The best accessories will always be books …
Irish flourish at the New Yorker
What goes on with Social Security? I see DOGE is looking into this, and I’m really curious what they will find. Identity theft is one of the top frauds in the US. Usually that includes using someone else’s SSN. I’ve heard that those here illegally use others SSNs to apply for jobs, and that they pay in but can’t get benefits because its not really their number. Is this true? With millions here illegally, are we actually paying benefits to those with stolen ID’s? I’d think the government would discuss that, but I’ve never seen it raised. So let’s see what they find. Massive amounts of money may be involved.
Scammers that moved people into the US from India force them to collect gold from fraud victims or the scammers will report them for deportation
Las Vegas: Woman indicted for romance scam, met older men in person, drugged them with sedatives and stole money; three died
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
- California: Two men (Chinese?) arrested in Ventura for tech support fraud; went to victim’s home to get money
- Canada: Ontario Provincial Police arrest two for bank impersonation fraud; used app to spoof their real phone numbers
- Ohio: Leader of scam investment firm calling from Canada and offering diamonds pleads guilty
- Southern Illinois: Woman pleads guilty to selling counterfeit designer purses
- What to expect from the new Australian scam laws
- Australia finds that Telstra made deceptive claims about broad band speeds
- Austin: Man from India gets eight years prison for acting as a courier picking up money from victims of India-based scam that impersonated government agents
- Birmingham: Customs seizes 200,000 counterfeit forever postage stamp that came from Hong Kong
- DOJ fines healthcare company $3 million for billing medicare for hospice care for patients that were not dying
- Florida: Man from India arrested for tech support scam that told victims they had child porn on their computers; went to victims’ homes to pick up money
- Minnesota: Man (Russian?) indicted for buying log-in credentials on the dark web and then using them to steal money from bank accounts
- New Jersey: Police arrest two men illegally here from China in sting operation when they came to pick up money
- ABC News: Tech support scams increasingly sending in-person couriers to victims to pick up gold
- Canada: Toronto man charged in scam where he sent emails claiming recipients owed money to businesses
- Hilarious ways people respond to scam text messages
- Nearly 500 Chinese cat figurines stolen from Gordon Ramsay restaurant in the UK
- Nashville: Woman pleads guilty to scheme to steal ownership of Graceland, Elvis’s home
- Atlanta employee at Whataburger steals customer credit card to pay her probation fees
- Man arrested after he was found hiding $10,000 of cocaine under his toupee
- A critique of former FTC Chair Lina Khan
- FTC settles over deceptive pain relief claims for Gravity Defyer shoes; to pay $175,000 fine
- FTC announces refund claim process for victims of Avast deceptive privacy claims
- In court filing the administration says that the CFPB will continue to operate, though it may be streamlined
- Chicago: Man gets more than five years prison for PPP fraud; got $1.5 million
- Maryland: Former Baltimore finance employee gets four years prison for bribery and PPP fraud
- Sacramento: Man charged with PPP fraud; got $3 million
- Memphis: Woman pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $5 million
- Philippines: Police arrest 450 people in scam center run by Chinese
- 2000 people from India are working in Myanmar scam compounds; some willingly
- Cambodia frees 215 in raid on scam compound
- Philippines: Two rescued who had been recruited for work at scam compound in Laos
- Malaysia: 42 from other countries arrested at scam compound that was doing investment and romance fraud as well as gambling
- Nepal: Internet service providers and telcos working with police to detect unusually high levels of use that reveal scam centers
- Cambodia raids two scam compounds; detains more than 200 foreigners
- New Jersey: Man gets 41 months prison for laundering money from BEC fraud
- Canadian mining firm loses $500,000 to BEC fraud
- Seattle: Brazilian man extradited from Switzerland and charged over crypto Ponzi scheme; got $290 million
- Bytbit restores $1.4 billion in ether stolen in crypto hack by North Korean agents
- Massive amount of internal communications from Black Basta ransomware gang dumped online
- Large US newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises has large data breach; apparently ransomware
- Japan and Nigeria work together on crypto romance fraud; 11 in Nigeria arrested for collecting fraud proceeds; nine in Japan arrested for converting money to crypto
- Thailand: Five, including Chinese man, arrested for crypto romance fraud
- Nigeria extradites man to New Mexico over romance fraud
- AARP: Family fights to get Dad out of romance fraud: Part 1
- Canada warns citizens about travel to Ireland for romance fraud
- California: Three here illegally from China arrested for handling money from victims of crypto romance fraud; got $13 million
- FBI identifies possible targets of crypto romance fraud; reaches out to 4300 people; saves people $285 million