BAKER FRAUD REPORT – news you can use
April 13, 2017
Police in India capture head of massive call center that was making IRS collection calls.
- Thakkar had fled to Dubai
- DOJ in US hopes to extradite him to the US
- Reports that he made a full confession
- India has charged over 400 people in this fraud
Pew study finds that most people fail a simply cybersecurity quiz
- Pew Research Center released a 13 question quiz about cybersecurity concepts
- Wanted to understand how well Americans know the issues and risks
- Found most people answered less than half of the questions correctly
- But discovered that those with a college degree answered the most correctly
New Zealand police investigate only 5% of fraud cases referred to them by banks
Ghana to set up national cyber security council to tackle cybercrime
NYPD warns of fraud calls telling people (falsely) that family members have been kidnapped
National Cybersecurity Alliance makes efforts to educate seniors about cybercrime
CFPB AND FTC
CFPB issues report on consumer complaints received in 2016
- Biggest source of complaints is debt collection
- 41% of debt collection complaints are that the victim did not owe the debt
FTC announces one day public program on hearing health issues
RANSOMWARE
Police in Austria arrest teenager that was doing ransomware fraud
Allege he bought software on darkweb
ROMANCE FRAUD
- Woman in Nigeria charged by EFCC with ripping off Swiss woman in a Romance Fraud
- 75 year old widow loses over $1 million to a Nigerian romance fraudster operating in U.S. Scammer and colleague arrested and indicted in Oklahoma City
TECH SUPPORT FRAUD
- FTC obtains injunction against Florida tech support fraud that sent emails to victims, supposedly from the FTC, telling recipients that they had a virus and needed tech support
- Australian consumer protection agency warns of dodgy pop up ads for tech support fraud; provide examples
ATM SKIMMING
- Police in Jakarta Indonesia capture two for ATM skimming
- Two Venezuelan men arrested in Kansas City for ATM skimming
IRS and TAXES
- Federal college financial aid system has data breach and loses info on 100,000 people; fear of bogus tax returns from this ID theft
- DOJ makes efforts to shut down world’s biggest botnet; used to send spam and malware used for ransomware fraud
- Man in Oxnard, California sentenced to ten years in prison for filing bogus tax returns
- Brothers charged with doing ID theft to file bogus tax returns in Ohio; one pleads and the other is now being tried