One of my techniques for keeping current on Cybercrime trends is having an "interesting" collection of international news ticklers. This story came to me via X:CyberScamMonitor via a QQ account called "onCambodia." @CyberScamMonitor is a Twitter/X account and Substack account dedicated to tracking online scam and gambling operations in Southeast Asia and documenting human trafficking and human rights abuses. Great work and a strong recommendation to follow if you wish to learn more about the links between #CryptoScams and #PigButchering. I apologize to the original journalist as I have been un ..read more

Some of you may have heard that students in UAB's Investigating Online Crimes class have been researching Crypto Investment Scam websites.  You can find a list of some of the sites we've identified so far on URLScan.io using our tag "CryptoScam" (as of this writing we have 3600+ sites on the list -- hosting companies and registrars, please take action!)  Mirror Trading International and a $3.4 Billion Fine You may have never heard of the U.S. Government agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but that doesn't mean they don't have power.  Last week the CFTC annou ..read more

As you know from the title of my blog, "CyberCrime & Doing Time," I'm very interested in cybercrime and the criminal justice system. This week I've been looking at SIM Swapping cases and wanted to share what I learned from reading the sentencing memos sentencing transcript for Ricky Handschumacher. Ricky was one of the members of "The Community" - a group of six OGUsers/HackForums punks who decided to go into the crypto theft business. They haunted crypto community forums gathering data on people who over-shared about their crypto earnings and then did the social media intelligence (SOCMIN ..read more

TL;DR? Good news!  I read them for you!   On 15SEP2022, the Department of Justice released their report "The Role of Law Enforcement in Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets" (66 pages).  The first of the nine reports ordered by President Biden's Executive Order 14067 "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets" was also released by the DOJ back on 06JUN2022, "How To Strengthen International Law Enforcement Cooperation for Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets" (58 pages ..read more

On September 9, 2022, the FBI's Philadelphia office asked for help locating Chidozie Collins Obasi.  OBASI is charged with being part of a conspiracy to steal more than $30 Million related to COVID Fraud out of New York.  How did the scam work? Much of it goes back to a typical model = a fake job offer and a counterfeit check.  But in this case, there was much more! During the COVID-19 crisis, the New York State Department of Health was responsible for buying and allocating ventilators to hospitals in the State of New York.  Two of their hospitals will be relevant in thi ..read more

 On 10AUG2022 three Nigerians were extradited from the UK to the US to face charges related to their roles in conducting Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks against a number of US-based businesses. 43-year old Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo, 40-year old Donald Ikenna Echeazu, and 42-year old Olabanji Egbinola were brought to North Carolina to face their charges, although some of their crimes were also charged in Texas and their victims are across the United States and the world.  The three were linked together by exchanging data related to construction companies who were involved ..read more

 Lately there has been a media-driven craze in the fraud community to call every crypto-investment scam "Pig Butchering."  I hope you will join me in canceling that term after you read this article. The term "Pig Butchering" comes from the Chinese term 杀猪盘 (Shā zhū pán or "butchering plate.") While the term has been used in Chinese media since at least 2018, it really became famous after the courageous actions of a human trafficking victim who was caught up in the game. Hao Zhendong (郝振东) was recently divorced and had lost custody of his daughter as he was facing personal finan ..read more

On July 7, 2022, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced that Ping Express had been found guilty. Prior to this, their CEO Anslem Oshionebo*, their COO Opeyemi Odeyale (now imprisoned at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute, 60177-177), their IT Manager Aleoghena Okhumale (now imprisoned at the Fort Worth FMC), and Olufemi Sadiq (now imprisoned at the Pollock FCI) were arrested on March 10, 2020. What was Ping Express? Ping was a small business, never having more than ten employees, which operated from 8585 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, Texas. Their CEO was Anslem Os ..read more

My niece, Anna, is a school teacher in the Birmingham Public School system. Another teacher in the system got phished and the phisher sent an email to a bunch of other teachers, offering them a summer job as an administrative assistant, earning $500 weekly for working only 8 hours.  Tempting?   The email had a link to a Google Form with the job application. The form goes on to ask her Full Name, Email: [Not School Email!], Alternative Email, and Phone Number, as well as Current Occupation, Age, Sex, and Available Time. Why does it say "Not School Email!" -- because this exact ..read more

BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front I want to start this post with the most important thing right up top: The CISA.gov/Shields-Up page starts with this statement.  PLEASE take it seriously, and escalate to your top management: "Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could impact organizations both within and beyond the region, to include malicious cyber activity against the U.S. homeland, including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs imposed on Russia by the U.S. and our allies and partners. Evolving intelligence indicates that the Russian Government is exploring options for pote ..read more