Arizona: Nigerian man gets more than four years prison for BEC, Romance, fake check, and romance scams; hired people with online jobs and used them to assist the frauds; worked with others in Malaysia;  which extradited him to the US

Florida: One man extradited from Spain (Nigerian?) pleads guilty to inheritance scam; send mail to older victims and told them  to pay money for various fees to get their money; six others charged; got $6 million; used former victims as money mules

DOJ arrests founder of BreachForum, worlds largest hacking forum; takes down marketplace

Australia warns of sharp jump in bank impersonation scams; victims get text from the bank phone number, claiming to be security; ask victims to transfer their money to “keep it safe”

Full Report here

San Diego: Six members of Romanian organized crime gang arrested; laundered jewelry stolen from elderly people in the area, also for theft of unemployment benefits; much money went back to Romania; losses at least $1.4 million

UK’s Which? reports survey on mass marketing fraud there

• Nearly nine in 10 adult internet users have encountered content online which they believed to be a scam or fraud.
• Nearly half of adult internet users have personally been drawn into engaging in an online scam or fraud, while four in 10 knew someone who had fallen victim.
• A quarter of those who said they’d encountered online scams lost money as a result, with a fifth being scammed out of £1,000 or more.
• Three in 10 experienced a potential scam or fraud via email, just under a quarter via social media and just under a fifth through websites and apps.

Brooklyn: New Jersey man pleads guilty to mass mail campaign claiming victims had won a prize or part of a legal settlement (they had not), took in $1.6 million; he did that while awaiting sentencing for another mass mail campaign claiming people had won and needed to pay $20 to claim winnings (no one won) that took in $50 million

Issue of the week, Recidivism by Fraudsters:  A fraud expert and regular reader noted the story above, and suggested that convicted confidence crime criminals (for example, people who do mass marketing fraud and who work in boiler rooms, commit mail fraud, or engage in on-line frauds such as romance scams) have a high rate of re-arrest and continue to be involved in fraud crimes.  

One study (by Weisburd & Waring, 2001) found that many criminals in street gangs tend to “age out” of criminal life, but that  “white collar” criminals have long careers and possibly learn more tricks and stay in the scam game. This study also found that 62% of those who commit the crimes of mail, credit, or false claims are re-arrested for another crime — a high rate of recidivism. 

I’ve surely seen convicted scammers return to their ways after being convicted, and romance scammers often point to the absence of prior arrests in seeking lighter sentences. So:

• Are scammers less likely to be caught and prosecuted?
• Do they tend to get shorter sentences because they don’t have prior arrests? 
• And are they more likely to continue to engage in fraud after their jail time?
• What other data bears on the recidivism rates for con criminals?

Let’s open this discussion up, and let me know what your experience is.

Full report here

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Watch out! Scammers are already taking advantage of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to register deceptive domain names and to send phishing emails

FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center 2022 fraud report

• Losses reported more than doubled since 2020; $4.2 billion in 2020, $10.3 billion in 2022
• BEC scams increasingly asking for crypto as payment
• Investment frauds were top source of complaints; losses to that more than doubled from $1.4 billion in 2021 to $3.31 billion
• Tech support and government impersonation both up sharply
• Largest number of complaints from victims 30-39, though 60+ lost more money
• ID theft, lottery fraud, counterfeit goods down somewhat
• Phishing complaints were number 1 complaint topic
• State by state breakdowns here

US and German authorities take down infrastructure of darkweb crypto money laundering mixer ChipMixer; had laundered €2.73 billion

France 24 TV:  Mafia Africa:  A dive into organized crime in France

Full report here

BBB releases annual scam tracker risk report

• Total complaints and losses down slightly in 2022
• Online purchases still tops the list for most complaints
• Employment scams increases to number two, passing crypto
• Often these are work at home, where the “employer” sends you a check for needed items such as a laptop, and you are told to deposit that and send money to a supposed third party. But the check is fake

Canadian grandmother flew to visit romance scammer and was given clothes to deliver to him in Hong Kong. But buttons were filled with cocaine, and she is in jail there; scammer also arrested in Hong Kong

Full report here

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FTC releases 2022 data on fraud and ID theft

