Security News
Europol has announced the arrest of 1,803 money mules out of 18,351 identified following an international money-laundering crackdown operation codenamed "EMMA 7.". O. Money mules are people who receive and transfer money on behalf of scammers and fraudsters, helping them launder the stolen amounts in exchange for a small cut.
The research found that fraud fighters - professionals tasked with investigating and prosecuting insurance fraud - in North America were the least prepared for threats from abroad. "Organized rings, both foreign and domestic, are stealing billions," Coalition Co-Chair David Rioux of Erie Insurance said. Globalized insurance fraud is not a priority at all for 27.7% of respondents and a low-to-medium priority for 57.5% of respondents, leading to a lack of resources and time invested in day-to-day operations fighting global insurance fraud.
U.S. law enforcement authorities will start liquidating roughly $57 million worth of cryptocurrency seized from the now-defunct BitConnect crypto exchange to provide some restitution to defrauded investors. The amount pales compared to the $2 billion that BitConnect admins swindled from American and foreign investors during its two years of operation.
As the agency describes it, the scammer will contact their victim and somehow convince them that they need to send money, either with promises of love, further riches, or by impersonating an actual institution like a bank or utility company. After the mark is convinced, the scammer will have them get cash, and head to an ATM that sells cryptocurrencies and supports reading QR codes.
The balance between hands-free payments and the security standards required to protect those transactions has tipped too far in the wrong direction, according to a security expert. At a session at Black Hat Europe 2021 this week, Timur Yunusov, a senior security expert at Positive Technologies, explained flaws in contactless payment apps that could lead to fraud using lost or stolen mobile phones.
With an estimated 14% of PPC costs being lost to fraud, all it takes is a look at the advertising budgets of top tech firms to see how much money they're wasting, says PPC Shield. Click fraud prevention company PPC Shield has released the results of a study that concludes the biggest companies in the U.S. have lost a combined $717 million dollars to abuse of pay-per-click advertising fraud.
In 2021, over 59 million Americans said they lost money as a result of phone scams, with an average reported loss of $502. "Fraud is a major consideration in the telecom industry," said Dr. Gadi Solotorevsky, CTO at Amdocs cVidya, an AI solutions provider. In past practice, the telecom industry handled fraud complaints manually.
The U.S. Department of Justice sentenced a Russian man for operating a large-scale digital advertising fraud scheme called 'Methbot' that stole at least $7 million from American companies. Aleksandr Zhukov, aka the "King of Fraud," was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in the U.S. and ordered to forfeit the total sum of his assets, amounting to $3,827,493.
The U.S. Department of Justice sentenced a Russian man for operating a large-scale digital advertising fraud scheme called 'Methbot' that stole at least $7 million from American companies. Aleksandr Zhukov, aka the "King of Fraud," was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in the U.S. and ordered to forfeit the total sum of his assets, amounting to $3,827,493.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation warns that victims of various fraud schemes are increasingly asked by criminals to use cryptocurrency ATMs and Quick Response codes, making it harder to recover their financial losses. "The FBI has seen an increase in scammers directing victims to use physical cryptocurrency ATMs and digital QR codes to complete payment transactions," the federal law enforcement agency said.