Online & Romance Scam

jagd messer · April 21st, 2023

Man who ran iSpoof site that conned Brits out of £43m jailed following Met’s biggest ever fraud probe

A man has admitted to running a website used by con artists to scam Britons out of £43 million - a major breakthrough in the Metropolitan Police’s largest ever fraud investigation.

Tejay Fletcher, 35, of London, pleaded guilty on Thursday to running iSpoof, a website in which fraudsters were able to appear as if they were calling from banks, tax offices, and other official bodies as they attempted to swindle victims out of millions of pounds.

The total losses to victims, enabled by iSpoof in the UK alone, exceeds £43 million, with the total global losses estimated to be at least £100 million.

Criminal callers posed as representatives of banks including Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, Natwest, Nationwide and TSB.

Thomas Short, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “As the leading administrator of the iSpoof website, Tejay Fletcher helped to provide fraudsters with the tools to cheat innocent people on a shocking scale.”

Fletcher appeared at Southwark Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to the charges of making or supplying articles for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, possessing criminal property and transferring criminal property.

Detective Superintendent Helen Rance, who has been leading the investigation, said: “He was the ringleader of a slick fraud website which enabled criminals to defraud innocent people of millions of pounds.

“We are doing more than ever before to protect Londoners from spoofing and cyber fraud and devised a bespoke plan to reach out to victims who were targeted via iSpoof.”

Detective Constable Ed Sehmer, said: “This investigation shows that despite what Fletcher and criminal online services often claim, that fraudsters who use them are anonymous, that’s simply not the case. Police can - and will - track down the people running and using these services.”

Mr Short said Fletcher’s crimes have caused “huge emotional distress and devestation” to victims.

“We want to encourage all those who think they’ve been a victim of a fraud to come forward and report it,” he urged.

Man who ran iSpoof site that conned Brits out of £43m jailed following Met’s biggest ever fraud probe 21 IV 2023.

When I read this I ask Why are are these Nogs here in the country?

jagd messer · July 19th, 2023

Scams cheat older Americans out of almost $3 billion a year. Here’s what to watch for

SCAMS:

KEY POINTS

• Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually from financial exploitation, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

• Impersonating the IRS was the number one scam targeting seniors in 2018.

• One in 10 Americans age 65 or older who lives at home will become a victim of abuse, according to recent testimony from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually from financial exploitation, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
Impersonating the IRS was the No. 1 scam targeting seniors in 2018.

More than 1,500 seniors across the country contacted the committee’s fraud hotline in 2018; however, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in recent testimony that only 1 in every 24 cases of elder exploitation gets reported.

“Despite that under-reporting, statistically one in every 10 Americans age 65 or older who lives at home will become a victim of abuse,” he wrote.

Here are the top 10 scams targeting seniors last year, according to the Senate aging committee’s 2019 Fraud Book:

1. IRS impersonators

More than 2.4 million Americans have been targeted by scammers impersonating IRS officials and more than 14,700 taxpayers have lost more than $72.8 million since 2013, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. In this case, criminals generally threaten victims with owing back taxes and warn foreclosure, arrest, or deportation if a payment isn’t made.

2. Robocalls

Nearly 2.4 billion robocalls are made each month, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Often originated overseas, callers mask their identities with fake phone numbers and pretend to be from the government or assume a false identity, in efforts to obtain personal information.

3. Sweepstakes scam/Jamaican lottery scam

Sweepstakes scammers falsely claim seniors have won a lottery and need to pay a fee to collect their winnings. The number of sweepstakes scams increased by 45.8 percent between 2013 and 2017, according to the FCC. Sweepstakes scams often come from a “876” number, the country code for Jamaica. At its peak, it was estimated that sophisticated Jamaican con artists placed approximately 30,000 phone calls to the U.S. each day and stole $300 million a year from tens of thousands of seniors, according to law enforcement and FairPoint Communications.

4. Computer tech support fraud

Microsoft estimates that 3.3 million Americans are victims of technical support scams annually, with losses of roughly $1.5 billion per year. Scammers usually pretend to be a reputable technology company like Microsoft, Apple or Dell. They convince victims that their computer has a virus and persuade them to provide personal information and bank account numbers.

5. Elder financial abuse

“Financial exploitation of older Americans is the illegal or improper use of an older adults fund’s property, or assets,” according to the Fraud Book. Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually due to financial exploitation, although these numbers are likely substantially under-reported, according to the Government Accountability Office. Scammers can include family members, paid home-care workers or strangers who take advantage of seniors’ financial decision-making.

