Man from Costa Rica gets 15 years prison for sweepstakes fraud; calls from Costa Rica claimed to be from government agencies; no one had won; collected over $4 million; operated more than 15 years
New FTC Data Spotlight that looks at business and government impersonation frauds that want you to turn over funds to keep them “safe”
- Reports by older adults losing $10,000 or more quadrupled since 2020
- Those who lost $100,000 or more increased sevenfold
- One third of the money lost was sent in crypto
- These scams also begin as tech support frauds
- $690 million reported lost to this type of scam last year
Foreign gangs operating in the US: Foreign fraud gangs have at least thousands of people physically in the US who help operate the frauds. Some make calls directly; others send mail or email and may help set up websites. And of course these US based helpers launder money, open bank accounts, recruit money mules or go to the homes of victims to pick up money (or hire Uber driver or other couriers). Thus well over a hundred people from India have been convicted over this type of work. And Romanians fly in, set up ATM skimmers, and fly out. Many of these criminals are here illegally, either having crossed the border or overstaying tourist or student visas. When caught taking part in frauds couldn’t/shouldn’t they be deported?
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
- Kenya arrests Cameroonian man; wanted for scam selling nonexistent gold to Canadian investor
- California: Woman arrested in Thousand Oaks for advertising and“renting” properties she did not own
- India arrests 48 in July for a variety of cyber crimes
- New York: Two men (Chinese?) arrested for scheme to launder money from victims of tech support and other scams claiming your money was at risk; ran network of couriers that went to victim homes to get money or gold; collected $5 million but tried to get $18 million
- WhatsApp shuts down 6.8 million accounts used by fraudsters
- UK: London police arrest seven for sales of counterfeit football goods worth £5 million
- US Treasury sanctions four people and 13 companies who worked with Jalisco drug cartel in timeshare resale fraud; operated from Puerto Vallarta
- New York AG sues banks for condoning fraud in the use of Zelle payment platform
- Denmark zoo asks people to donate unwanted dogs to feed hungry predators
- Nebraska man stopped for no lights found driving naked and with truck full of stolen motorcycles and drugs
- FTC sends $743,000 in refunds to victims of student loan debt relief scam
- FTC settles with two companies that sold fake health insurance; to pay $145 million
- Atlanta: Jury convicts man of PPP fraud; got $3.4 million
- Chicago: Five indicted for PPP fraud that got millions
- Scranton: Man indicted for PPP fraud; got $850,000
- Detroit: Man from Beverly Hills charged with PPP fraud; got $3 million
- Buffalo: Man pleads guilty to $1.8 million PPP fraud
- Wisconsin: Three Chinese owned firms settle PPP fraud charges for $21.6 million
- West Virginia: Woman gets three years probation for PPP fraud; got $21,000
- Atlanta: Former federal employee and two others plead guilty to PPP fraud; got $550,000
- Brooklyn DA indicts man for PPP fraud
- Florida: Postal employee pleads guilty to PPP fraud
- Scranton: Man gets four years prison for PPP fraud; got $2 million
- War between Cambodia and Thailand arise in large part from scam compound money and tensions
- Philippines raids crypto scam compound; arrest 27 Chinese
- Viet Nam arrests two Nigerians, 19 Vietnamese, for laundering money from BEC frauds
- Texas: Fifteen men (many Nigerians?) arrested for laundering money from BEC frauds; handled more than $2.7 million
- Boston: Man pleads guilty to ID theft to steal tax refund; got $810,000
- New York: Nigerian man extradited from France; hacked tax preparers to do stolen identity refund fraud; got $2.5 million
- Virginia: Canadian man gets one year prison for online theft of Nonfungible Tokens (NFTS’s) by hacking accounts of artists
- Tennessee: Man (Chinese?) arrested for bitcoin investment scam when he went to victim’s home
- Thailand: Police arrest German man for crypto investment scam that took an Australian police officer for $1.1 million
- India freezes $4.8 million that came from scam that impersonated website of Coinbase, captured passwords to the real site and stole money
- New York: South Korean crypto king Do Kwon pleads guilty to fraud where he took in billions