May 01, 2007
Scambusters saves another location listener from
losing thousands in internet fraud!
Listener emailed us at
noscams@kgal.com with a quandary. They are
selling a vehicle online and received an offer
from an overseas buyer to purchase their
vehicle. The buyer wants to send a check for
the car, but wanted to send extra so that the
seller can cash the check and wire the balance
to the company who will be shipping the car to
the buyer overseas.
Classic overpayment scam,
with the check turning out to be a fake 7-10
days done the road. The seller would lose the
wired difference and have to repay it back to
the bank. The amount would most likely be
around $2500 or $3000, but that is a large chuck
of change for any of us to lose.
Based on the emails and
documentation we were shown by the listener
there were other clues, but the scam is a common
one and luckily a prevented one.
13 People
Indicted in $3M Credit Card Fraud.
What happens when waiters
in 40 restaurants over 5 states steal your
credit card information? Answer is 3-Million
Dollars in fraud and ID theft. The ringleaders
of this fraud paid waiters and waitresses $35 to
$50 for complete credit card information from
their guests. Suspects then created
high-quality counterfeit credit cards
The credit card account
information was stolen from customers who
visited restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown and
other parts of the New York metropolitan area,
as well eateries in Florida, New Hampshire, New
Jersey and Connecticut.
Some members of the group
stole customers' information; some made the
counterfeit cards; others shopped for
merchandise; and finally someone bought the
goods for cash, Manhattan District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau said.
Morgenthau said 12 of the
13 people indicted are in custody and are
expected to be arraigned Monday. All the
defendants are being charged with fourth-degree
conspiracy, punishable by up to four years in
prison. Seven are also being charged with
second-degree grand larceny, which carries a
penalty of up to 15 years.
The district attorney said
conspiracy leaders recruited and managed people
who worked as waiters and provided them with
small, hand-held "skimmers" that read and
recorded information on the magnetic strips of
patrons' credit cards. This fraud has been
ongoing since 2005.
198
Million In Fraud Reported in 2006
Internet auction fraud was
by far the most reported offense, comprising
44.9 percent of referred complaints. The
"average" complainant was a man between 30 and
40 living in California, Texas, Florida, or New
York. Of those individuals who reported a dollar
loss, the highest median losses were found among
Nìgerïan letter fraud ($5,100), check fraud
($3,744), and other investment fraud ($2,694).
Nearly 74 percent of the
complaints said they were contacted through
e-mail, and 36 percent complained of fraud
through Web sites, highlighting the anonymous
nature of the Web.
Three-quarters of the
perpetrators were men. Nearly 61 percent lived
in the U.S., with half in one of seven states.
Other top countries included the U.K., Nigeria,
Canada, Romania, and Italy. It is increasingly
an international epidemic; one account of a
recent arrest of eight Nigerians in Ghana also
shares emails from those duped. In Bulgaria,
with the help of the US Secret Service, a ring
was uncovered which scammed over $100,000 from
US citizens over the internet and was also
engaged in money laundering.
Police
probe report of N.L. internet fraud scam
The Royal Newfoundland
Constabulary is investigating a report that an
internet fraud and identity theft scam was being
run out of Newfoundland and Labrador.
As part of the probe,
Economic Crime Unit and West District Patrol
officers searched a residence in Conception Bay
South on April 2. Computers and related
equipment were seized, police said, but no
charges have been laid.
The investigation began in
January, after police in Toledo, Wash.,
contacted the RNC about local teacher Jay
Reimer, who said he had $1,700 siphoned from his
credit card after responding to an e-mail in the
fall of 2006.
The e-mail included a link
to what he thought was the PayPal website, a
service for making purchases on the internet,
and told him to "update" what he thought was his
PayPal account, he said.
The link "took me to a
website which took my name, my driver's license
number, my credit card number, my social
security number," Reimer said.
But days after Reimer
visited the site and entered his personal
information, his credit card company called to
ask him about unusual cash advances to the tune
of $1,700.
The Toledo police believe
Reimer was a victim of a scam known as "phishing,"
where websites are set up to look like credible
sites but in fact steal personal information.
They also believe the scam was based in
Newfoundland.
"I constantly get reminders
from my IT specialists at work: 'Don't answer
these e-mails, there's a thing called phishing,'
" Reimer said. "I have received them repeatedly
and yet I did exactly what the phishers
anticipated and I swallowed the bait."
Reimer said he was lucky —
his credit card company absorbed the $1,700
loss.
One tenth
of UK consumers become victim of Internet fraud
UK consumers that think
that banks and financial bodies are looking
after their financial data and security online
need to think again. Figures from Get Safe
Online Campaign reveal that one in ten people in
the UK have been the victims of online fraud,
and each victim has lost an average of around
£875 as a result of this fraud.
Internet spending in the UK
has rocketed to thirty billion pounds a year,
reflecting just how much confidence UK consumers
have when it comes to making online
transactions, despite the various warnings about
possible fraudulent activity.
