Baker Fraud Report

Kentucky :  Romanian man gets 140 months (11 years +) for fraud in selling vehicles on line that were not delivered; also ran two other scams

Good news on bogus debt collectors:  Efforts to fight bogus debt collectors, who often try to collect debts that consumers never owed, have dropped dramatically from 484,220 in 2018, 134,320 in 2019, to 120,190 in 2020.   This was once the top source of fraud complaints to the FTC. So what happened? Was it the result of enforcement?  Let me know what happened.

Review and Recommendation: Darkest Hour.  How in a disastrous situation and against the appeals of the British elite to capitulate, Winston Churchill consulted the regular people of Britain, found them willing to fight on, and saved the British (and much of the French) army at Dunkirk.  Very well done.  A best actor Oscar for Gary Oldham.  BBB Studies. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, apartment rental, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud and gift cards

Full report here

Brooklyn: Four arrested for counterfeiting $130 million in Uggs boots, Air Jordan’s, headphones; goods shipped from China and labels applied

Report:  $29.8 billion lost by U.S. consumers in the last year to phone scams; 23% of the public has lost money to these in the last year; 60% as the result of a robocall

Hackers offer to sell personal information about 100 million T-Mobile users on the dark web; including 30 million social security numbers, dates of birth

BBB Studies. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, apartment rental, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud and gift cards.

Full report here

AARP releases “Consumer fraud in America: The Black Experience”

• One in five have lost money
• More than half of victims have also been victims of another scam
• Most common are government imposters, lottery and work from home scams

The fastest growth in fraud is among those under 21 says new study

Tip of the week:  An alert reader reports that Marriott Reward points are being stolen and used.  This may be due to a series of data breaches the company experienced.  So this is a reminder to check your reward point accounts and frequent flyer miles from time to time so make sure someone hasn’t been stealing the awards you’ve earned.

Full Report here

UK fraud reporting system Action Fraud to be replaced; scams account for 42% of all crimes

FBI warns that grandparent scams now using couriers to pick up money from elderly victims; includes Uber and Lyft drivers

Solar Winds hackers got into email systems of federal prosecutors

Spanish-speakers most likely victims of grandparent scams says AARP

New Jersey: Two from India plead guilty; worked with scams impersonating Social Security and with tech support scams;  took in $618,000; used robocalls

Scammers are now using QR codes

Full report here

Top Stories  

Six Nigerians on FBI Most wanted list

In depth article on unemployment benefit theft in the U.S.

• May hit $440 billion
• Bots used to file for unemployment
• IP addresses from China, Nigeria and Russia
• Also Cuba, Eritrea, Fiji and Monaco

Study of complaints to CFPB about virtual wallets (PayPal, cash apps); finds they soared during the pandemic; how they work and protections they have (if any)

Why people can’t cut their losses; the sunk cost fallacy

Review and recommendation: High Noon, for which Gary Cooper won the best actor Oscar.  Excellent, and not a shoot ‘em up.  An honorable man faced with a town that won’t help.  Named one of the 25 best films ever made.

BBB Studies. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, apartment rental, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud and gift cards.

Full report here

Majority of counterfeit drugs seized by US Customs are for erectile dysfunction; massive worldwide problem; may be unsafe too

Ohio: Two from Romania indicted for fraud that advertised and took payment for cars, motorcycles and other goods online and never delivered; often pretended to be with eBay or Amazon; victim losses at least $9 million;  had network of people in the US laundering money

US says China was behind hack of Microsoft Exchange servers

Full report here

Top Stories  

New York: Long Island woman pleads guilty over sweepstakes mail scam where victims had to send money back; no one won; scam took in $30 million; most victims elderly

7 ½ years prison for Peruvian whose business called immigrants in the US, impersonated court officials/law enforcement, and threatened deportation; two coconspirators plead guilty  

23% of those in the US say they lost money to a phone scam in the last year

Fraud text messages supposedly from State agencies.  I’m in Illinois, and now get one of these almost every day, as do my neighbors.  Is it just the Land of Lincoln? I’ve not seen much on this topic, but it seems to be growing incredibly fast.

Full report here

News Nigeria: How Ray Hushpuppi became wealthy as a social influencer and how he laundered BEC funds

Singapore investigating 334 as money mules for BEC, romance, tech support and other scams

DOJ announces another $66 million in refund checks are going out to scam victims that sent money through Western Union

• To date more than $300 million has gone to 142,000 victims

Full report here

New FTC Chair Lina Khan names Chopra advisors Sam Levine acting head of consumer protection; Holly Vedova acting head of Bureau of Competition, and Erie Meyer as Chief Technologist  Dems now have 3-2 majority

Chinese propaganda app being used by romance scammers there; government censors reports on problem

New Google Pay app now lets people send money to India and Singapore through Western Union.  Are scammers close behind?

US, Europe, Canada jointly take down Double VPN network used by ransomware and phishing gangs; seize servers around the world

CBD products sold in the UK onn social media falsely claim celebrities such as Judi Dench endorse them; involve bogus free trial offers

Seattle:  Seven years prison for Ukrainian hacker extradited from Spain; stole millions of credit card numbers

UK Study find 96% of online scams reported to Action Fraud go unsolved; questions value of scambaiting; lauds Petscams.com

New fraud trend to watch out for:  The US government is now paying for the funeral expenses of those who died from the virus.  Not surprisingly, sources tell the Fraud Report that crooks are now applying for this money online and stealing funds.  And if the crooks are not in the U.S. they doubtless need mules to first collect the money.

Full report here

Consumer Survey on counterfeit goods

• 57% have unknowingly bought counterfeits
• 18% did so knowing they were counterfeits
• More bought on web sites than from Amazon, eBay

Review and recommendation:  Unsettled, What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters, by Steven E. Koonin, physicist at Caltech, Undersecretary of Science in the US Energy Department in the Obama Administration.  Everyone agrees that there is more Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is tough to pierce the fog of politics and media to figure out what data we have about climate change, how reliable is it, what does that data mean?  This quite readable book should help every informed citizen get a better grasp on key issues such as how much of climate change is natural, how much is manmade, and what are our options for dealing with this?

BBB Studies. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, apartment rental, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud and gift cards.

Full report here