6. Grandparent scams

An increasingly popular scam is the “grandparent scam,” where impostors either pretend to be the victims’ grandchild or claim to be holding the victims’ grandchild. They ask for money and usually never call back.

7. Romance frauds

Romance scams exploit seniors’ loneliness and vulnerability. Twelve percent of people ages 55 to 64 reported using an online dating site or mobile dating app, according to the Pew Research Center. Victims are contacted through a dating site and after trust is built between the two parties, the scammer asks for money for medical emergencies, hotel expenses, hospital bills or visas or other official documents.

8. Fake Social Security calls

Similar to the IRS scam, individuals pretend to work for the Social Security Administration and ask for victims’ Social Security number, date of birth, maiden name and bank account information.

9. Lawsuit or arrest threats

In the impending lawsuit scam, victims are called by someone pretending to be from a law enforcement agency. The scammers threaten a lawsuit or explain a warrant is out for the victim’s arrest if they do not pay a fine immediately. Often, the caller says the penalty was issued for failing to report for jury duty or not paying taxes.

10. Identity theft

Identity theft was the second-most common type of consumer complaint in 2017, with 371,061 complaints, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Nearly 4 of 10 identity theft complaints reported to the FTC in 2017 came from consumers ages 50 and over.

Identity thieves not only drain bank accounts and charge credit cards, but they also defraud the government and taxpayers by using stolen personal information to submit fraudulent billings to Medicare and Medicaid.

The Senate aging committee recommends that victims place a fraud alert, report identity theft or file a police report if a scam is suspected.

Scams cheat older Americans out of almost $3 billion a year.

Why this post? This morning 3 Robocalls within 2 hours supposedly from Amazon - a company who I try never to buy from.

Scams - the approaches change but never the object - your money.

And I was reading this one - Berlingske Dk: Six men are accused of telefonsvindel against the 157 victims of the total of nearly 11 million - and saw deportation mentioned.
Three men confess to the fraud: the Elderly were easy victims.

jagd messer · 2 Weeks Ago

Cambodia: Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fallen prey to job scams in South East Asia.

The Indian government has so far rescued 250 citizens in Cambodia who were forced to run online scams. They were promised jobs but "forced to undertake illegal cyber work", India's foreign ministry said.

Recent reports have said more than 5,000 Indians stuck in Cambodia were forced to operate cyber-fraud schemes. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are estimated to have fallen prey to human traffickers running job scams in South East Asia. Victims, mostly young and tech-savvy, are promised jobs and then lured into illegal online work ranging from money laundering and crypto fraud to so-called love scams, where they pose as lovers online.

A UN report said in August 2023 that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar, and another 100,000 in Cambodia, were forced into operating cyber-fraud schemes.

Lured and trapped into scam slavery in South East Asia

Hundreds of thousands forced to scam in SE Asia: UN

This is the latest in a series of rescues of such victims in South East Asia. In March, police rescued hundreds of people from a scam centre in Philippines where they were forced to fool people by expressing romantic interest online under a fake identity. A few weeks before that, China repatriated hundreds of its citizens from scam centres in Myanmar.

Over the weekend, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of India's foreign ministry, said that the country was working closely with Cambodian authorities to "crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes".

India said it had rescued 75 people in the past three months while the timeline for the rest isn't clear.

The BBC has emailed the Cambodian embassy in India for comment.

Last week, the Indian Express newspaper reported that India's embassy in Phnom Penh had received 130 complaints of Indians being held in Cambodia against their will.

They were among thousands of others who were allegedly forced to scam people in India or in some cases, extort money from them by pretending to be law enforcement officials.

The victims in India had been duped of a total of at least 5bn rupees ($59m; £47m) in the past six months, the newspaper reported.

In another report, the paper quoted an official in India's embassy in Cambodia as saying that they received four-five complaints every day on average from people trapped in Cambodia after being offered jobs.

One of the rescued men, identified only as Stephen, told the newspaper that he was recruited by an agent from the southern Indian city of Mangaluru and offered a data entry job in Cambodia. After reaching the country, he says he was asked to create fake social media accounts with photographs of women and use them to contact people.

Cambodia: Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories.
01 IV 2024.

