Month: November 2021

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

Jimmy Carter Kim was sentenced to 16 years and four months in prison for kidnapping a girl in Arizona and repeatedly sexually assaulting her.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

As we recognize Veterans Day this week, a special reminder to all Oregonians to help protect those who have spent a lifetime protecting all of us.

Welcome to the Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday segment. Today: Building a digital defense against scams targeting veterans.

Operation Protect Veterans is a joint venture between the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and AARP. According to these partners, veterans are twice as likely to fall victim to fraudsters. In fact, they say, 16% of veterans have fallen victim to scams compared to 8% of the rest of us.

Why the difference? Veterans tend to be more trusting of those they believe to be fellow members of military service, making them particularly vulnerable to imposter fraud and other types of scams.

Here are some of the more common ones to watch out for:

• Loan Scams – A bad actor offers to refinance your VA loan at an extremely low rate.
• Imposter Scams – In one scenario, a government agency imposter contacts you to “update your file” to maintain veteran benefits. In another version of this scam, the imposter tells veterans they qualify for a “secret” program or benefit worth thousands of dollars. Either way, the imposter wants the veteran to share personal health and financial information.
• Pension Poaching Scams – The fraudster offers veterans lump sum payments up-front, in exchange for signing over all of their future monthly benefit checks.

Here’s how to protect yourself or the veteran in your life:

• Never click on links or open attachments in emails, text messages, or social media posts from unknown senders.
• If someone contacts you about increasing or changing benefits, hang up and look for the official contact information for that agency. Call that agency directly at the publicly-posted number to confirm any changes or opportunities.
• Never give out personal information to someone who contacts you. That includes your date of birth, Social Security number, military identifiers, banking or other financial account information, or health information.

Finally—you should know that the VA will never charge you for processing a claim or request a processing fee prior to releasing benefit payments. Likewise, the VA does not threaten claimants with jail or lawsuits. If someone approaches you with these demands, hang up immediately.

If you are the victim of online fraud, you can report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov or call your local FBI office.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

Monday, November 8th, marks National STEM Day as the U.S. celebrates the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math education for today’s students. STEM professionals at the FBI have opportunities to work with advanced technologies to address unique investigative and intelligence challenges not found in the private sector. Their expertise applies to forensic science, computer technology, cyber security, electronic surveillance, biometrics, encryption, and more. Here are some ways you can celebrate STEM Day with us!

Travel Around the World with a Portland Forensic Examiner Supervisory Special Agent Betsy Bartko who has traveled from Africa to the Arctic, using her STEM skills to work everything from child exploitation cases to computer intrusions. SSA Bartko is currently the Director of the Northwest Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. Read more about Betsy’s story here.

Explore STEM careers at the Bureau Ready for a challenge? Check out just some of the careers STEM students could have at the FBI:

• Cryptologist/Cryptanalyst
• Data Communications Systems Analyst
• Document Analyst
• Electronics Engineer
• Explosives/Incendiary Devices Analyst
• Forensic Scientist (DNA, hair, latent fingerprints, firearms, tool marks, questioned documents, etc.)
• Hazardous Materials Expert
• Mathematician
• Mechanical Engineer
• Photographic Technologist
• Physical Scientist
• Software Engineer

You can find out more about FBI STEM careers on our FBI Jobs website!

Diving Deep into the Dark Web as the coronavirus pandemic spread through the United States, the existing epidemic of drug addiction accelerated alongside it. In its preliminary data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that overdose deaths reached an all-time high with almost 100,000 fatal overdoses recorded from March 2020 to March 2021. Read more about how FBI agents and analysts are joining with partner agencies to dive deep into the dark web and encrypted apps as drug dealing goes high tech.

FBI Evidence Response Teams – The Real Crime Scene Investigators Rush into a crime scene and you may destroy the tread marks the suspect left in the dirt. Handle a glass carelessly and you can mar the fingerprints left on it. Seal a blood-soaked sock into a plastic bag and your evidence may mold before it reaches the crime lab. Learn more about how the FBI trains its evidence collection teams to be the best in the world. Also, peer into the Evidence Response Team toolbox to see how everyday items like super glue and tape measures along with specialized tools, light sources, and chemicals help the team process a scene.

X-Files? No. UFO files? Yes!

Flying discs. Saucers. Flapjacks. Has the FBI really opened cases on UFOs? Yes! Listen to a recent episode of our Inside the FBI Podcast to hear a discussion with the Bureau’s historian to uncover the truth about some of our noteworthy cases involving unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

From Utqiagvik, Alaska, to Nairobi, Kenya, Supervisory Special Agent Betsy Bartko’s FBI journey has taken her half-way around the world and back. Since 2016, she has served as the director of the Northwest Regional Computer Forensics Lab (NWRCFL) in Portland. The NWRCFL is an FBI-funded task force that processes digital devices involved in all kinds of crimes. The FBI and local law enforcement forensic examiners in the lab work everything from murders and missing kids to national security and child exploitation cases.

Betsy joined the Bureau after 9/11, knowing she needed something more than a position in private industry. She wanted to put herself and her international relations degree from Michigan State to higher use.

Betsy says she “came to realize that work was more than just a job. I wanted a career with purpose. When you have that, it makes a difference in every part of your life.”

After applying, her first stop was the FBI Academy at Quantico: “I quickly came to know that my classmates had these amazing backgrounds. I felt privileged to be there.”

Betsy’s first assignment out of the Academy took her to Chicago where she investigated terrorism matters. Agents work a minimum of 50 hours a week, but Betsy wasn’t satisfied with that. She volunteered to serve on the FBI’s Evidence Response Team and earned a master’s degree in computer security from DePaul University.

After five years, she took a voluntary transfer to Alaska, where she met Monica, a registered nurse and her future wife.

“Alaska is fantastic—the big and natural diversity is awesome. It is a small office, but agents there are responsible for all the same kinds of work as every other FBI office. The difference? They’re working in an insanely large territory.”

During her eight years in Alaska, Betsy had the opportunity to work all over the state, including in Utqiagvik. “It’s an incredibly special place—north of the Arctic Circle and the northernmost city in the U.S.”

While working up north, Betsy worked both cyber crimes (such as computer intrusions and ransomware cases) and as a certified computer forensic examiner. Much of her forensics work including gathering evidence against those producing and trading child exploitation materials. A difficult job, certainly, but the reward of knowing that you are helping bring justice to the child victims is remarkable.