However, the survey also
revealed that many of the people that spend
online assume that banks and financial bodies
are able to look after their financial security
and safely online, which is not actually the
case. It is up to the consumer to be more
vigilant about security when making online
transactions, and in some cases, such as with
credit card fraud, some consumers may find that
they are unable to recoup the costs of the
fraudulent activity.
The Get Safe Online
director, Tony Neate, stated: "The internet now
is the real world. "We don't blame the police
when we get burgled and we must take
responsibility for what we do online in the same
way we do for securing our houses and cars."
Nearly fifty percent of the
people that were surveyed said that they did not
have any basic security facilities such as
spyware software. Many have also admitted to
neglecting to use basic security procedures and
checks, all of which can increase the chances of
becoming a victim of online fraud.
Woman
Sentenced to 55 Months in eBay Scam
Rachel Reyes, a 29 y/o
woman from Williamsburg Virginia as sentenced to
55 months and prison, 3-years of supervised
release and was ordered to pay over $400K in
restitution. Ms. Reyes, was part of a crime
ring selling and distributing fraudulent
celebrity memorabilia items on eBay. The US
District Attorney, Chuck Rosenberg, for the
Eastern District of Virginia; and, Cassandra M.
Chandler, Special Agent in Charge, Norfolk
Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, made
the announcement after Reyes’ sentencing today
before United States District Judge Walter D.
Kelley, Jr.
According to court
documents, Rachel Reyes, her husband Jeffrey
Reyes, and her mother, Nancy Selisker, operated
their own eBay accounts for the sale of the
counterfeit memorabilia, which included record
albums and photographs of celebrities with
forged signatures. To conduct the fraud scheme,
the three defendants purchased unsigned
memorabilia from various locations in Virginia,
and then forged celebrity signatures on those
items. The items subsequently posted the items
for auction on eBay's Internet website. The
listings falsely described these items as
authentic and offered fraudulent certificates of
authenticity.
From July 5, 2002 through
March 11, 2005, Rachel Reyes personally
completed 5,265 sales of memorabilia with forged
signatures to 3,359 victims, with losses
totaling approximately $314,773.97. From July
21, 2003 through March 11, 2005. Cohort in
crime Selisker personally completed 1,620 sales
of memorabilia with forged signatures to 1,104
victims, with losses totaling approximately
$118,114.07. From August 10, 2002 through March
11, 2005 and third person Jeffrey Reyes
completed 1,317 sales of memorabilia with forged
signatures to 1,124 victims, totaling
approximately $130,520.72. Victims were located
throughout all 50 states of the United States as
well as 33 other countries.
On March 26, 2007, Jeffrey
Reyes, age 30, of Williamsburg, Virginia, was
sentenced to 33 months in prison, three years of
supervised release, and ordered to pay $98,
948.94 in restitution for his role in the
scheme. Selisker is scheduled to be sentenced on
April 30, 2007.
The investigation was
conducted by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. eBay also provided assistance
during the investigation. Assistant United
States Attorneys Michael Gill and Brian Samuels
prosecuted the case for the United States.
Feds: ID
theft ring run from prison
A man in prison for
identity theft is accused of running a similar
operation from behind bars, with an Emmy
award-winning television producer and animator
among the victims.
In a federal complaint
filed Tuesday, investigators said Morocco Curry
and three co-conspirators outside prison used
stolen account information to request
replacements for "lost" credit cards and to open
new accounts.
Curry, 34, is accused of
using a prison phone to make collect calls to
his associates. Authorities say the group bilked
tens of thousands of dollars from companies,
including American Express, beginning in
December.
Gabor Csupo, 54, who helped
create the children's animated program "Rugrats"
and has worked on "The Simpsons," was among
those targeted, authorities said. Csupo won
Emmys for his work on both cartoons.
Curry; Vanieca D. Samuels,
39; Brenda K. Butler, 47; and Tracy Chambers,
34, each face charges of felony identity theft.
The crime carries a penalty of two years in
prison.
Curry will be transferred
to federal custody this summer, Mrozek said. He
is serving a three-year sentence for identity
theft at Centinela prison in Imperial County.
Member of
Transnational Crime Ring Arrested In eBay Fraud
Bulgarian woman faces 30
years in prison for allegedly conspiring in an
"elaborate scheme" to defraud eBay users of
$350,000.
A woman described by the
FBI as a Bulgarian member of a transnational
criminal ring has been arrested in connection
with what the government is calling an
"elaborate scheme" to defraud eBay users of more
than $350,000.
Mariyana Feliksova Lozanova
is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud
and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The
woman, who also goes by the names Gentiane La
France and Naomi Elizabeth DeBont, allegedly
tricked prospective buyers on eBay to wire her
money for major purchases, like motor vehicles
and boats, that were never delivered, according
to a release from the FBI, which investigated
the case.
