The Mail Is No Longer Safe In The United States

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

The Mail & the Post Office has been a Disaster For Decades

The U.S. Postal Service does a great job with the mail, and has great people doing a hard job! But this appears to be a losing battle!

The simple fact is that the mail does not always go through. If it did then there would be no FedEx, DHS, or UPS. Those companies were the response to a real problem of USPS reliability and performance. After all who pays much higher prices for service if the government service is reliable and safe?

Now we have arrived at a point that is no longer reliable, that the United States Mail is highly vulnerable.

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Social Media Prohibition!

US Judge Blocks Biden Officials From Contacting Social Media Sites

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

A Major Blow To The Biden Administration’s Attempts To Control Social Media

The Attorney Generals for Louisiana and Missouri have filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government is unlawfully censoring conservative viewpoints in violation of the First Amendment.

A federal judge, Terry A. Doughty, has ruled that several Biden administration officials are prohibited from contacting social media companies regarding the moderation of posts protected by the First Amendment.

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Jerry Moran Senate Campaign Scammed Out Of $690,000 In BEC Scam

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc., portions AP

Kansas Senator Jerry Moran’s Reelection Campaign Scammed Out Of $690K – A Classic Business Email Compromise Scam

Someone scammed U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s reelection campaign out of $690,000 by getting the Kansas Republican’s accounting firm to wire the money to fraudulent bank accounts, Jerry Moran’s office said.

Jerry Moran’s campaign treasurer, Timothy Gottschalk, notified the Federal Election Commission by email on Dec. 8 of “fraudulent activity by a third-party cyber-criminal.” The letter said that after the campaign notified a local sheriff’s office on Nov. 16, eight days after the general election, the case was forwarded to the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

The letter said that Senator Jerry Moran’s campaign received two fraudulent invoices that appeared to be from SRCP Media Inc., a Washington area company hired to handle Moran’s broadcast advertising. The letter said the campaign organization wired $345,000 on Oct. 25 and another $345,000 on Nov. 9.

“As soon as a discrepancy was realized, it was reported to law enforcement,” Jerry Moran spokesman Tom Brandt said in an email Monday. “We are currently pursuing all avenues available to recover the money and there is an ongoing investigation with the FBI.”

The Jerry Moran campaign’s email to the FEC said that as of Dec. 8, the campaign had recovered $168,184.

The FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into Senator Jerry Read More …

Israel Seized $1.7M in Crypto

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc., positions from Reuters and CoinDesk

Israel Seized $1.7M in Crypto From Iranian Military and Hezbollah With Chainalysis’ Aid

The Israeli government seized the crypto wallets after an order from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier this week.

The Israeli government has seized $1.7 million in crypto from wallets linked to the Iranian military and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon with the aide of Chainalysis, according to the Defence Minister announced and the crypto investigations firm.

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Europol Arrests 70 Scammers Plus Kingpin

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

Europol & Police Unplug International Phone Scam Network

The Kingpin and over 70 scammer associates were arrested by Europol and police partners; the network used pleas of “fake relatives” to extort victims for over EUR 5 million in damages

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2,700 Scam Slaves Rescued In The Philippines [VIDEO]

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

2,700 People (Scam Slaves) Tricked Into Working For Cybercrime Syndicates Rescued In the Philippines

Philippine police backed by commandos staged a massive raid this week and said they rescued more than 2,700 scam slaves – workers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and more than a dozen other countries who were allegedly swindled into working for fraudulent online gaming sites and other cybercrime groups.

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EncroChat Dismantling Led To Over 6,500 Arrests

By Europol & SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

Dismantling EncroChat Encrypted Criminal Communications Network Leads To Over 6,500 Arrests And Close To Eur 900 Million Seized

European Judiciary and law enforcement present the first overview of the results of EncroChat investigations!

The dismantling of the encrypted communications tool EncroChat, widely used by organized crime groups (OCGs), has so far led to 6 558 arrests worldwide. 197 of those arrested were High-Value Targets. This result is detailed in the first review of EncroChat, which was presented today by the French and Dutch judicial and law enforcement authorities in Lille.

The successful takedown of EncroChat followed the efforts of a joint investigation team (JIT) set up by both countries in 2020, supported by Eurojust and Europol. Since then, close to EUR 900 million in criminal funds have been seized or frozen.

The Dismantling of EncroChat

The dismantling of EncroChat in 2020 sent shockwaves across OCGs in Europe and beyond. It helped to prevent violent attacks, attempted murders, corruption and large-scale drug transports, as well as obtain large-scale information on organized crime.

OCGs worldwide illegally used the encryption tool EncroChat for criminal purposes. Since the dismantling, investigators managed to intercept, share and analyse over 115 million criminal conversations, by an estimated number of over 60 000 users.  User hotspots were prevalent in source and destination countries for the trade in illicit drugs, extortion, and fraud, as well as in Read More …

Pedophile Extortion Scam By West Africans

By French & Belgium Police, and SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

Extortion Scam: West African Scammers Accuse Men Of Being Sexual Predators – Some Took Their Own Life!

Police in France and Belgium say they have arrested 19 members of gangs involved in this extortion scam who sent people fake court summonses that accused them of viewing images of children being sexually abused.

People who received the extortion messages were threatened with prosecution and tricked into paying thousands of Euros in supposed fines.

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EUROPOL Arrests 43 Members Of An Organized Criminal Network In Italy

By EUROPOL

43 Members Of An Italian Organised Criminal Network Arrested

The large-scale law enforcement operation clamped down on a poly-criminal network abusing public offices in Calabria and engaged in numerous types of crime, including hacking and cybercrime, fraud, and money laundering.

