A court has given a man a suspended sentence for transporting a then-high school student to Myanmar last year to have him engage in fraud despite knowing that the boy had been kidnapped. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/20/japan/crime-legal/student-myanmar-sentence-court/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #miyagi #japanesecourts #myanmar #highschools #fraud #kidnappings
Fraudsters are increasingly impersonating company presidents and other senior executives to issue fake business instructions via email in Japan, the National Police Agency warns. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/19/japan/crime-legal/japan-ceo-emails-scams/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #fraud #japanesepolice #npa
Chewie
boosted
Personal #InfoSec heads up. This is my story of #identity theft. I hope it helps you avoid the hellish experience. In early December 2025, I fell for a very well-executed #phishing #fraud scam.
They pretended to be from security at my bank. They knew much more about me than I would ever expect. That was key to convincing me to stay on line, When I say “they” I’m talking about several individuals who role played (excellently) security, managers, customer representatives. I stretched out the conversation because something seemed off. I had no evidence. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but at one point I detected a slight hesitation or nervousness in one of their voices. I told them I needed a personal moment and put them on hold.
I called a guy at the bank who helps me with my retirement funds, told him the story and asked for help verifying what was going on. Within two minutes he said it was a hoax and he had real bank security on the phone with us. They wanted me to play along while they were online, looking for various clues and hoping to catch the bad guys in the act. It worked. The bad guys were in the process of transferring out everything in my accounts. It would have been a crushing DISASTER if I did not have the bank’s real security hoaxing the hoaxers! I lost nothing but time and personal esteem. The aftermath has been more painful.
It has been months since my complete identity information was stolen. I had to change every bank and credit account number, kill several email addresses I had used for decades, change all passwords, inform #SSA, #Medicare, Ibsurance companies… the whole package. I’m not done. I consider myself lucky, so far. It will never be over. I realize that protecting my identity is a constant battle.
I think it started when my info (OGE Form 450) was stolen when the #US government general administration office was hacked in 2008 (?) and virtually all employees’ financial disclosures were stolen. They gave us lifetime monitoring service which has been pretty good. It spotted and reported to me multiple breakins and data thefts over the years, including when my info was for sale on the “dark web”. I want to emphasize that I responded EVERY TIME. Nevertheless, my info from various thefts was obviously collated over time and now there is a good solid model of me for sale, complete with private information I thought I never disclosed.
This can easily happen to anyone, including you.
Everything I learned about personal infosec over the years — **advice I followed** — proved to be insufficient. I’m now looking into hardware passkeys, but that is not enough. I welcome professional #infosec and others to comment here. It is a teachable moment for all of us.
Personal #InfoSec heads up. This is my story of #identity theft. I hope it helps you avoid the hellish experience. In early December 2025, I fell for a very well-executed #phishing #fraud scam.
They pretended to be from security at my bank. They knew much more about me than I would ever expect. That was key to convincing me to stay on line, When I say “they” I’m talking about several individuals who role played (excellently) security, managers, customer representatives. I stretched out the conversation because something seemed off. I had no evidence. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but at one point I detected a slight hesitation or nervousness in one of their voices. I told them I needed a personal moment and put them on hold.
I called a guy at the bank who helps me with my retirement funds, told him the story and asked for help verifying what was going on. Within two minutes he said it was a hoax and he had real bank security on the phone with us. They wanted me to play along while they were online, looking for various clues and hoping to catch the bad guys in the act. It worked. The bad guys were in the process of transferring out everything in my accounts. It would have been a crushing DISASTER if I did not have the bank’s real security hoaxing the hoaxers! I lost nothing but time and personal esteem. The aftermath has been more painful.
It has been months since my complete identity information was stolen. I had to change every bank and credit account number, kill several email addresses I had used for decades, change all passwords, inform #SSA, #Medicare, Ibsurance companies… the whole package. I’m not done. I consider myself lucky, so far. It will never be over. I realize that protecting my identity is a constant battle.
I think it started when my info (OGE Form 450) was stolen when the #US government general administration office was hacked in 2008 (?) and virtually all employees’ financial disclosures were stolen. They gave us lifetime monitoring service which has been pretty good. It spotted and reported to me multiple breakins and data thefts over the years, including when my info was for sale on the “dark web”. I want to emphasize that I responded EVERY TIME. Nevertheless, my info from various thefts was obviously collated over time and now there is a good solid model of me for sale, complete with private information I thought I never disclosed.
This can easily happen to anyone, including you.
Everything I learned about personal infosec over the years — **advice I followed** — proved to be insufficient. I’m now looking into hardware passkeys, but that is not enough. I welcome professional #infosec and others to comment here. It is a teachable moment for all of us.
I have been reading a lot of reports that ICE is stealing from people. Everything from phones to jewelry, even reports of clothing gone missing from people held in custody of ICE.
There was one report, that said the car ICE was driving without plates was someone else's car that they had taken.
