Wednesday, October 01, 2025

New service for phishing scammers – now we have SpamGPT

 

SCOTUS majority says Trump can ignore precedent if the majority doesn't like it

A 90-year-old precedent meant nothing to the majority allowing Trump to fire an FTC commissioner during litigation. This is no way to run a court, let alone a country.











Brooklyn: DOJ indicts two members of the Jalisco drug cartel for operating call centers in Mexico reaching out to US owners of Mexican timeshares claiming they had a buyer; operated ten years; the  two are not yet in custody

 
Interpol operation involving 40 countries seizes $440 million from romance, BEC and other frauds
 
Nevada: Woman pleads guilty to scheme that mass mailed notices to victims telling them they had won and needed to send a small sum to claim prize; took in $15 million
 
Scams or Fraud – Is there a difference?  I’ve heard some people believe that  these terms have legal significance.  To prove fraud, of course, requires that the perpetrator did it intentionally, that it was not a mistake for example.  Normally that isn’t too hard to prove.  I suspect that the term “scams” developed as a shorthand and suggests that they have a lesser significance.  But for my purposes they are the same, and the term scams is not meant to downplay the seriousness of the activity.
 
Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraudromance fraud; BEC fraudsweepstakes/lottery fraud,  tech support fraudromance fraud money mulescrooked movers, government impostersonline vehicle sale scamsrental fraud, gift cards,  free trial offer frauds,  job scams,  online shopping fraud,  fake check fraud and crypto scams
 
Fraud News Around the worldHumor FTC and CFPBArtificial Intelligence and deep fake fraudBenefit Theft Scam CompoundsBusiness Email compromise fraud 
Bitcoin and Crypto FraudRansomware and data breachesATM Skimming                                                         Romance Fraud and Sextortion