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…
Category: CyberCrime & Doing Time
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…
Nigerian Money Transfer Company Linked to Romance Scam Money Laundering
On July 7, 2022, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced that Ping Express had been found guilty. Prior to this, their CEO Anslem Oshionebo*, their COO Opeyemi Odeyale (now imprisoned at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute,…
The new DOJ Law Enforcement Crypto Reports (TL;DR)
TL;DR? Good news! I read them for you! On 15SEP2022, the Department of Justice released their report “The Role of Law Enforcement in Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets” (66 pages). The first of the nine…
The new DOJ Law Enforcement Crypto Reports (TL;DR)
TL;DR? Good news! I read them for you! On 15SEP2022, the Department of Justice released their report “The Role of Law Enforcement in Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets” (66 pages). The first of the nine…
Chidozie Collins Obasi – COVID Fraud & Work at Home Scams
On September 9, 2022, the FBI’s Philadelphia office asked for help locating Chidozie Collins Obasi. OBASI is charged with being part of a conspiracy to steal more than $30 Million related to COVID Fraud out of New York. How did…
Three UK-based Nigerian BEC Scammers Used Construction Intelligence Service to Target Victims
On 10AUG2022 three Nigerians were extradited from the UK to the US to face charges related to their roles in conducting Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks against a number of US-based businesses. 43-year old Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo, 40-year old…
Please stop calling all Crypto Scams “Pig Butchering!”
Lately there has been a media-driven craze in the fraud community to call every crypto-investment scam “Pig Butchering.” I hope you will join me in canceling that term after you read this article. The term “Pig Butchering” comes from the…
Nigerian Money Transfer Company Linked to Romance Scam Money Laundering
On July 7, 2022, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced that Ping Express had been found guilty. Prior to this, their CEO Anslem Oshionebo*, their COO Opeyemi Odeyale (now imprisoned at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute,…
Nigerian Money Transfer Company Linked to Romance Scam Money Laundering
On July 7, 2022, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced that Ping Express had been found guilty. Prior to this, their CEO Anslem Oshionebo*, their COO Opeyemi Odeyale (now imprisoned at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute,…
That Job Your Co-Worker Emailed You About? Yeah … No.
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time My niece, Anna, is a school teacher in the Birmingham Public School system. Another teacher in the system got phished and the phisher sent an email to a bunch of…
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and CISA/FBI’s New Era of Transparency
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front I want to start this post with the most important thing right up top: The CISA.gov/Shields-Up page starts with this statement. PLEASE take it seriously,…
BEC Still #1, but Investment Fraud passes Romance Scams
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2021_IC3Report.pdf The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) has released their 2021 Internet Crime Report. The number of complaints increased by 7% to 847,376 from 2020 to 2021, however the…
Chinese Call Center “Runner” Pleads Guilty in Georgia
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time This week the Department of Justice received a guilty plea from Jianjie Liu, a Chinese citizen living in Texas. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/chinese-national-pleads-guilty-money-laundering-scheme In Call Center Frauds, there are many roles to be…
Online Shopping Reminder: If It Looks Too Good To Be True …
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time As we look towards the Christmas holiday, ’tis the season for freaking out and making poor decisions with regards to online shopping. Tonight a friend reached out to get my…
To the Black Axe: #GardaWillGetYou
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time You may recall from July that I am very impressed with the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) in Ireland. (See: “Operation Skein: The Irish Garda Target BEC Criminals“) While…
AT&T Free Msg: You know you shouldn’t click … so we did it for you!
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time If you live in the United States and have an AT&T phone, you are almost certainly receiving SMS messages that look something like this: AT&T Free Msg: August bill is…
The Taliban Leadership: By the Sanctions
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time The Taliban announced the leadership of their new Afghan government this week. As expected, there were many familiar names to those who follow terrorism sanctions. What does this mean for…
Hushpuppi Pleads Guilty: Sentence Estimate? 11-14 Years
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time On July 27, 2021, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, decided that his best plan would be to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison was to…
Nations come together to condemn China: APT31 and APT40
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time On Monday (19JUL2021) President Biden announced that the US and its allies were joining together to condemn and expose that China was behind a set of unprecedented attacks exploiting vulnerabilities…
Levashov Walks. Russian Spam King gets slap on the wrist
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time The US government and the White House like to talk tough on Ransomware. If you listen to Joe Biden, fighting Ransomware is a top priority of the US Government. He’s…
Levashov Walks. Russian Spam King gets slap on the wrist
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time The US government and the White House like to talk tough on Ransomware. If you listen to Joe Biden, fighting Ransomware is a top priority of the US Government. He’s…
