money; usually asked for gold bars
Humor
- Executive for alcoholism charity found driving drunk and hiding in bushes
- Florida man found sleeping on roof of a WalMart holding a gun
- FTC returning $1.1 million to victims of Lasik surgery over deceptive claims
- FTC settles with Marriott and Starwood over multiple data breaches
- California: San Bernandino sheriff’s office arrests two who had fraudulent EBT welfare benefit cards and were withdrawing money from banks
- St Louis: Woman gets five years probation for PPP fraud; has to repay $279,000
- India arrests four in gang which was smuggling SIM cards to fraud call centers in Cambodia
- Philippines arrests 250 in scam call center conducting romance frauds
- FBI releases new alert on BEC; losses reported from October 2013 through December 2023 total $55.5 billion
- Singapore police help US recover $5 million stolen in BEC fraud
- Millions of dollars in tax refund checks are being stolen from the mail
- Baltimore: Man (Nigerian?) gets five years prison for using stolen identities to get tax refund; got $3 million
- Hits Wayne County government (Detroit)
- Attack on public schools in Highline, Iowa
- Info on 250,000 Comcast customers stolen from debt collector it had hired
- Massive MoneyGram data breaches loses full PII on customers
- New York: Founder of crypto Ponzi scheme (Nigerian?) gets more than ten years prison
- South Dakota: Man pleads guilty to crypto hacking where he stole $37 million of crypto
- Russia busts Cryptex crypto exchange used for credit card theft and other crimes, arrest 100