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Bob Sullivan’s AARP Fraud Podcast, the perfect storm, on sweepstakes fraud (includes segment interviewing me); (47 minutes)

New York: Two Nigerian men running a “black money” fraud shot and killed by scam victim

North Carolina: Three men (one from India?) get prison for assisting India-based tech support frauds; one created popups for computers, another connected phone number listed on those popups

Full report here

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Los Angeles: Chinese man gets 20 years prison for laundering $73 million for crypto romance frauds operating from SE Asia; cut off ankle monitor and fled; eight others in the ring also charged so far

Florida: Nigerian man who was extradited from Poland gets more than eight years prison for fraud worldwide fraud that sent personalized letters claiming victims had an inheritance; had to pay fees first; took in at least $6 million; eight others in gang already sentenced

Romance scam education:  Lots of organizations are educating about romance fraud in advance of Valentines Day.  Educating about this topic if really important, since once people have entered a “relationship” with a scammer it is nearly impossible to convince them that it is not real.

Full report here

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China executes 11 organized crime members linked to Myanmar scam compounds

China executes four more from scam compounds

India: Nigerian Yahoo boy, member of Black Axe, arrested for murdering his accomplice with a shovel and cutting off his head in dispute over $1000 in fraud proceeds

Identity Theft Resource Center releases annual report; data breaches up 79% over the last five years; number of ID theft victims fell sharply from 1.36 billion in 2024 to 278.8 million in 2025; ransomware was also down

83 year old man in Ohio who shot and killed an Uber driver who came to pick up money from grandparent scam gets 21 years prison

DOJ announces creation of new civil division and affirmative litigation branch; consolidates consumer issues

New scams in old bottles:  Years ago it was common for scammers to sell rare coins as great investments. Coins are graded on an MS scale, and for those most valuable it is very difficult for most of us to determine the difference in grade ourselves. Thus the scammers bought cheaper coins, claimed that they were a higher grade, and urged consumers to simply lock them away and wait for them to appreciate – which of course they never did.  The key was lying about the grading of the coins.

Of course no scam really goes away.  Now scammers are misgrading trading cards.  A jury in New York recently convicted  Anthony Curcio of meticulously faking grades to boost the value of big-dollar trading cards, including Pokémon trading cards and an iconic Michael Jordan rookie card, to rip off buyers seeking collectibles in prime condition.  His co-defendant, Iosif “Joe” Bondarchuk, had previously pleaded guilty for his role in the $2 million scam.

Curcio, youth sports coach, motivational speaker working with youth in the field of drug abuse and crime prevention, is a five time best-selling author of children books, and convicted bank robber for a Brinks armored car heist.

Full report here

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Florida: Man from India who was in the US illegally gets 18 years prison for acting a money mule; went to victims’ homes to pick up gold and other money; nabbed when he went to collect; picked up $6.6 million

Article explains what fraud losses can be deducted from tax returns

Los Angeles: Chinese man gets 46 months prison for laundering money from US crypto victims from Cambodia-based romance frauds; handled $36.8 million; must repay $27 million; eight co-conspirators have also pleaded guilty
 
Monica Whitty on the psychology behind AI Deepfakes used in romance frauds (podcast :13m)

Full report here

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Justice Department to set up new federal fraud section.   DOJ already has a consumer protection branch of its Civil Division, and that unit can also do criminal cases. And it has a Criminal Division.  Presumably this new unit is designed to tackle benefit fraud. But will this new unit include consumer fraud?

Aspen Institute releases survey the did in the US on consumer fraud

• 33% of US adults were victims of a fraud last year
• Losses were $42.7 billion; average loss $2499
• 10% of US adults lost money to more than one scam last year
• Only 1 of 12 reported this to police or law enforcers
• Many people felt blamed by banks or other institutions

GAO finds that one third of federal agencies lack fraud monitoring or evaluation; easier to prevent fraud than prosecute afterwards; losses to fraud estimated at between $233 and $521 billion per year

Full report here

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Spain launces major effort against Black Axe fraud gang; arrests 34

Microsoft sues in the US and UK to take down fraud subscription service with virtual computers called RedVDS

Full report here

Chen Zhi, head of massive scam operation in Cambodia the Prince Group, arrested and extradited to China; US had been indicted him and DOJ froze $12 billion in crypto from his operation

FBI report the victim’s lost $333 million at bitcoin ATM’s last year; double the year before

Small Business Administration suspends thousands of accounts in Minnesota over PPP fraud

Thoughts on fraud stealing government benefits.  Fraud is fraud.  Stealing money from the government simply spreads the losses among everyone, and takes money from those who have a legitimate need for those funds. Apparently 100 million people have now seen the Nick Shirly video on X.  The US Attorney’s office there says that they expect at least $9 billion in fraud against these programs.  And this is quickly expanding to many other states.  Not all of the fraud can be attributed to immigrants, of course, but anyone engaged in fraud should be prosecuted, and those in charge of these programs must do a better job of screening for fraud. 

Full report here

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NO FRAUD REPORT NEXT WEEK. WE’RE GOING ON VACATION

In joint operation Interpol announces 574 arrests across Africa for cybercrime; including BEC gang in Senegal and ransomware operation in Ghana

Financial Times video program on spies, scam compounds, online gambling, transnational crime and triads (30minutes)

Georgia: DOJ seizes stolen password database used to take over bank accounts; at least $28 million stolen; gang used fake websites of real banks and harvested log in information

FTC releases new Data Spotlight on home rental fraud

• Since 2000 65,000 rental frauds reported to the FTC
• Losses of $65 million; median loss $1000
• Those 18-29 three times more likely to lose money
• See my in depth study of this issue for the BBB in 2019

Wired: Chinese crypto scammers on Telegram are fueling the biggest darknet markets ever

Full report here

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An in depth look at unpaid highway toll scams; WSJ Video (4.42); 1 billion lost over last three years to Chinese gangs; they get credit card numbers and use US helpers to buy goods, sometimes ship to China

Full report here

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An in depth look at unpaid highway toll scams; WSJ Video (4.42); 1 billion lost over last three years to Chinese gangs; they get credit card numbers and use US helpers to buy goods, sometimes ship to China

Is the term “scam” helpful?  We often use the term scam as a synonym for fraud.  “Fraud,” is, of course, a legal term.  The authors of a new article suggest that for several reasons use of the term scam is inapposite. They contend that use of the term “scam” downplays the seriousness of the conduct, and can suggest that it is somewhat the fault of the victim.  A thoughtful piece.

Full report here