Nations come together to condemn China: APT31 and APT40
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time On Monday (19JUL2021) President Biden announced that the US and its allies were joining together to condemn and expose that China was behind a set of unprecedented attacks exploiting vulnerabilities…
Operation Skein: The Irish Garda Target Nigerian BEC Criminals
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time It seems nearly every week that the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (the GNECB) announces a new arrest in Operation SKEIN. In a newly released featured interview, Ireland’s “The Journal”…
Say $6 Trillion Again … I DARE you: Examining the roots of a total BS Marketing Number
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time Disclaimer: The principle of Academic Freedom has been the same for 80 years or so. I do not speak officially for my employer. That isn’t how Academic Freedom works. This…
Say $6 Trillion Again … I DARE you: Examining the roots of a total BS Marketing Number
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time Would you like to see someone’s head explode? Observe what happens when I’m researching a topic and I see a headline like this AVG story which claims “Ransomware is set…
PPP Fraud or How to Use the CARES Act to Go To Prison
This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time If you are one of the thousands of people who fraudulently filed for a Paycheck Protection Program or PPP Loan under the CARES Act, pay attention! This blog post is…
Microsoft Exchange: Patching Too Late If Already Compromised
Read the original article: Microsoft Exchange: Patching Too Late If Already Compromised On March 2, 2021, Microsoft accused a Chinese APT group which they name Hafnium of compromising 30,000 Exchange servers. They announced four security vulnerabilities, known as 0-days, which…
Microsoft Exchange: Patching Too Late If Already Compromised
Read the original article: Microsoft Exchange: Patching Too Late If Already Compromised On March 2, 2021, Microsoft accused a Chinese APT group which they name Hafnium of compromising 30,000 Exchange servers. They announced four security vulnerabilities, known as 0-days, which…
The Complete Soldier Romance Scam Support Site
Read the original article: The Complete Soldier Romance Scam Support Site Yesterday we were reviewing a Work From Home “Mystery Shopper” scam, and ended by pointing out some of the scam shipping companies hosted on the same IP address. But…
Mystery Shoppers Challenge Gift Card Warnings
Read the original article: Mystery Shoppers Challenge Gift Card Warnings Have you ever seen those spam messages claiming they have a great job for you as a Mystery Shopper? After seizing a check from a client (and then shredding it)…
Phone Company Insiders Helped Global Sim-Swapping Gang Steal Millions in Cryptocurrency
Read the original article: Phone Company Insiders Helped Global Sim-Swapping Gang Steal Millions in Cryptocurrency This week law enforcement agencies around the world made press releases about the arrest of SIM Swapping criminals. The UK’s National Crime Agency says “eight…
Major Nigerian Phishing and BEC Actors, SSGToolz and CeeCeeBossTMT, Arrested by Nigerian Police and Interpol
Read the original article: Major Nigerian Phishing and BEC Actors, SSGToolz and CeeCeeBossTMT, Arrested by Nigerian Police and Interpol An Interpol headline on November 25, 2020 announces “Three arrested as INTERPOL, Group-IB and the Nigeria Police Force disrupt prolific cybercrime…
ENISA: Top 15 Threats: Spam, Phishing, and Malware!
Read the original article: ENISA: Top 15 Threats: Spam, Phishing, and Malware! ENISA’s Top 15 Threats report starts with this summary document: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-2020-list-of-top-15-threats <= Flipbook https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-2020-list-of-top-15-threats/at_download/fullReport <= PDF The list of the Top 15 Threats is an annual list from ENISA,…
The ENISA Cybersecurity Threat Landscape
Read the original article: The ENISA Cybersecurity Threat Landscape ENISA, the European Union Agency for CyberSecurity, met on October 6, 2020 to review their current recommendations and get any last minute changes. On October 20, 2020, they released a huge…
ENISA: Top 15 Threats
Read the original article: ENISA: Top 15 Threats The list of the Top 15 Threats is an annual list from ENISA, with only slight changes in positions for the various threats since last year. Malware remains in the Number 1…
US Victims of Indian Call Center Scams Send Cash to Money Mules Across the Country
Read the original article: US Victims of Indian Call Center Scams Send Cash to Money Mules Across the Country On November 6, 2020, the US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia announced the sentence for a husband and wife,…
Trickbot on the Ropes Part 2: The QQAAZZ Money Laundering Ring
Read the original article: Trickbot on the Ropes Part 2: The QQAAZZ Money Laundering Ring While shutting down the technical aspects of malware is critical (see Trickbot on the Ropes Part 1), the real disincentive to the criminals is when…
Trickbot On The Ropes: Microsoft’s Case Against Trickbot
Read the original article: Trickbot On The Ropes: Microsoft’s Case Against Trickbot Trickbot is having a truly bad time this month! While as of today, Trickbot binaries are being delivered by Emotet, there is every sign that they are struggling. …
RoboCallers Hit with Permanent Injunction by Courts
Read the original article: RoboCallers Hit with Permanent Injunction by Courts The Eastern District of New York has ruled in the case “United States v. Nicholas Palumbo, et al” effectively putting TollFreeDeals.com and SIPRetail.com out of business. These are the…
Chinese “COVID-19” Hackers indicted after 11 year hacking spree
Read the original article: Chinese “COVID-19” Hackers indicted after 11 year hacking spree On July 7, 2020, a Grand Jury in Seattle was presented with evidence about the eleven year campaign of Computer Network Intrusion being conducted by two former…
Hushpuppi and Mr.Woodbery, BEC scammers: Welcome to Chicago!
