All news with #scammer tag

📰 A Vietnamese national was charged with money laundering for his role in a large "pig butchering" crypto fraud that defrauded a victim of about $16 million. The suspect, 37-year-old Trung Nguyen Van, was arrested in September 2024 while attempting to leave the U.S. after entering at San Ysidro. Court filings link transfers directly to Van's crypto wallet and to a broader scheme involving more than $125 million in stolen cryptocurrency. Victims were lured via online relationships and directed to fake investment platforms where they lost access to funds.

🔍 Timeshare exit scams prey on owners seeking relief from fees and obligations. Scammers advertise guaranteed exits, demand large upfront fees, run fake resale or legal schemes, or transfer titles to shell companies. Verify credentials, insist on escrow payments, check regulators and trade groups, and keep thorough records. If scammed, contact your bank, collect evidence, and report to authorities quickly.

🚨 Crypto ATMs let users buy or sell cryptocurrency with cash or card, but scammers exploit them to steal funds via urgent impersonation calls. Fraudsters instruct victims to withdraw cash and use a Bitcoin ATM or scan a QR code that directs payments to the criminal's wallet, which is nearly impossible to reverse. If contacted unexpectedly, never follow instructions to use a crypto ATM; verify via official channels and report incidents immediately.

🛡️ If your family uses Roblox, many offers for “free Robux” are scams aimed at stealing credentials or personal data. Roblox and trusted partners may run legitimate promotions or creators can earn Robux through monetization, but there is no true Robux generator. Be wary of phishing pages, fake giveaways, surveys, and requests for passwords or 2FA.

🛡️ A commentator describes encountering a fake CAPTCHA scam that fingerprinted devices and served different payloads based on user environment. The attacker’s TDS (Traffic Distribution System) delivered benign pages to datacenter IPs used by scanners, while residential and mobile IPs received malicious payloads. The scam prompted a pop-up asking users to press Windows key + R and execute code, and the poster notes they avoid this by using Linux without faked user agents.

🔍 Threat actors are exploiting Google Play's Early Access program to distribute deceptive apps that promise money, rewards, casino wins, and premium content. Because Early Access apps do not accept public reviews or star ratings, malicious titles can gain traction without community warnings, and are often promoted via social media ads using AI-generated deepfakes. Reported examples include a Grand Theft Auto imitator with over a million downloads and numerous fake reward and utility apps that stall payouts and monetize victims via ads.

📢 Ukrainian authorities dismantled 94 fraudulent call centers in a coordinated raid involving the National Police, Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and German police. Law enforcement conducted 411 searches, seizing workstations, phones, SIM cards, cash, vehicles, and other equipment used to run investment and banking scams. Investigators found operations targeting both domestic residents and foreign victims via fake brokerage platforms and impersonation of bank staff, and 26 suspects have been identified.

🛡️ OpenAI says it dismantled a Poipet-based scam operation that used ChatGPT to run investment, romance, gambling, and law-enforcement impersonation schemes. The company banned a coordinated cluster of accounts tied to Poipet that created fake personas, generated promotional content, translated messages, and handled administrative tasks. OpenAI investigated in partnership with WhatsApp and highlighted the hybrid, opportunistic nature of modern scam networks.

📱Researchers found that off-the-shelf, AI-enhanced phone farms let operators run large-scale scams for a few thousand dollars a month. Human Security’s Satori team bought and reverse engineered a kit and documented its components: salvage hardware, cloud phone services, orchestration tools, and an AI layer that automates conversations. The report, published July 28, highlights how these elements lower barriers to entry and scale romance, ATO and investment fraud.

🛡️ The FBI has issued an IC3 public service announcement warning that scammers are escalating a long-running impersonation scheme by deploying deepfake videos of senior FBI officials and spoofed IC3 websites to re-defraud previous victims. Fraudsters combine social media impersonation, AI-generated video and lookalike complaint portals to harvest further data and payments. IC3 stressed it does not communicate via social platforms or request payment, and urged users to verify .gov domains.

