Baker Fraud Report

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Dallas: Fourteen people (some Nigerians?) indicted for conspiracy that raided bank accounts across the US; got $370 million; ringleader arrested fleeing the country at the airport

Internation effort disrupts malware systems; often those supporting ransomware franchisees; 235 servers seized

India raids two call centers targeting US victims and that impersonated US government officials; 242 people worked there; four arrested

Gift Card Fraud.  One thing all fraudsters have in common is that they need a way to get the money from victims that is simple and hard to track.  One method is to get victims to buy a gift card.  This is essentially like sending them cash.   Once they have the numbers on the back of the card they can quickly grab and spend your money Check out my BBB study on gift cards.  There has also been a marked increase in scammers stealing the gift cards, altering them, and returning them to the rack. When someone buys one and puts money on them, the frauds can quickly drain them.  Law enforcement has busted some large gift card rings over the last several years; mostly operated by people from China.  Finally, you can check the balance on many gift cards by going to the web site of the store. Scammers have now created copycat sites, and can steal the gift card information of those who log in to the fake sites.

Full report here

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North Korea behind $6 billion hack of Binance, world’s largest crypto exchange

Hackers are hitting and shutting down supermarket freezers in Europe

Rental fraud.  People looking for an apartment or house to rent either to live in or for a vacation will usually start with an online search. But the scammers are all ready with fake listing.  It just takes a photo stolen from a website and a listing to hook victims.  See my in depth study about this type of fraud.  Of course this still continues, and only a few scammers are located and arrested.  More can be done to stop this.

Full report here

WSJ: Gift card scammers go online; create fake sites where you can check the balance, steal credentials and then scammers take the money on the card

San Diego: Last of 25 defendants, most of them Chinese and some here illegally plead guilty to laundering $65 million from victims of India-based tech support fraud

Rhode Island: Nigerian man who had fled the US in 2019 arrested on arrival at Logan Airport in Boston; had laundered millions from romance fraud, online shopping, sweepstakes and other frauds

DOJ releases annual report to Congress on activities affecting older Americans

Scammers call and have police raid home of Canadian woman who refused to go along with scam

Full report here

FTC sends Congress its annual report on fraud affecting older consumers

• Reported losses by those 60 or older went up 400% from 2020 to 2025, from $600 million to $3 billion
• Top frauds by this cohort were investments (crypto romance frauds?) and business and government impersonation frauds
• Most large losses were sent by bank to bank wire transfers or crypto
• Older consumer less likely overall to be victims, but lose more money

President signs new federal Romance Scam Prevention law; requires dating sites and apps to reach out to all who have interacted with anyone the site removes for fraudulent activity

New study on online shopping, our most common fraud, found that of 250,000 sites analyzed, 100,000 were frauds; now sites are using AI to make them look more real

Online Shopping Fraud. This topic is the largest source of fraud complaints.  People find fantastically low prices for goods on Facebook, and increasingly on Google searches. But the goods never arrive at all, or are counterfeit, and often goods that do get sent are completely different than those advertised.  Its no surprise that most of this involves China, and is a major industry there.  And now with AI to create fake web pages this fraud is easier to conduct than ever.  People who complain to their payment mechanism, whether a credit card of PayPal, may well be able to get their money back.  For more detail, see my study on this topic.

Full report here

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Brooklyn: Cybersecurity expert pleads guilty to ransomware scheme where he claimed he could fight ransomware without paying; actually did pay ransom secretly in many cases, but got paid far more; charged clients $19 million; paid $8 million in ransom

North Carolina: Dual US/Ukrainian man pleads guilty to running a massive fraud money laundering operation; had 15,000 money mules in network; at least $10 million stolen from hacked US bank accounts

DOJ announces results of major international effort to fight frauds concentrating on Nigeria and Ghana last week; dozens arrested; 3.7 accounts removed; over 100 victims trapped working in scam call centers rescued

Nonexistent Pets.  People looking for a puppy or kitten often begin their search online.  But crooks steal cute photos and advertise them for sale online, often for less than real puppies sell for.  Those who agree find that there are additional costs at each stage, claiming they need to pay for special crates, shots, airport fees etcetera.  But the pets don’t exist and never arrive.  See my original study on this here. 

Tips: Do a reverse image search of pet. And get the seller to connect on zoom with a copy of today’s version of the local newspaper.  Petscams.com is a not for profit that is a great place to research and report these frauds.

Full report here

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Fraud Studies.  Over the next few weeks I’m going to revisit and highlight some of the studies I did over the last few years.  Most of the essential information about them and how they operate remains equally true today, but I’ll note where significant things have changed.

Crooked Movers. If you are planning a move many people just get on line and look for someone local with a great price. Crooks will give you a great price over the phone without first actually looking at what you have. Honest movers will want to see the goods in person.  So after the crooks appear and load up they will announce that the price has dramatically increased – and must be paid in cash.  Or they arrive at the new place and demand more money before they unload. And if you don’t or can’t pay they simply drive away with your goods. Recently a Kansas warehouse has been trying to reach out and return the goods of hundreds of people.  So take a look at my study if you are planning a move:

Two tips: use a major company (its worth it), and in ANY move put an Airtag in your goods so you can track where they are.

Full report here

WSJ: How Romanian gangs are using ATM skimming techniques to rip off US welfare benefit cards

FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center reissues warning of government impersonation scams with data from January 2026 through July

• Some impersonate IC3 itself
• 61,000 complaints of law enforcement or government impersonation scams, with losses totaling more than $1.6 billion
• Jury duty frauds had 6,833 IC3 complaints involving this kind of scam, with losses totaling nearly $36 million.
• Claims that passports, drivers licenses or other items are expiring 496 IC3 complaints involving this kind of scam, with losses totaling more than $348,000

Full report here

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FTC takes major action against Amway multilevel marketing operation; follows earlier case from twenty years ago finding Amway operated legitimately; to pay $225 million; may permit Anway to continue operating as is in other countries

South Africa arrests six members of Black Axe gang to the US over romance fraud

WSJ Vigilante who spends his days finding fake job recruiters and fraud; mainly on LinkedIn

Full report herehttps://mailchi.mp/f849365aac6b/baker-fraud-report-9596968?e=4dd04c925b

Atlanta: Russian man charged with huge bank account takeover fraud; used phony copycat bank web sites to steal sign in data and then stole money; was extradited from the country of Georgia; got “millions”

• Where do scam compounds move to? With Thailand and Cambodia cracking down on scam compounds with huge call centers that made many billions, there is surely a temptation to replicate those efforts.  There are indications that at least some have moved to places like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and Ukraine.  Of course these massive operations need at least tacit support from the local governments.

Full Report here

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DOJ announces creation of nationwide Fraud Detection Center

FBI investigating online company that advertises scans of 153 million driver’s licenses from the US and Canada

Europol announces that the US, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria have taken down a botnet that has affected 11 million computers and that has been running for twenty years

Canada sees fraud losses in the first six months of the year reach $351 million; nearly half of that is investment fraud (meaning crypto romance fraud)

Does shutting down huge scam compounds eliminate fraud?  Its hard not to be happy that these massive centers that kidnap people and rob people across the world are being close down.  But my experience is that when large fraud centers are closed a raft of small ones quickly emerges.  And former employees and managers have developed the skills and expertise to run these new operations.  It looks like these frauds are simply moving to different countries or setting up shop clandestinely in smaller units. So the fight against fraud has to continue.

Full report here