Read the original article: Hushpuppi and Mr.Woodbery, BEC scammers: Welcome to Chicago! There are quite a few West African scammers who try to explain away their wealth by claiming they are a “bitcoin entrepreneur” or “real estate investor” when in…
Nigerian Scam Spree stopped by Alert Bank Employees
Read the original article: Nigerian Scam Spree stopped by Alert Bank Employees ” If you watch criminal press releases you may be noticing the same trend we are — career criminals are getting busted when they mess with COVID-19 Fraud. …
College Students Beware
Read the original article: College Students Beware by Robin PughPresident, DarkTower Fraudsters are always quick to leverage a crisis for the purposes of cybercrime, and COVID19 has created a new target demographic of 14 million college students. As over 1,100 colleges…
College Students Beware
Read the original article: College Students Beware by Robin PughPresident, DarkTower Fraudsters are always quick to leverage a crisis for the purposes of cybercrime, and COVID19 has created a new target demographic of 14 million college students. As over 1,100 colleges…
More Covid Charity Scammers (hosted by Shinjiru Technologies AS45839)
Read the original article: More Covid Charity Scammers (hosted by Shinjiru Technologies AS45839) Last week we shared information about a particularly interesting cluster of scams that focus on their shared use of a set of nameservers where all of the…
Scam Everything – Opioids, NetFlix, Phish, Covid Charities, and Government Refunds in one network neighborhood
Read the original article: Scam Everything – Opioids, NetFlix, Phish, Covid Charities, and Government Refunds in one network neighborhood There’s a famous line in the movie Jerry McGuire where Tom Cruise’s character says “Show me the Money!” In online investigations,…
Scam Everything – Opioids, NetFlix, Covid Charities, and Governments in one network neighborhood
Read the original article: Scam Everything – Opioids, NetFlix, Covid Charities, and Governments in one network neighborhood There’s a famous line in the movie Jerry McGuire where Tom Cruise’s character says “Show me the Money!” In online investigations, I prefer…
SEC Suspends CoronaVirus Stock Pump-n-Dump Scammers
SEC Suspends CoronaVirus Stock Pump-n-Dump Scammers Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: SEC Suspends CoronaVirus Stock Pump-n-Dump Scammers
Map It. Zap It. Covid-19 and Rural America #GoodCovidDomains
This post may seem off-topic for my regular cybercrime and cyber security readers, but these are unusual times. Regular readers know that part of what my team at the UAB Computer Forensics Research Lab has been working on is looking…
Covid-19 / CoronaVirus Domains: a looming threat?
Covid-19 / CoronaVirus Domains: a looming threat? Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: Covid-19 / CoronaVirus Domains: a looming threat?
Following Putin Order, FSB Cracks Down on Russian Credit Card Marketplaces
Following Putin Order, FSB Cracks Down on Russian Credit Card Marketplaces Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: Following Putin Order, FSB Cracks Down on Russian Credit Card Marketplaces
CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Against Corona Health Fraud Affiliate programs
CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Against Corona Health Fraud Affiliate programs Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Against Corona Health Fraud Affiliate programs
CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Against Corona Health Fraud Affiliate programs
CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Against Corona Health Fraud Affiliate programs Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Against Corona Health Fraud Affiliate programs
What sites is Trickbot targeting?
What sites is Trickbot targeting? Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: What sites is Trickbot targeting?
IC3.gov 2019 Internet Crime Report: Its All About that BEC
IC3.gov 2019 Internet Crime Report: Its All About that BEC Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: IC3.gov 2019 Internet Crime Report: Its All About that BEC
IC3.gov 2019 Internet Crime Report: Its All About that BEC
IC3.gov 2019 Internet Crime Report: Its All About that BEC Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: IC3.gov 2019 Internet Crime Report: Its All About that BEC
The Guardian helpfully provides Privacy Policies for the 577 Companies with whom they may share your data
The Guardian helpfully provides Privacy Policies for the 577 Companies with whom they may share your data Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: The Guardian helpfully provides Privacy Policies for the 577 Companies with whom they…
The Guardian helpfully provides Privacy Policies for the 577 Companies they may share your data with
The Guardian helpfully provides Privacy Policies for the 577 Companies they may share your data with Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: The Guardian helpfully provides Privacy Policies for the 577 Companies they may share your…
How does a government censor the Internet? A rare peek from Jammu and Kashmir
How does a government censor the Internet? A rare peek from Jammu and Kashmir Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: How does a government censor the Internet? A rare peek from Jammu and Kashmir
How does a government censor the Internet? A rare peek from Jammu and Kashmir
How does a government censor the Internet? A rare peek from Jammu and Kashmir Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: How does a government censor the Internet? A rare peek from Jammu and Kashmir
Iranian APT Group Overview
Iranian APT Group Overview Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: Iranian APT Group Overview
Backdoored Phishing Kits are still popular
Backdoored Phishing Kits are still popular Advertise on IT Security News. Read the complete article: Backdoored Phishing Kits are still popular