April 21st, 2023	#1
jagd messer Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: UK Posts: 1,403	Online & Romance Scam Man who ran iSpoof site that conned Brits out of £43m jailed following Met’s biggest ever fraud probe A man has admitted to running a website used by con artists to scam Britons out of £43 million - a major breakthrough in the Metropolitan Police’s largest ever fraud investigation. Tejay Fletcher, 35, of London, pleaded guilty on Thursday to running iSpoof, a website in which fraudsters were able to appear as if they were calling from banks, tax offices, and other official bodies as they attempted to swindle victims out of millions of pounds. The total losses to victims, enabled by iSpoof in the UK alone, exceeds £43 million, with the total global losses estimated to be at least £100 million. Criminal callers posed as representatives of banks including Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, Natwest, Nationwide and TSB. Thomas Short, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “As the leading administrator of the iSpoof website, Tejay Fletcher helped to provide fraudsters with the tools to cheat innocent people on a shocking scale.” Fletcher appeared at Southwark Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to the charges of making or supplying articles for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, possessing criminal property and transferring criminal property. Detective Superintendent Helen Rance, who has been leading the investigation, said: “He was the ringleader of a slick fraud website which enabled criminals to defraud innocent people of millions of pounds. “We are doing more than ever before to protect Londoners from spoofing and cyber fraud and devised a bespoke plan to reach out to victims who were targeted via iSpoof.” Detective Constable Ed Sehmer, said: “This investigation shows that despite what Fletcher and criminal online services often claim, that fraudsters who use them are anonymous, that’s simply not the case. Police can - and will - track down the people running and using these services.” Mr Short said Fletcher’s crimes have caused “huge emotional distress and devestation” to victims. “We want to encourage all those who think they’ve been a victim of a fraud to come forward and report it,” he urged. Man who ran iSpoof site that conned Brits out of £43m jailed following Met’s biggest ever fraud probe 21 IV 2023. When I read this I ask Why are are these Nogs here in the country?

July 19th, 2023	#2
jagd messer Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: UK Posts: 1,403	Financial SCAMS Scams cheat older Americans out of almost $3 billion a year. Here’s what to watch for SCAMS: KEY POINTS • Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually from financial exploitation, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging. • Impersonating the IRS was the number one scam targeting seniors in 2018. • One in 10 Americans age 65 or older who lives at home will become a victim of abuse, according to recent testimony from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually from financial exploitation, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Impersonating the IRS was the No. 1 scam targeting seniors in 2018. More than 1,500 seniors across the country contacted the committee’s fraud hotline in 2018; however, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in recent testimony that only 1 in every 24 cases of elder exploitation gets reported. “Despite that under-reporting, statistically one in every 10 Americans age 65 or older who lives at home will become a victim of abuse,” he wrote. Here are the top 10 scams targeting seniors last year, according to the Senate aging committee’s 2019 Fraud Book: 1. IRS impersonators More than 2.4 million Americans have been targeted by scammers impersonating IRS officials and more than 14,700 taxpayers have lost more than $72.8 million since 2013, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. In this case, criminals generally threaten victims with owing back taxes and warn foreclosure, arrest, or deportation if a payment isn’t made. 2. Robocalls Nearly 2.4 billion robocalls are made each month, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Often originated overseas, callers mask their identities with fake phone numbers and pretend to be from the government or assume a false identity, in efforts to obtain personal information. 3. Sweepstakes scam/Jamaican lottery scam Sweepstakes scammers falsely claim seniors have won a lottery and need to pay a fee to collect their winnings. The number of sweepstakes scams increased by 45.8 percent between 2013 and 2017, according to the FCC. Sweepstakes scams often come from a “876” number, the country code for Jamaica. At its peak, it was estimated that sophisticated Jamaican con artists placed approximately 30,000 phone calls to the U.S. each day and stole $300 million a year from tens of thousands of seniors, according to law enforcement and FairPoint Communications. 4. Computer tech support fraud Microsoft estimates that 3.3 million Americans are victims of technical support scams annually, with losses of roughly $1.5 billion per year. Scammers usually pretend to be a reputable technology company like Microsoft, Apple or Dell. They convince victims that their computer has a virus and persuade them to provide personal information and bank account numbers. 5. Elder financial abuse “Financial exploitation of older Americans is the illegal or improper use of an older adults fund’s property, or assets,” according to the Fraud Book. Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually due to financial exploitation, although these numbers are likely substantially under-reported, according to the Government Accountability Office. Scammers can include family members, paid home-care workers or strangers who take advantage of seniors’ financial decision-making. 6. Grandparent scams An increasingly popular scam is the “grandparent scam,” where impostors either pretend to be the victims’ grandchild or claim to be holding the victims’ grandchild. They ask for money and usually never call back. 7. Romance frauds Romance scams exploit seniors’ loneliness and vulnerability. Twelve percent of people ages 55 to 64 reported using an online dating site or mobile dating app, according to the Pew Research Center. Victims are contacted through a dating site and after trust is built between the two parties, the scammer asks for money for medical emergencies, hotel expenses, hospital bills or visas or other official documents. 8. Fake Social Security calls Similar to the IRS scam, individuals pretend to work for the Social Security Administration and ask for victims’ Social Security number, date of birth, maiden name and bank account information. 9. Lawsuit or arrest threats In the impending lawsuit scam, victims are called by someone pretending to be from a law enforcement agency. The scammers threaten a lawsuit or explain a warrant is out for the victim’s arrest if they do not pay a fine immediately. Often, the caller says the penalty was issued for failing to report for jury duty or not paying taxes. 10. Identity theft Identity theft was the second-most common type of consumer complaint in 2017, with 371,061 complaints, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Nearly 4 of 10 identity theft complaints reported to the FTC in 2017 came from consumers ages 50 and over. Identity thieves not only drain bank accounts and charge credit cards, but they also defraud the government and taxpayers by using stolen personal information to submit fraudulent billings to Medicare and Medicaid. The Senate aging committee recommends that victims place a fraud alert, report identity theft or file a police report if a scam is suspected. Scams cheat older Americans out of almost $3 billion a year. Why this post? This morning 3 Robocalls within 2 hours supposedly from Amazon - a company who I try never to buy from. Scams - the approaches change but never the object - your money. And I was reading this one - Berlingske Dk: Six men are accused of telefonsvindel against the 157 victims of the total of nearly 11 million - and saw deportation mentioned. Three men confess to the fraud: the Elderly were easy victims.

