CommsRisk once more has a story today about how Chinese organized crime is recruiting people online to drive around with SMS Blasters installed in their vehicles. https://commsrisk.com/thais-caught-with-smishing-sms-blaster-say-chinese-boss-paid-75-per-day/ In many countries, notably NOT the United States, government telecom regulations has made…
Category: CyberCrime & Doing Time
Ghanaian fraudsters arrested for BEC/Sakawa
In Nigeria, scammers who specialize in Romance Scams and BEC are called “Yahoo Boys.” In Ghana, the term for the same activity is “Sakawa.” Several Ghanaian headlines are talking about this case with headlines such as “Multimillion dollar Sakawa” or…
Operation Chakra V: Call Center Scammers and your PII
Here we have another cautionary tale about off-shoring customer service when faced with the reality of Call Center Scams that commit fraud via Tech Support Scams and Government Impersonation. In this case, FirstIdea, an Indian company is charged with committing…
Project Red Hook: Chinese Gift Card Fraud at Scale
Project Red Hook is a Homeland Security Investigations operation examining how Chinese Organized Crime is committing wholesale Gift Card Fraud by using Chinese illegal immigrants to steal gift cards, reveal their PIN, reseal the cards, and return them to store…
$50 Million in BEC Losses
The Eastern District of New York has announced charges against four men for their roles in a Business Email Compromise (BEC) and romance scams. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/four-individuals-charged-connection-business-email-compromise-schemes-and-related-0 The US Attorney’s Office press release states: Defendants Allegedly Participated in Fraudulent Schemes That Resulted…
Millions and Millions of Fraud Domains: China attacks Illegal Gambling and Telecom Fraud
Last week I was reviewing a publication by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime published in January 2024, titled “Casinos, Money Laundering, Underground Banking, and Transnational Organized Crime in East and Southeast Asia: A Hidden and Accelerating Threat.”…
BEC Scammers Adventures on the Run
Last week the case of Valentine FOMBE was finally brought to a close. FOMBE was sentenced to 144 months in Federal prison and ordered to pay $325,856 in restitution to victims of Business Email Compromise scams that he conducted from…
Maryland Busts $9.5 Million #BEC Money Laundering Ring
Three indictments have been unsealed in Maryland that document an extensive network of shell companies that were used to wash at least $9.5 Million in funds from at least fifteen #BEC (Business Email Compromise) cases across the country. In…
Identification Documents: an Obsolete Fraud Countermeasure
When I’m talking to bankers and other fraud fighters, I often mention how easy it is for a criminal to obtain a Drivers License bearing any information they desire. I was reminded of this again as I saw the sentencing…
Classic Baggie: Part Three – the Romance Scam Victims
If you are just joining us, we are reviewing the court transcripts of a Business Email Compromise / Romance Scam Money Laundering case. Part One reveals “Classic Baggie: A Delaware BEC Case calls him the leader of an International Criminal…
Book Review: The Crypto Launderers: Crime and CryptoCurrencies
The Crypto Launderers: Crime and Cryptocurrencies from the Dark Web to DeFi and Beyond – by David Carlisle I wish I had a way to review this book without having first read last year’s “Tracers in the Dark.” While…
Classic Baggie: Part 2 – How to run a Money Laundering Operation
In Part 1 of this story Classic Baggie: A Delaware BEC Case calls him the leader of an International Criminal Organization the prosecutor in the case of Olugbenga Lawal has given his opening arguments, where he calls Classic Baggie the…
Classic Baggie: A Delaware BEC Case calls him the leader of an International Criminal Organization
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Delaware charged Olugbenga Lawal with being a major money launderer for a Nigerian-based international criminal organization that specialized in Business Email Compromise (#BEC) and Romance Scam. Lawal was charged with receiving more than $3 million…
Vietnam’s Massive CAPTCHA crackers vs. Microsoft DCU
Earlier this month, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit was featured in a WIRED article by Lily Hay Newman – Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit Goes Deep on How It Disrupts Cybercrime. In part, the article discusses MS-DCU’s case against the hackers that they…
China continues Pig-Butchering Crack-down
One of my techniques for keeping current on Cybercrime trends is having an “interesting” collection of international news ticklers. This story came to me via X:CyberScamMonitor via a QQ account called “onCambodia.” @CyberScamMonitor is a Twitter/X account and Substack account…
Mirror Trading International’s Cornelius Johannes Steynberg and his $3.4 Billion USD Default Judgement
Some of you may have heard that students in UAB’s Investigating Online Crimes class have been researching Crypto Investment Scam websites. You can find a list of some of the sites we’ve identified so far on URLScan.io using our tag…
Watching a Crypto Investment Scam WhatsApp Group
If your online accounts are like mine, almost every day I’m “force joined” to a new Telegram group where a crypto investment scammer tries to tell everyone how great their scam investment site is. This week, I started getting added…
SIM Swapping, Crypto Theft, and Sentencing in the United States
As you know from the title of my blog, “CyberCrime & Doing Time,” I’m very interested in cybercrime and the criminal justice system. This week I’ve been looking at SIM Swapping cases and wanted to share what I learned from…