If convicted, the woman
faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison
for the wire fraud conspiracy and 10 years in
prison for the money laundering conspiracy. In
addition, she also could be required to pay
fines totaling more than $500,000, as well as
forfeitures and restitution to the victims of
the scheme.
A grand jury in the
District of Columbia returned the indictment
March 1, but it remained sealed until Lozanova
was arrested in Budapest on March 22. She has
waived extradition to stand trial in the United
States.
According to the FBI,
Lozanova and others in the "crime group"
allegedly participated in a scheme to advertise
the expensive merchandise for sale on eBay. When
potential buyers from the United States showed
an interest, they were contacted directly by
e-mail from the purported seller. The victims
were then instructed to wire transfer payments
through eBay Secure Traders, which has no actual
affiliation with eBay. The FBI contends it was a
ruse to persuade the victims that they were
sending money into a secure escrow account
pending delivery and inspection of their
purchases. Instead, the victims' funds were
allegedly wired directly into one of several
bank accounts, controlled by Lozanova and her
co-conspirators, in Hungary or Slovakia.
The cars and boats the
victims intended to purchase were never
delivered and the victims' money was never
returned. Lozanova allegedly withdrew the
proceeds shortly after the funds had been wired
into her account and distributed them to other
members of the criminal group in Budapest,
according to the FBI statement.
Lozanova allegedly opened
the accounts using a fraudulent Canadian
passport and a U.K. passport, which falsely
identified her as Gentiane LaFrance and
Elizabeth Naomi DeBont, respectively, the FBI
reported.
"This arrest is an
excellent example of the strong cooperation
between the FBI and Hungarian National Bureau of
Investigation to stem Eurasian organized crime,"
FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus said in a
written statement. "Since April 2000, the FBI-HNBI
Organized Crime Task Force has worked closely to
investigate transnational enterprises
headquartered in this historic Central European
center of commerce and finance."
The Budapest Task Force was
established by the FBI in April 2000 in an
effort to deal with the increasing threat of
Eurasian organized crime groups to the United
States.
WINNING
NOTIFICATION (Your email have won £250,000.00)
This is a really sad
attempt, even in the title they don’t know
enough to put my email in place. Other obvious
things are the use of French words in a British
Lottery. The other is the horrendous formatting
and use of words, language and grammar.
The main trick is they try
to make you believe it is real by sending you to
the real UK Lottery website, but of course wants
you to email them at a free Yahoo email address.
We are pleased to inform you of the final
announcement of the UK National Lottery Online
thunderball Programme with draw
numbers(#644)02,05,07,20,31,10 held on tuesday
17 April,2007.
Do endeavour to contact:Rev. John smith provide
details for filing of claims.
Email:mail_thunderball@yahoo.co.uk
Email:contact_thunderball@yahoo.co.uk
Bank of
America – Quality PHISH
We received a really nice,
high quality Bank of America Forged / Phish this
week. This is one of the nicer fakes we seen,
the page is different than the real BofA site,
but still very good. It said my account was
hacked and I needed to log in and reactivate the
account. We played the site for a minute with a
user id of “asdfaerewre” and a password of
“asfawerewaef” (garble) and of course it let us
in as real. We then filled out the next batch
of info.. City of birth, seems I was born in
the city of “asdfasl” and my first pet is
“asldfkfd” and I graduated from “aslkfaskf
asdlflod” high school. I really wanted to get
to the next page where the real trouble
happens.
The amount of information
they are asking is staggering and if you were
really logged into your real BofA site then the
Bank would know this info. Here is what they
are asking.
 |
·
Bank of America ATM or Check
Card Number |
|
·
Bank of America ATM or Check
Card PIN |
|
·
Re-enter ATM or Check Card
Pin: |
|
·
Exp date: |
|
·
Card Verification Number: |
|
·
Social Security Number or Tax
Identification Number |
|
·
Mothers Maiden Name: |
|
·
Date of birth: |
|
·
Zip Code: |
The site also reminds you
that you are on a “Secure” site, when of course
you are not on a secure site, so double
trouble. The only typo so far is “mothers” and
not “mother’s” for maiden name. Overall a good
website.
The redirect for the fake
site takes you to a registered domain of
ebankingonlineauthentication.
Fake site is in China, just
registered last month.
|
·
Domain Name:
EBANKINGONLINEAUTHENTICATION.COM |
|
·
Registrar: BEIJING INNOVATIVE
LINKAGE TECHNOLOGY LTD. DBA DNS.COM.CN |
|
·
Whois Server: whois.dns.com.cn |
|
·
Updated Date: 21-mar-2007 |
|
·
Creation Date: 21-mar-2007 |
|
·
Expiration Date: 21-mar-2008 |
Run far, run fast and watch
out for phishing. Remember, always go to the
site direct and never follow the links in the
emails.
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