President Trump signs new Executive Order on cybercrime; orders DOJ to make prosecutions a priority
Google notifies 2.1 billion people to immediately change their passwords and set up multifactor authentication after surge in hacked email addresses used to steal moneyFraud 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: Six (from India?) arrested for scam that claimed to be calling as federal employees, told victims needed to keep money “safe,” sent couriers to collect gold that went to Texas jewelry store owned by Indians
- Texas: Man from India gets 43 months prison for selling counterfeit cancer drugs
- Canada: Ontario Provincial Police arrest two men for grandparent fraud
- Canada: Ontario Provincial Police arrest three who called supposedly from bank saying debit card was compromised and then went to home to collect card
- Of a dozen cosmetics products purchased on Amazon from third party sellers almost all were counterfeit
- Meta removed 159 million scam ads last year, canceled 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts; now using AI to screen out scammers
- Texas: Police seize $101 million in counterfeit goods that man, who was arrested, sold on Facebook
- Canada: Windsor police arrest man over grandparent fraud
- Virginia: Man from India pleads guilty to SNAP food stamp fraud at store he ran
- Colorado: Man from Nigeria gets 78 months prison for international gang that engaged in both PPP and unemployment fraud
- Kansas City: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $487,000
- St. Louis: Tax preparer pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $1.2 million
- New Orleans: Man gets probation for PPP fraud; got $147,000; must pay restitution
- Virginia: Three men get prison for using stolen IDs of prison inmates to get unemployment benefits; got $670,000
- Tennessee: Man pleads guilty to using his tax preparation business to do PPP fraud that got $80 million
- Singapore arrests three who worked with scam compound operator the Prince Group
- Thailand orders seven foreigners, mostly Chinese, detained alleging that they were ringleaders of fraud compounds
- Cambodia says it will shut down all scam compounds by the end of April
- IRS releases list of “dirty dozen” top tax frauds
- Boston: Former IRS employee gets 18 months prison for filing fake tax returns; also stole social security benefits
- Cyber insurers say ransomware claims were flat last year; backup strategies working; more scammers now interested in theft of data
- Maryland: Russian man who was administrator of ransomware operation pleads guilty
- Hits large Georgia law firm the Sanders Group
- New York: Man from Ghana pleads guilty to being part of a romance fraud gang that took in $10 million
- Australia releases report on efforts of its fusion center tackling romance fraud
- Ireland: Nigerian man who acted as a money mule for romance frauds gets a year in prison; handled €49,000
- Hartford: Two men, one who lived in Venezuela, plead guilty to laundering millions from romance and other frauds
- South Korea arrests nine from Myanmar scam compound that ran romance fraud against South Koreans
- Iowa: Man (Nigerian?) gets nine years prison; got $1.5 million from victims