• Total losses reported of $8.8 billion; up 40% from 2021
• Total complaints were down somewhat
• Investment fraud was largest, and more than double 2021
• Those aged 20-29 reported more losses than those 70+
• Top payment method was bank transfers; crypto second
• Losses to business imposters tripled
• 22% of the time first contact was by text
• Breaks both ID theft and fraud state by state
• Down: grants, ID theft, internet service, online shopping, travel
• Up: Sweepstakes/lotteries; advance fees for credit/loans; payday loans; student loans; job scams; pyramids; romance scams

Interpol joins forces with law enforcement in Africa in four month operation; 11 arrested; action taken against romance and other scams

Full report here

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Six Nigerians indicted for inheritance fraud

Three lived in Spain; three in the UK

One has been extradited from the UK

Contacted victims telling them of big inheritance

But needed to pay “taxes” and other fees

Used other victims as mules

Chainalysis releases 2022 Crypto Fraud Report

• Losses hit an all time high of $20.6 billion (excluding FTX etc)
• Majority of that was ransomware
• Stolen funds up 7%
• Pump and dump fake tokens investments a major problem

Ponzi schemes up sharply in 2022; one quarter of them involve crypto; losses of $5.3 billion

PayPal has suffered a “credential stuffing” attack; 35,000 affected; thus crooks are hacking into accounts; if contacted by PayPal make sure it is really them

Full report here

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FTC releases data on romance scam complaint trends

• Report losses finally level off: 2019 $493M; 2020 730M; 20211.38B; 2022 $1.38B
• Extortion by asking for explicit photos and demanging money up eightfold since 2019; those 18-29 six times more likely to be victim of this tactic
• 58% of victims met scammer on social media
• Largest total losses though crypto; but more victims paid by gift cards, followed by bank wire transfers

DOJ announces it is sending $115 million in refund checks to 40,000 victims who used MoneyGram to send money to fraudsters

Thought of the week — Emotional damage by Fraud A couple of days ago a friend reminded me again of the real harm scammers inflict.  It is easy to focus on the money lost, trends, and what is new.  But the reality is that too much of the time people suffer trust in themselves, depression, and especially with romance frauds, suicide is not at all uncommon. 

Full report here

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Pittsburgh: Woman gets a year in prison for her work helping frauds in India call impersonating the IRS; she provided cell phones

New BEC gang dubbed Firebrick Ostrich uncovered; usually impersonates vendors instead of other employees; industrial scale operation

Las Vegas: Three indicted for scheme that mailed more than a million letters claiming the recipient had won a lottery and needed to send back a small amount to claim prize winnings; violated USPIS cease and desist order

World’s second largest chain of bitcoin ATM’s files for bankruptcy; operated mainly in the US and Brazil; lost much money to hackers

Full report here

Georgia:  DOJ indicts companies in India for conspiring with a VoIP company to send robocalls into the US

Scamadviser reports results of worldwide survey of online daters about romance scams

• 25% responding said they lost money to scammers
• Men reported losing three times as much as women
• 27% said they had seen fake profiles

BBB Studies. Here are links to the study topics of my studies: 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,  job scams, and online shopping fraud.

Full Report here

FTC examines data on frauds using social media

• 25% of fraud complaints say scam started on social media, for losses of $770,000
• Those 18-29 twice as likely to be scammed there
• More than half of investment scams started there; tops list
• Romance scams #2. More than 1/3 in 2021 found person on Facebook or Instagram
• 45% of reports about losses on social media were to online shopping; 70% never got the goods they ordered

Chinese young people held captive in Cambodia to take part in romance scams and other internet frauds against Chinese

Victim of moving scam finds her goods because she put an Airtag in the box

Scam complaints just the tip of the Iceberg?   Paper by FTC economist on who scam victims report to and how often; finds that only 4.8% complain to the BBB or a government agency

National Consumers League releases top ten scams of 2021; lottery scams top the list

FBI warns that scammers are impersonating real companies on job boards; realistic looking web sites

Thought of the week.   Before the American Revolution British troops posted in Boston fired on a crowd, killing several people.  John Adams represented these soldiers at their trial, partly to prove that they could get a fair trial in the Colonies.  In urging the jury to be fair he famously noted “facts are stubborn things.”  They are indeed, and in these fractious times we need them, and those reporting issues of the day, left or right, do us no service if they bury or misrepresent them.

Full report here