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UK and Romania bust ATM skimming gang; 18 searches, 2 arrested to date
Amnesty International visits 53 scam compounds in Cambodia; issues report; kidnappings, beating
Part Nine on Fraud gangs: Nigerian Black Axe. This “confraternatity” seems to have emerged from Nigerian college campuses. It goes not appear to be the only one that did. And now Black Axe operates worldwide. For example, Black Axe has partnered with the Italian mafia to control prostitution in Italy. The Black Axe has even had Facebook pages for chapters in major cities in (at least) North America, including Toronto, Houston, Atlanta and Washington DC. Though we do not tend to think of violent crime being involved in frauds, Police agencies investigating the organization state that it does engage in violence.
And in addition to its work with a wide variety of fraud around the world, it is also engaged in international drug dealing, sometimes using romance scam victims, for example, to carry seriously illegal drugs from country to country.
Scammers operate as a network. For example, just one Western Union location in London had thousands of complaints from victims who had been instructed to send their money to that location for a variety of scams. But how did the scammers know who was behind each transaction so that the proper fraudster could get paid? And what if that location were stealing part of that money? Of course there are scammers that rob each other. But since frauds cannot go to the police to enforce their agreements, it seems likely that Black Axe and other organized crime groups serve this function.
Next up: China
Need an expert witness for consumer protection or fraud issues? Let me know.
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
- India busts several tech support fraud call centers
- UK: Which! bought cosmetics online at Amazon and other sites; 2/3 were counterfeit
- Taiwan has arrested 218 Malaysians for acting as money mules for frauds
- St. Louis: Man gets 23 months prison for stealing checks from the US mail
- Ways to talk to scam victims and avoid victim blaming
- Arizona: Woman gets 102 months prison for fraud in helping North Koreans get remote jobs with US companies; stole identities for applicants; generated $17 million for North Korea
- India busts fraud call center that impersonated US government agencies; arrests 3
- Maryland: Man arrested for tech support fraud; had gone to home of elderly woman
- Maryland: Man (Cameroonian?) gets 30 months prison for selling nonexistent pets online; conspired with those in Cameroon; got $930,000
- Nigeria arrests 32 for internet fraud
- Pennsylvania: Man (Indian?) arrested after he went to victim’s home to pick up gold bars; had claimed to be with the FTC
- FTC sends $336,000 to victims of student loan debt forgiveness scam
- FTC settles with business opportunity scam and gets ban on engaging in this activity
- Scranton: Man gets four years prison for PPP fraud; got $2.2 million
- Illinois Inspector General finds 375 state workers involved in PPP fraud
- Georgia: Jury convicts man of PPP and tax fraud; got $9.6 million from PPP
- Cambodia has arrested more than 3000 people at scam centers in the last month
- Ghana arrests 50 Nigerians at scam compounds, many there were tricked by fake employment offers
- Senator asks Starlink to cut use of its services by scam compounds
- Rhode Island: Man indicted for laundering $8 million from frauds, including BEC; kept 10%
- Canada’s CAFC works with Hong Kong police and recover $2.3 million from BEC fraud
- Australia: Sydney man arrested for $3.5 million BEC fraud
- UK: Cambridgeshire police arrest man for laundering money from BEC fraud; gets three years prison
- Washington State files suit to recover $7.1 in crypto taken in oil investment fraud
- Kidnappings increase around the world to make people turn over crypto
- India arrests man for role in Cambodia-based crypto fraud; handled $457,000
- Los Angeles: Man pleads guilty to laundering $13 million from crypto Ponzi scheme
- Homeland Security, with help of many agencies in other countries, takes down sites of Blacksuit ransomware gang
- Insurance giant Allianz life says that the “majority” of its customer data was stolen by hackers