Today's trust tip: How credible is that person on TikTok? Here's a checklist.
Hi there. Mollie here.
With more influencers and news sources emerging online each day, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to decipher if what we’re seeing online is actually true.
An Andrew Tate insider is helping Australian Nazis recruit teens
Nazis are in recruitment overdrive, targeting the young - and the rich. One of Andrew Tate’s right-hand men is helping them draw boys in.
Musk’s company just cut off internet to thousands of scammers who stole billions from AmericansMass Live
Myanmar military arrests 2000 at scam compound call center
Canada to set new national fraud strategy and to launch new financial crime agency
SpaceX says it has cut off 2500 Starlink devices at scam compounds in Myanmar
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
- Texas: El Paso police arrest man from India who went to home of victims to pick up money from government impesonation fraud
- Oregon: Man from India arrested when he went to victim’s home to pick up gold in scam that claimed to be FBI and victim needed to keep money “safe”
- Australia: Meal Kit company Hello Fresh pleads guilty to charges of running a subscription trap; operates in 18 countries
- SEC shuts down Microdot lending for undisclosed online lending business and debt collection issues
- Group says the US was hit with 2.56 billion robocalls last year
- Canada: Six in Montreal plead guilty to grandparent fraud targeting the US
- Europol effort arrests five in Latvia who provided SIM cards and phone service for investment and other cyber frauds
- Utah: Man gets prison for fake check fraud and also for renting nonexistent apartments in Hawaii
- India: Four arrested for making fake deepfake videos of investment experts for use in investment frauds
- Nigeria deports 192 convicted of online fraud; last batch includes 52 Chinese
- Nigeria identifies 12,000 involved in stealing Nigerian identities, getting access to bank accounts; apparently through phishing; several arrested
- Greek police investigating 1200 person scam gang that used phishing to get log in credentials to bank accounts; losses of €6 million
- California: Woman arrested over timeshare fraud; claimed victims were part of a legal settlement over timeshares in Mexico and victims had to pay up front; took in $30 million
- California: 20 indicted, 25 arrested in the same timeshare fraud
Humor
· Long list of dumb things lawyers report that their clients have done in court, including: "My sister is a public defender. She recently had a shoplifting case where the defendant was caught in possession of stolen goods which happened to match a list (also in his possession) entitled 'Shit to steal from Walmart.'"
Benefit Theft
- Los Angeles County charges 13 employees with theft of unemployment benefits; got $430,000
- Oregon: Italian man gets two years prison for using skimmer to steal $2.4 million in SNAP food stamp benefits
- South Korea issues travel ban for Cambodia after man tortured and killed at scam compound
- China arrests Chinese man who was head of Myanmar Scam compound that took in at least $115 million; gang had 400 armed militia protecting compound
- China boasts of crackdown on Myanmar scam centers
- Cambodia: Phnom Pehn police arrest 17 in romance fraud gang
- Outline of the experience of a person kidnapped into a Myanmar scam compound
- South Korean planning sanctions on Cambodia scam networks
- Malaysia says 110 of its citizens that had been trapped in scam compounds are safe in camps in Cambodia
- Australia limits sums that can be sent from Bitcoin ATM’s to $3250
- UK: London police arrest five for crypto investment scheme
- CNN ties a variety of frauds to one Bitcoin ATM machine
- DHS ties Chinese fraud gangs to gift card laundering
- Iceland: Online fraud complaints double there
- India freezes $270 million in crypto from unauthorized forex exchange; leader of gang arrested in Spain and India will extradite
- UK: Losses in reported romance frauds there caused losses of £108 million
- South Korea: Prison for three who worked romance fraud from Cambodia