Category Archives: romance scams

The Justice Department is ramping up its crackdown on money mules

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U.S. law enforcement recovered nearly $3.7 million in fraud proceeds and charged more than 30 individuals for their alleged involvement in receiving or transferring illicit proceeds over the past 10 weeks. The arrests, announced Friday, were part of the Justice Department’s “Money Mule Initiative,” which is aimed at cracking down on Americans who assist international fraudsters in moving funds from victims of a wide variety of fraud efforts, including romance scams and business email compromise schemes. The initiative in total targeted 4,757 individuals involved in “money mule” activity, more than twice the number of individuals reached by last year’s initiative. Actions were taken in all 50 states. Twenty-five members of Europol also cooperated in the action. “Every time an individual who has previously been operating as a money mule stops doing so, foreign fraudsters are forced to expend time and effort rebuilding that infrastructure differently,” said a Justice Department official […]

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Months-long Interpol crackdown nets more than 1,000 online fraud arrests

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An Interpol operation to combat online fraud concluded with the arrests of 1,003 people and the interception of $27 million in illicit funds, according to the international police organization, which conducted the crackdown alongside 20 countries. Waged from June to September of this year, “Operation HAECHI-II” targeted online crime like romance scams, investment fraud and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling. But it also turned up a business email compromise scheme in Colombia and led to alerts about malware tied to the popular Netflix show “Squid Game.” Interpol said the crackdown demonstrated how cybercrime has risen to new levels since the outbreak of the coronavirus. It’s the latest international warning about how the pandemic has fueled a crime wave, even setting aside attacks targeting the health care sector or exploiting COVID-19 that have flourished over the past two years. “The results of Operation HAECHI-II show that the surge in […]

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Romance scammers exploit Apple’s developer program to spread fake cryptocurrency apps

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Fraudsters are using the promise of love to lure victims into downloading fake cryptocurrency trading apps and then stealing their funds, researchers at Sophos report. The ongoing campaign, which researchers have dubbed “CryptoRom,” has targeted victims across Europe, the U.S. and Asia. In these scams, scammers use dating apps like Bumble, Tinder, and Grindr to build trust with a victim. They then move the conversation to a messaging app, where they ask victims to install a fake trading app. Fraudsters convince victims to invest in the app, ultimately stealing the funds. Thieves have managed to swipe nearly $1.4 million with the ruse, according to an analysis of a bitcoin wallet one of the scammers used. Some 23,000 victims of romance scams reported more than $605 million in losses to the FBI in 2020. The new findings underscore how fraudsters are turning to Apple’s developer programs in an attempt to evade […]

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Houston man sentenced to 7 years for attempted $2 million romance scam

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A U.S. federal judge sentenced a Nigerian national to 87 months in prison for his role in trying to steal more than $2 million from victims via romance scams and spoofed email requests for wire transfer payments. The judge on Wednesday also ordered Akhabue Ehis Onoimoimilin, who lives in Houston, to pay back nearly $900,000 to victims of the money laundering scheme to which he pleaded guilty. The indictment in the case indicates that Onoimoimilin and a co-defendant, whose name is redacted, caused $1.7 million in actual losses from the scheme. Onoimoimilin’s role involved opening bank accounts in the name of “David Harrison” to launder money for co-conspirators. Law enforcement identified more than $400,000 in attempted losses in the accounts, for which Onoimoimilin received 10 to 15% of the funds. Onoimoimilin opened the accounts in 2015, according to prosecutors. The indictment offers few details on the romance and business email […]

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We Infiltrated a Counterfeit Check Ring! Now What?

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Imagine waking up each morning knowing the identities of thousands of people who are about to be mugged for thousands of dollars each. You know exactly when and where each of those muggings will take place, and you’ve shared this information in advance with the authorities each day for a year with no outward indication that they are doing anything about it. How frustrated would you be?

Such is the curse of the fraud fighter known online by the handles “Brianna Ware” and “BWare” for short, a longtime member of a global group of volunteers who’ve infiltrated a cybercrime gang that disseminates fraudulent checks tied to a dizzying number of online scams. Continue reading We Infiltrated a Counterfeit Check Ring! Now What?→

Team of romance scammers defrauded US victims out of $2.5M since 2016, DOJ says

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U.S. prosecutors have charged nine people in connection with a scheme to defraud elderly Americans out of more than $2.5 million by pretending to be friends or romantic partners online. The suspects, who hail from Nigeria, Ghana and the U.S., used websites like Facebook and Google to find victims seeking friendship, companionship and love. By masquerading as interested partners who needed money, the thieves would convince unwitting victims, often senior citizens, to send them thousands of dollars at a time, the Justice Department said. The charges, unsealed Tuesday, are the latest allegations of so-called romance scams, in which fraudsters exploit lonely web users to try emptying their bank accounts. Victims reported $304 million in losses from romance scams in 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission, a figure that does not account for any losses not disclosed to the government. Conversations typically begin innocuously on dating apps and social media […]

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Romance Scams Are on the Rise, FBI Warns

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The FBI is warning individuals who use online dating apps and platforms to watch out for scammers leveraging social distancing measures and defrauding unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money. Romance or confidence scams drew nearly 20,000 compl… Continue reading Romance Scams Are on the Rise, FBI Warns→

US Military Personnel Actively Targeted By Cybercriminals; Over $350 Million in Reported Losses in the Past Five Years

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The most recent AtlasVPN research delves into fraud targeting US military personnel between 2015 and June 2020. In the past five years, active and former military staff have filed more than 680,000 complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), re… Continue reading US Military Personnel Actively Targeted By Cybercriminals; Over $350 Million in Reported Losses in the Past Five Years→

Someone is trying to catfish women by pretending to be Paul Nakasone

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Gen. Paul Nakasone, the director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command, is a busy man. He oversees vast, technical surveillance efforts in the U.S. and abroad, while also commanding a military outfit charged with launching cyberattacks. Emailing random women from an outpost in Syria is probably not on his to-do list. So when, Susan, a woman from the New York City area, started receiving correspondence from a “Paul Nakasone” this week, she wondered why the self-proclaimed “head of U.S. Army Cyber Command” was trying to flirt with her. “I Googled this guy and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Susan, who asked to be identified by only her first name, told CyberScoop. “And it was very flirtatious, but I’m a married woman.” Susan ultimately realized, that, no, she was not talking to the real Paul Nakasone. She and her friend were actually dealing with scammers who were posing as top […]

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