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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
- Singapore: Police arrest 316 money mules and scammers in anti-fraud push
- India busts call centres phoning the US with government imposter frauds
- San Diego: Prosecutors have a major effort to tackle fraud committed by Romanian gangs; at least some of them gypsies
- San Diego: Husband and wife get prison for laundering money for unemployment fraud and jewelry heists from homes
- New York: Bulgarian man pleads guilty to international scam that sent bills to churches; doctors offices and small businesses for Yellow Pages ads that never ran; brother also pleads; follows FTC case against them; collected money in Canada: made at least $1.24 million
- Ireland arrests nine members of Nigerian Black Axe gang; seize €1.1 million
- Cape Town police seize R100 million in counterfeit goods
- Boston: Woman pleads guilty to scheme to use stolen ID’s of those from Puerto Rico and then buy cars and arrange financing in their names
- Canada: Scammers in Alberta dressing up in RCMP uniforms to scam people in person
- Auto glass repair people roam parking lots in Florida; offer to fix cracked windshields; send huge bills to insurance companies; car insurance premiums skyrocket; only in Florida
- Los Angeles: Man gets eight years prison for SIM swapping, taking over social media accounts, impersonating Apple support; ordered to pay $1.2 million resitution
- Over 2 billion robocalls in the US last month
- New study finds 70% of people have been deceived into buying counterfeit goods in the last year; mainly online, and most on social media; younger people more likely to be victims
- Tampa: Man from India sentenced to more than four years prison for laundering victim money from scammers in India impersonating Social Security, FBI, and IRS
- South Carolina: Two men get one year prison each for sales of counterfeit goods such as team sports jerseys
Humor
FTC and CFPB
- FTC returns $3 million to businesses that paid for memberships in HomeAdvisers that were deceptively advertised
- CFPB resolves case with Bank of America over not collecting demographic data for mortgage applicants; to pay $12 million
Artificial Intelligence and deep fake fraud
Virus Benefit Theft
Social media
Kidnapping and forced to scam
Business Email compromise fraud
IRS and tax fraud
Ransomware and data breaches
- Hits largest real estate title company in the US; affects closings
- Attack on service provider CTS, which provides support for UK law firms
- Hits town of Nassau Bay, Texas
- Attack on French government unit that runs internationals schools
- Hits Vanderbilt University medical center in Nashville
- Attack on large US auto part retailer AutoZone; lose data on 185,000
- Hits Toronto Public library; systems to be down until the end of the year
- Attack on Egyptian fintech company Fawry
- Gang claims attack on Crystal Lake Health Center in Michigan
- Closes emergency rooms in two New Jersey hospitals
- European law enforcement bust ransomware operation in Ukraine; 4 arrested, 30 searches conducted
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
- Heco hack results in losses of $87 million
- Mastercard teams with AI company to fight digital money laundering and fraud
- Nigeria: Politician arrested for theft from crypto wallet
- Hong Kong citizens lose $15 million to crypto scam
ATM Skimming
Jamaica and Lottery Fraud
Romance Fraud and Sextortion
- Nigeria: Man gets a year prison for romance fraud; pretended to be white woman from the US
- Ireland arrests man for romance fraud
- Nigeria arrests three men for romance fraud
- Romance scam complaints drop in Australia
- India arrests man for romance fraud; used Facebook to contact victims
- Two women in the UK who are romance fraud victims set up operation to offer victim support services
- Tennessee: Two Nigerians arrested for romance scam; victim committed suicide