43 members of the criminal network ‘Ndrangheta were arrested in the early hours of 27 June in a joint operation supported by Europol and Eurojust. Over 1 000 officers from Italian, German and Austrian law enforcement authorities cracked down on members of the Italian criminal network based in Crotone, a city in the Italian province of Calabria. Among the detainees from the criminal network, who are predominantly of Italian nationality and include German and Austrian nationals, is a High-Value Target believed to be a key player in this particular criminal structure. 16 companies, 25 real estate properties, and 15 vehicles worth over EUR 5 million were seized during the operation. The joint law enforcement operation saw the deployment of special forces, drones, canine units, and several helicopters.

Investigators found that the criminal network engaged in an alarming variety of criminal activities including:

• Corruption of local politicians;
• Manipulation of elections;
• Installment of confidants in crucial administrative positions;
• Collusion in public procurement tender procedures;
• Murder, violence, and extortion;
• Fraud (including online scams, cybercrime) and money laundering;
• Illicit waste trafficking;
• Criminal conspiracy with other criminal organizations.

Poly-Criminal Network Abusing Public Offices

Based on the evidence collected during the joint Read More …

Police Chiefs & Sheriffs: Use GoFundMe To Raise Money To Fight Cybercrime, Scams, And Fraud – And Obtain Tools & Training

By Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

The Fight Against Cybercrime Is As Much A Local Fight As a National Or International Fight

Local police & sheriff departments are the first responders for their citizens, but in the war against cybercrime, most of them have thrown up their hands and told their citizens there is nothing they can do!

But there is very much they can do, especially when it comes to tracing and recovering the money!

However, local police need financial support to get the tools, training, and even personnel needed to do the job well.

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Canadian Man Convicted in Multimillion-Dollar Psychic Mass-Mailing Fraud Scheme

By U.S. Department of Justice

A Federal Jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted a Canadian man today for perpetrating a decades-long mass-mailing Psychic fraud scheme that stole more than $175 million from victims in the United States.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Patrice Runner, 57, a Canadian and French citizen, operated a mass-mailing Psychic fraud scheme from 1994 through November 2014.

As part of the scheme, Runner sent Psychic letters to millions of U.S. consumers, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable.

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Nigerian National Sentenced to 82 Months in Prison for International Scheme That Defrauded Elderly U.S. Victims

By United States Department of Justice

A Nigerian national, who was previously extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom, was sentenced to 82 months in prison on June 21, 2023, for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme.

According to court documents, Emmanuel Samuel, 39, a Nigerian, was part of a group of fraudsters that sent personalized letters to elderly victims in the United States, falsely claiming that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain and that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left for the recipient by a family member who had died years before in Portugal.

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INTERPOL Issues Global Warning On Human Trafficking-Fueled Fraud

By INTERPOL

The NEW Scheme, Where Victims Are Trafficked To Work In Online Scam Centres, Has Shifted From A Regional Crime Trend To A Global Threat.

INTERPOL HQ SINGAPORE: For the past several years, INTERPOL has been closely observing a growing crime phenomenon: large-scale human trafficking where victims are lured through fake job ads to online scam centres and forced to commit cyber-enabled financial crime on an industrial scale.

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Dear Police Officers: Write An Email

Make The Extra Effort For Your Transnational Scam/Fraud Victims

By Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

Attention Police Officers & Leadership Concerned With Fraud

As a local police officer, you probably never considered this, but YOU CAN send a local victim’s complaint to police agencies in other countries on behalf of your local victims!

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The Cost Of Global Cybercrime

By Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.

Cybercrime is Costing Every Person on this Planet $750 per Year!

CONSIDER: Global Cybercrime Is Above USD$6 Trillion Dollars Per Year Now!

That Is $6 Trillion Dollars A Year in costs just from cybercrime! It Will Soon Pass $8 Trillion (According To Some Estimates).

Cybercrime is costing more than the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of 8 of the top 10 economies in the world!

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Repeat Nigerian Scammer Adedayo Ilori Gets 25 Years In U.S. Prison

By SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc., Portions U.S. Department of Justice

Repeat Nigerian Scammer Goes To Prison

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ADEDAYO Adedayo Ilori was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil to 25 years in prison for his participation in a sophisticated identity theft and COVID-19 loan fraud scheme.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Even while on bail for federal fraud offenses, Adedayo Ilori could not help but continue his repeated fraud and identity theft crimes. He saw the hardships and disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal government’s efforts to address those in need as an opportunity for fraud. He lined his own pockets and recklessly used the identities of dozens of victims. Today’s sentence sends a message to Ilori and others engaged in similar crimes that such conduct, especially when it is repeated, will be severely punished.”

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FCC Issues Historic $300 Million Fine Against The Largest Robocalling Scam It Has Ever Investigated

By Federal Communications Commission & SCARS Editorial Team

U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Imposes Record Penalty Against Transnational Illegal Robocalling Operation

Robocalling Scammers Who Placed Five Billion Auto Warranty Robocalls Fined Nearly $300 Million for Robocall and Spoofing Violations

The Federal Communications Commission today issued a record-breaking $299,997,000 fine for auto warranty scam robocalling made by the largest illegal robocall operation the agency has ever investigated. An international network of companies violated federal statutes and the Commission’s regulations when they executed a scheme to make more than five billion robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers during a three-month span in 2021, including violating federal spoofing laws by using more than one million different caller ID numbers in an attempt to disguise the true origin of the robocalls and trick victims into answering the phone.

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