France to ban all marketing calls to the public except where there is prior consent to receive them
Consumer Federation of America reports that Americans lost $148 billion to frauds last year; up 25%
AARP: Is that real photo being used by a romance or other potential scam? How to do a reverse image search, and the tools to do it
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
- North Carolina: Nigerian man and three others get prison for laundering money for BEC, fake checks, PPP and unemployment benefit fraud; handled $1.7 million; gets 87 months prison and to be turned over to ICE for removal after serving time
- Michigan: Three, including man from India, indicted for fraud where they called impersonating the FTC and telling victims they needed to keep money “safe,” and requested gold or other assets; got at least $3 million
- Florida: Three Chinese men arrested for fraud that began as tech support and then told victims needed to keep money “safe” / How the group was organized here
- UK: Prison for two men (Nigerians?) over bank impersonation fraud; got victim bank card and ran up charges
- Canada: Two men from India wanted for apartment rental fraud that got at least $30,000
- Customs seizes $43 million of counterfeit designer watches headed for New York; came from Hong Kong
- India busts ten tech support call centers using Microsoft pop-ups; four arrested
- Washington, DC: Two men (Chinese?) arrested for government impersonation fraud where they went to victim’s home to pick up $200,000 in gold
- UK prime minister announces plans for new rules for subscription traps
- WSJ: Jury duty scam in Florida impersonated deputies, had victim send money from a Bitcoin ATM
- Connecticut: Man from Ecuador who was in the US illegally indicted over counterfeit US Treasury checks
- GASA International scam summit in San Francisco September 2-3
- FTC sues and shuts down credit repair enterprise that used 16 names and that took in $200 million
- DOJ settles case referred to it by the FTC against credit reporting company RentGrow; to pay $2.25 million penalty
- FTC sends $23.8 million in refunds to GrubHub drivers and diners over deceptive claims
- Wisconsin: Man gets 18 months prison for theft of three different types of benefits
- Baltimore: Former employee of Maryland Dept. of Labor pleads guilty to theft of unemployment benefits; got $550,000
- FBI Director says cooperation with Cambodia is key to tackling scam compounds
- Cambodia has deported 18,000 suspected scammers this year
- Virginia: Man from Byelorussia gets 16 years prison for operating ransomware operation; extradited from Poland
- Hits City of Coweta, Oklahoma; city refuses to pay
- Jamaica: Three arrested for lottery fraud
- How Jamaican lottery frauds launder their money through used car dealerships
- South Africa: Man arrested for online extortion of young man in Switzerland who committed suicide
- Atlanta: Jury convicts man (Nigerian?) of laundering $2.7 million for romance fraud; sent money to Nigeria, China, and Hong Kong