2 Weeks Ago	#3
jagd messer Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: UK Posts: 1,403	Cambodia: Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories. Cambodia: Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories. Hundreds of thousands of people have fallen prey to job scams in South East Asia. The Indian government has so far rescued 250 citizens in Cambodia who were forced to run online scams. They were promised jobs but "forced to undertake illegal cyber work", India's foreign ministry said. Recent reports have said more than 5,000 Indians stuck in Cambodia were forced to operate cyber-fraud schemes. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are estimated to have fallen prey to human traffickers running job scams in South East Asia. Victims, mostly young and tech-savvy, are promised jobs and then lured into illegal online work ranging from money laundering and crypto fraud to so-called love scams, where they pose as lovers online. A UN report said in August 2023 that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar, and another 100,000 in Cambodia, were forced into operating cyber-fraud schemes. Lured and trapped into scam slavery in South East Asia Hundreds of thousands forced to scam in SE Asia: UN This is the latest in a series of rescues of such victims in South East Asia. In March, police rescued hundreds of people from a scam centre in Philippines where they were forced to fool people by expressing romantic interest online under a fake identity. A few weeks before that, China repatriated hundreds of its citizens from scam centres in Myanmar. Over the weekend, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of India's foreign ministry, said that the country was working closely with Cambodian authorities to "crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes". India said it had rescued 75 people in the past three months while the timeline for the rest isn't clear. The BBC has emailed the Cambodian embassy in India for comment. Last week, the Indian Express newspaper reported that India's embassy in Phnom Penh had received 130 complaints of Indians being held in Cambodia against their will. They were among thousands of others who were allegedly forced to scam people in India or in some cases, extort money from them by pretending to be law enforcement officials. The victims in India had been duped of a total of at least 5bn rupees ($59m; £47m) in the past six months, the newspaper reported. In another report, the paper quoted an official in India's embassy in Cambodia as saying that they received four-five complaints every day on average from people trapped in Cambodia after being offered jobs. One of the rescued men, identified only as Stephen, told the newspaper that he was recruited by an agent from the southern Indian city of Mangaluru and offered a data entry job in Cambodia. After reaching the country, he says he was asked to create fake social media accounts with photographs of women and use them to contact people. Cambodia: Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories. 01 IV 2024.

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