International law enforcement effort shuts down crypto money laundering service that handled $390 million in funds from ransomware attacks; a Ukrainian and a Russian arrested in the country of Georgia
HHS releases federal action plan and campaign to protect older Americans
- Improve reporting; better coordination; work better with banks, etc.
- plan itself here
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
- Hong Kong Customs seizes $20 million of goods aimed for World Cup
- New Hampshire: Man (Chinese?) gets two to four years prison for tech support fraud; went to home to collect funds
- Canada: Toronto Police Service arrests woman over rental fraud aimed at foreign students
- How bank tellers try to help victims dealing with scammers
- UK man gets 35 months prison for rental fraud over social media that got 100 people for £70,000
- Customs in Indianapolis seizes 1578 counterfeit World Cup items
- Postal Service audit finds it lost $349 million to counterfeit stamps last year
- Scammers now claim to be selling oil tankers hijacked in the Strait of Hormuz
- Scammer who went to victim’s home to get gold gets only gold-wrapped chocolate coins
- White House nominates Brian Johnson to head the CFPB
- FTC moves for contempt against dietary supplement MLM over deceptive health claims
- FTC and four states sue World Professional Association for Transgender Health over deceptive claims about gender transition surgery for children
- FTC sues enterprise of 15 corporations operating online subscription traps that took in $250 million; undisclosed terms, hard to get refunds
- Alaska: Man gets two years prison for PPP fraud; got $170,000
- Jamaican woman listed on FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list over PPP fraud that got $32 million
- St. Louis: Man pleads guilty to rental assistance benefit fraud; got $284,000
- DOJ arrests seven in coordinated effort against group doing PPP fraud; got $205,000
- Columbus: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud; got $405,000
- Man gets 41 months prison for PPP fraud; got $475,000
- Viet Nam uncovers plot by Chinese to move scam compound to Viet Nam
- Cambodia arrests 193 foreigners in raids on scam compounds
- South Korea charges 23 for laundering money from a Cambodian scam compound; handled $11 million
- India charges eight in fraud spoofing Coinbase that got $20 million
- Memphis: Man indicted for crypto Ponzi scheme
- Ukrainian man pleads guilty in the US to ransomware fraud; got at least $150 million
- Murray County, Georgia, pays $200,000 ransom to restore systems
- Turkey: Police arrest Nigerian man for romance fraud where victim lost $2.5 million
- Morocco: Police arrest man from Ghana wanted in the US for romance fraud
- WSJ review of new book on Yahoo boys in Nigeria who commit romance fraud
- India arrests five, including two Nigerians, for running romance fraud ring
International effort takes down disrupts three families of malware
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
- US, UK, Canada, Denmark, Germany Netherlands partner with Microsoft
- $47 million money identified
- takes down 327 servers
- Malware, often targeting Wordpress, resolved
- Also takes down botnet used by groups
- Increase in scams taking over devices now 27% of reports
- Most common scam in stealing identities are scams claiming a problem with your online account or a "security" issue
- Second is job scams; lottery and prize scams third
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
- Virginia: Prison for seven in group that created counterfeit coupons and got $31 million
- Tacoma: Woman pleads guilty to ID theft to take over bank accounts and run up credit cards; got $228,000
- Michigan: Two arrested when they went to home of victim who had been told federal agents needed to keep money safe; nabbed when they came to collect $250,000 in gold
- Utah: Police arrest man from India, here illegally, who went to victim’s home to collect gold after caller, from Turkey, had impersonated federal agent and told her she needed to keep her money “safe”
- FBI warns that there are dozens of fake world cup websites
- Asia-Pacific scam networks take in $40 billion a year
- Dutch law enforcement hits operation that uses fake update notices to install malware; take down 106 servers
- Man gets 27 months prison for running illegal sport betting operation in Costa Rica; must repay $3 million
- Wisconsin: Canadian man gets three years prison for scam that mailed deceptive weight loss brochures across the US; got $1.2 million; failed to pay the companies printing
- UK: Prison for man who imported £4 million of imported luxury goods supposedly from Gucci, Prada, etc
- Long Island: Man (Chinese?) arrested after going to victim’s home to pick up funds for tech support fraud, supposedly after “refund,” victim took photos of courier and his car
- Boston: 15 charged in theft of SNAP food stamp benefits; at least 11 in the US illegally; got $1.4 million; beginning of a bigger effort
- Iowa: Man pleads guilty to PPP and bankruptcy fraud
- Fraudster who pleaded guilty to heading the Feeding our Future fraud scheme, and who fled before sentencing, is arrested in the Philippines for return to the US; fraud got $1.2 billion
- Leader of several Cambodian scam centers extradited to China
- 221 from Bangladesh repatriated from Cambodian scam centers
- Attack hits Belgian office supply company
- Hits Mount Royal University in Calgary; shuts down web site