Cambodia’s arrest of alleged scam center kingpin Chen Zhi and his extradition to China was “not the end” of the Southeast Asian nation’s battle to stamp out transborder crimes, its foreign minister said. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/14/asia-pacific/crime-legal/cambodia-crackdown-scam-mastermind/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #crimelegal #myanmar #cambodia #forcedlabor #fraud #organizedcrime
Chubu Electric Power's data fraud linked to earthquake risks at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant has splashed cold water on the Japanese government's energy policy of maximizing nuclear power use. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/10/japan/chubu-electric-data-fraud/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #chubuelectricpower #nuclearpower #hamaokanuclearpowerplant #fraud
China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing’s desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/09/asia-pacific/crime-legal/china-southeast-asia-scam-crackdown/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #crimelegal #china #fraud #organizedcrime #myanmar #cambodia
Risotto Bias
boosted
New.
Infoblox: Scaling the Fraud Economy: Pig Butchering as a Service https://www.infoblox.com/blog/threat-intelligence/scaling-the-fraud-economy-pig-butchering-as-a-service/ #infosec #threatintel #threatintelligence #fraud
New.
Infoblox: Scaling the Fraud Economy: Pig Butchering as a Service https://www.infoblox.com/blog/threat-intelligence/scaling-the-fraud-economy-pig-butchering-as-a-service/ #infosec #threatintel #threatintelligence #fraud
While Trump claims Denmark has done too little to defend Greenland, former Foreign Minister of Denmark Villy Søvndal writes on Facebook, that the US used to have 10,000 troops on multiple bases in Greenland; but when he visited Greenland recently, he discovered those numbers have been reduced to around 140 soldiers.
So the question is: If the defence of Greenland is so important to the US, why has the US cut the defence budget and reduced their presence to just 1 military base?
@randahl
#greenland is about #USA national security as much as
#Venezuela was about #drugs as much as
denying healthcare to poor kids in blue states is about #fraud as much as
keeping #Epstein files secret is about victim protection.
This administration is simplify flooding the space with lies and doing things that no decent person would.
While we try to make sense of it they do the next thing ... 🤮
Police provided protection to applicants for what are known as dark part-time jobs, or to their family members, in a total of 544 cases as of the end of last November, according to the National Police Agency. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/06/japan/crime-legal/police-dark-job-applicants/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #juvenilelaw #theft #japanesecourts #japanesepolice #fraud
All my Deutschlandtickets gone: Fraud at an industrial scale [video]
https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-all-my-deutschlandtickets-gone-fraud-at-an-industrial-scale
#HackerNews #Fraud #Awareness #IndustrialScale #Deutschlandtickets #Cybersecurity
Meta made scam ads harder to find instead of removing them
#HackerNews #Meta #Scam #Ads #Fraud #Prevention #Online #Safety #Tech #News
SomaliScan – US Fraud aggregator sourced from public records
#HackerNews #SomaliScan #US #Fraud #PublicRecords #DataPrivacy #FraudPrevention #ScanningTools
Tim Chambers
and 1 other
boosted
Walmart has long been a facilitator of fraud on a mass scale, a ProPublica investigation found.
More than $1 billion in fraud losses were routed through the company’s financial services between 2013 and 2022.
(Published Jan. 2024)
https://www.propublica.org/article/walmart-financial-services-became-fraud-magnet-gift-cards-money-laundering?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propublica-bsky
#Walmart #Fraud #Scam #MoneyLaundering #Business #Crime #News
Walmart has long been a facilitator of fraud on a mass scale, a ProPublica investigation found.
More than $1 billion in fraud losses were routed through the company’s financial services between 2013 and 2022.
(Published Jan. 2024)
https://www.propublica.org/article/walmart-financial-services-became-fraud-magnet-gift-cards-money-laundering?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propublica-bsky
#Walmart #Fraud #Scam #MoneyLaundering #Business #Crime #News
Pam Bondi Dismissed Charges Against a Surgeon Who Falsified Vaccine Cards. It Emboldened Others With Similar Cases.
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A Utah surgeon’s victory in a vaccine fraud case has encouraged other “medical freedom” advocates to consider seeking leniency for similar charges. “This undermines every layer of the system that protects us from infectious disease,” an expert said.
https://www.propublica.org/article/pam-bondi-fake-covid-vaccine-cards-kirk-moore?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #COVID #Vaccines #Fraud #Law #Health #PublicHealth #Utah #PamBondi
Jan :rust: :ferris:
boosted
Techbros dressing old scams in fancy new tech clothes in order to get away with their grift
Federal Wallet Inspectors @pluralistic
https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/13/uncle-sucker/
RE: https://mastodon.social/@iiradned/115715575032977887
"I'm not trying to say that new technologies never raise gnarly new legal questions, but what I am saying is that a lot of the time, the "new legal challenges" raised by technology are somewhere between 95-100% bullshit" - @pluralistic
I keep saying: Strip away the digital layers & nobody in their right mind would accept any of this. But breaking the law with an app is somehow different - you can steal, lie, hurt, spy, exploit, anything you want, regardless of legality.