💼 U.S. prosecutors charged two New York residents, Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang, for operating a money-laundering network that moved at least $43 million stolen in investment fraud schemes between 2020 and 2022. The indictment alleges they used roughly 45 shell companies and 140 bank accounts to funnel proceeds to China while coordinating a network of over a dozen associates. Authorities say the scams used social media and fake profiles to lure victims and show fabricated profits to induce further investments. If convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering, both face up to 20 years in prison.

🔍 The Dutch Police announced arrests tied to an international investment fraud operation that ran multiple call centers and posed as financial advisers. Authorities say the organization generated over €100 million per month at its peak, targeted victims with fake trading dashboards, and persuaded them to transfer cryptocurrencies. The main suspect, a 46-year-old Israeli-Polish national with an alleged history of hacking, was arrested in Poland and extradited to the Netherlands. Additional arrests took place in Cyprus, Greece, and Belgium as investigations continue.

🧭Researchers uncovered 212 domains registered within five days of the Venezuela earthquake, many claiming to offer aid, donations, or rescue services. While some registrations may be legitimate, 93% hid registrant contact details and several solicit Bitcoin with no verifiable accountability. The pattern mirrors past disaster-driven scams; donors are advised to use known charity sites and avoid new or crypto-only donation pages.

🛡️ The FBI warns that cryptocurrency investment scammers are using in-person couriers to bypass banking controls and collect cash from victims. A July 15 PSA notes that fraudsters instruct victims to withdraw funds for supposed fines or flagged accounts, authenticate couriers with bill serial numbers or passwords, and then repeat the scheme by demanding “taxes” or penalties. Victims are often targeted via social media, unsolicited texts, or fake investment personas.

🛡️ The FBI warned that criminals are using couriers to collect cash from victims of cryptocurrency investment scams, often after banks block suspicious transfers. Scammers build trust through social media or dating platforms, then instruct victims to hand over money to couriers who authenticate with passwords or dollar bill serial numbers. Victims are then shown fake wallet increases and pressured for more funds for alleged taxes or penalties. The FBI urges due diligence on crypto platforms, avoiding cash deliveries, and immediate reporting of incidents.

📩 Kaspersky examines how everyday messaging channels like SMS, WhatsApp, and email are being exploited by organized scam cartels that use speed, familiarity, and AI to trick victims. The research shows average losses of $733 per victim, rapid attack timelines often under 30 minutes, and widespread emotional damage eroding trust in digital communications. The post highlights common schemes, platform distribution, and recommendations to protect yourself.

🛑 The FBI warns Americans lost more than $388 million in 2025 to scams that leverage cryptocurrency kiosks, commonly called crypto or Bitcoin ATMs. These standalone terminals, often located at gas stations and convenience stores, were used to transfer victims' cash to attacker-controlled wallets, with complaints up 23% and losses up 58% year‑over‑year. The IC3 received over 13,400 kiosk-related complaints and noted adults over 50 suffered a disproportionate share of losses. The bureau recommends verifying callers, refusing QR/payment instructions from unknown individuals, and preserving transaction receipts.

🔍 Sri Lankan police arrested 37 people, all Chinese nationals, on 2 May after raiding a property in Talangama, a Colombo suburb, following a tip-off. Officers seized 35 tablets, 147 mobile phones and 100 SIM cards and say several occupants were working illegally or overstaying visas. Authorities suspect romance-baiting operations that groom victims online and funnel them into fake cryptocurrency investment platforms. The arrests follow earlier large detentions and deportations tied to similar scam centres.

🔍 ESET Research uncovered a cluster of fraudulent Android apps, dubbed CallPhantom, that promised call histories, SMS records and WhatsApp logs for any phone number but delivered fabricated entries and charged users for access. The apps collectively amassed over 7.3 million downloads on Google Play before ESET reported them on 16 December 2025 and the identified packages were removed. Operators used varied payment flows—official Play subscriptions, third‑party UPI links and embedded card checkouts—making refunds and cancellations difficult for many victims.

🚨 Dubai-led authorities shut down nine cryptocurrency investment fraud centers and arrested 276 suspects in a coordinated international operation. Investigators said the networks ran pig-butchering (romance baiting) schemes that built trust with victims and pushed them to fake crypto platforms where funds were quickly seized and laundered. Several individuals now face wire fraud and money-laundering charges, and U.S. agencies linked millions in losses through FBI IC3 complaints.