Baker Fraud Report

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North Carolina: Nine years prison for man who sold contact information for seven million older people to Jamaican lottery fraud groups

New UK research study on the worldwide underground industry that seeks “returns” and refunds from online retailers

• Losses just in the US at least $1 billion/year
• This fraud is franchised to individuals, pay their tutors a percentage; scammers taught online
• Scammers have detailed knowledge of refund policies
• Often have business insiders help
• Many claim items not delivered, claim damaged, or return counterfeit goods

US House testimony by Erin West of Operation Shamrock on crypto romance frauds and SE Asian scam compounds; Chinese CCP tolerates and protects; US consumers lose least $10 billion a year and it is still exploding

New study looks at the use of AI in crypto romance frauds

• Interviewed 145 who worked at scam compounds
• Finds that 87% or workers at scam compounds do just the first steps at beginning contact with victims
• AI is routinely used in many parts of this fraud

Meta works with Starlink, DOJ, others to fight scam compounds; takes down 1.4 million fake ads; 63 arrested

Full report here

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San Diego: Man from China gets 12.5 years prison; ran a ring of couriers who collected $27 million from victims of tech support, government impersonation and refund frauds; changed money into crypto and sent it to India, keeping 18%

Rhode Island: Two executives of company that provided telco services to businesses in India they knew were tech support frauds plead guilty

Elderly California couple dead after wife sent large sums to fraudster pretending to be Tom Selleck; apparently husband killed her and then himself

Is that “local” business really where it says it is?  In the last issue I covered the FTC’s recent case against Premium Home Services, which ran google ads and offered plumbing, electrical, and other home repair services with “local” addresses and phones along with great (fake) reviews. But at least 10,000 victims found that calls really went to overseas call centers, who collected money and then tried, often unsuccessfully, to find someone who could appear and do the work. It is troubling that anyone would be able to game the online system this way, thought I fear that (at least) fake florists and locksmiths use the same tactics.  More law enforcement here – not to mention better work by Google – might be a real benefit to consumers

Review and Recommendation: I heartily recommend a series of fiction books by CJ Box that all involve Wyoming Fish and Game agent Joe Pickett.  They each have some sort of crime involving the state — though these are not typical mystery novels. And I think they are great for any sort of audience.

Full Report here

Vermont: Seven from Quebec indicted for grandparent fraud; went to victim homes to pick up “bail”

Full report here

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Nigerian law enforcement agency, the EFCC, says 60% of college students are involved in online fraud

Ohio: 25 convicted in BEC fraud run from Nigeria that stole $215 million and had 1000 victims

AI and ChatGPT can now create fake ID’s and other fake documents

Full Report here

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San Diego:  US works with Dubai and Chinese Ministry of Public Security to take down a set of crypto romance fraud call centers in Dubai

• 275 arrested
• Four wanted in San Diego arrested; one Burmese, three Indonesians

Washington: US Scam Center Strike Force announces major actions against Scam Compounds

• Shunda Compound in Burma operated doing crypto romance fraud
• Two Chinese men charged and arrest warrants issued
• $701 million in crypto seized
• Telegram channel used to recruit was seized
• 503 scam domains seized

New FTC Data Spotlight on Frauds that begin on Social Media

• Eight times higher than in 2020
• 30% of scammer contacts began on social media
• Reported losses from these $2.1 billion
• Online shopping was 40% of this
• Followed by crypto romance frauds and romance frauds

In joint action, Germany and Switzerland arrest 10 in raid on black axe gang for romance fraud and money laundering; includes Regional Head

Canada plans nationwide ban on Bitcoin ATM’s

Full report here

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Countries around the world join forces to take down a group responsible for denial of service attacks in which computers are directed to flood a target organization with phone or internet traffic to crash their systems and request funds to stop attack; servers seized, warning letters issued, and 4 arrested

New Jersey: Long time fugitive man from Germany gets 70 months prison for mass-mailings supposedly coming from psychics; scheme took in $14 million

WSJ: How Cambodia became Scambodia

• Scam compounds estimated to be 40% of GDP
• Estimates that they bring in $19 billion per year

India busts 52 bank workers across the country for assisting in cyber fraud; many of them set up fraudulent or mule accounts

SIM farms in the US, Europe, and elsewhere are rented out to send scam text messages

Scam messages claiming to offer safe passage through the Straits of Hormuz collect bitcoin from ships

Full report here

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South Africa court rules in favor of extraditing nine members of the Black Axe to the US over romance and BEC fraud

US files case to strip Nigerian man of US citizenship; was convicted head of stolen ID tax refund operation

FTC fraud data.  I’ve covered the annual fraud data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, and also data from Australia. I expected the FTC to release its compilation of fraud data for 2024, but I’ve not seen that. Sources report that even though the FTC has done this every year since 2008, it is not doing a fraud data book this year.  Sad to see. Of course the FTC has its tableau site where one can find data, but it is not nearly as easy to get the big picture. In my view this is a loss for the public.

Reviews and recommendation” We went to see Operation Hail Mary, at a local movie theater — and it is just excellent.  Written by Andy Weir, author of The Martian, it is very much a crowd pleaser, with stellar reviews — and no politics at all.  Sure to be one of the best movies of the year. And its worth seeing it in a theater on a big screen.

Full report here

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Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) releases 2025 data

• 1 million complaints, all time high
• 20 billion in losses, up 4 billion from 2024
• Extortion of young men most reported fraud
• Largest scam type was crypto romance fraud;$7.2 billion in losses
• BEC fraud levels still increasing, as are romance frauds
• Government impersonation frauds almost doubled
• Lottery frauds increased significantly, losses almost double
• Tech support frauds up 25%

VERY GOOD AND IMPORTANT!  Podcast with Erin West and two journalists on why and how Cambodia became a haven for scam compounds and crypto romance fraud (43m) Part 1 of 2

Indiana adopts new law banning Bitcoin ATM’s

Full report here

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Australia releases 2024 scam data

• Losses reported increased slightly to $2.18 billion
• Complaints down 2.7%
• Top scam reported was investments, presumably crypto romance frauds; accounted for nearly half of losses
• Second were romance frauds, followed by BEC fraud and tech support fraud

WSJ says India suffering from “digital arrest” scams in which callers claim to be from banks or law enforcement and must turn over assets to keep them “safe,” “may spread” to the US  

But it already does hit the US, and as readers know, it is already a serious problem

DOJ disrupts four domains used by Iran for hacking and propaganda

Germany leads international effort that takes down 373,000 dark web sites selling child porn and supporting frauds; headed by man in China

White House suggests system for getting money back to cybercrime victims

St. Louis: DOJ and Wisconsin AG get summary judgment order against timeshare exit company that did presentations at venues around the country; must repay $140 million

Full Report here

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DOJ disrupts four domains used by Iran for hacking and propaganda

Germany leads international effort that takes down 373,000 dark web sites selling child porn and supporting frauds; headed by man in China

Full report here