Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

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FBI Releases 2020 Internet Crime Report

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Alaska Report Shows Increase in Reported Scams; FBI Urges Online Safety Habits

ANCHORAGE, AK—The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report, which includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected Internet crime—an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019—and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion. Notably, 2020 saw the emergence of scams exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. The IC3 received over 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19, with fraudsters targeting both businesses and individuals.

The accompanying state report for Alaska showed nearly 2,300 victims in Alaska filed complaints of suspected Internet crime to IC3, and reported losses exceeding $6 million, which disproportionately affected Alaska’s senior population. In Alaska, the top three crimes reported by victims were IPR/copyright and counterfeit, extortion, and non-payment/non-delivery scams; however, victims lost the most money to business email compromise scams, romance scams, and tech support scams. These scams are described as:

  • IPR / Copyright and Counterfeit: Fraud involving the theft of trade secrets and counterfeit goods that threaten public health and safety.
  • Extortion: Unlawful extraction of money or property through intimidation or undue exercise of authority. It may include threats of physical harm, criminal prosecution, or public exposure.
  • Non-Payment / Non-Delivery: In non-payment situations, goods and services are shipped, but payment is never rendered. In non-delivery situations, payment is sent, but goods and services are never received.
  • Business Email Compromise / e-mail Account Compromise: BEC is a scam targeting businesses (not individuals) working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses regularly performing wire transfer payments. EAC is a similar scam that targets individuals. These sophisticated scams are carried out by fraudsters compromising email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfer of funds.
  • Romance Scams: Most often through social media or dating sites, a victim believes they are in a relationship (family, friendly, or romantic) and are tricked into sending money, personal, and financial information, or items of value to the perpetrator or to launder money or items to assist the perpetrator.
  • Tech Support Scams: Criminals pose as technology support representatives and offer to fix non-existent computer issues. The scammers gain remote access to victims’ devices and sensitive information.

To protect yourself from falling victim to common fraud schemes, be wary of answering phone calls from numbers you do not recognize. Do not send money or gift cards to anybody that you do not personally know and trust. Never give out your personally identifiable information over the phone or to individuals you do not know.

In some schemes, like government impersonation scams, criminals pose as government employees calling from a spoofed number and will threaten to arrest or prosecute victims unless they agree to provide funds, gift cards, or obtain personal identifiable information. These calls are fraudulent; no legitimate law enforcement officer will make unsolicited calls demanding payment, gift cards, or personally identifiable information from a member of the public.

The FBI wants to remind the public to immediately report suspected criminal Internet activity to the IC3 at ic3.gov. By reporting Internet crime, victims are not only alerting law enforcement to the activity, but also aiding in the overall fight against cyber crime.

Additional Resources:

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Stopping Public Corruption

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

“The exact thing he was getting paid to prevent by the taxpayers of Philadelphia, he was doing himself,” said Special Agent Brian Coughlin, who investigated this case out of the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office.

But in 2015, one of Blackwell’s bribery “customers” was actually an FBI confidential source. The source captured Blackwell on tape promising a city permit for a dumpster in exchange for $3,000. The source gave Blackwell $1,700 upfront. He followed up with texts to the source demanding the remaining money—which provided additional evidence in the case.

He never actually provided any service to those who paid him, but simply the offer of a benefit in exchange for a bribe is a crime, Coughlin explained.

“Blackwell took people’s money with the promise of doing things and didn’t do them,” Coughlin said.

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InfraGard Marks 25 Years of Protecting the Country’s Critical Infrastructure

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

In 1996, a small group of private sector and government officials began working with the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office to help identify cyber threats to the country. The FBI passed along what we knew about cyber intrusions and crime trends to our partners to help them secure their facilities and computer networks. And our partners, in turn, shared their information technology expertise and information they had on possible cyber crimes.

The group became known as InfraGard because of its focus on protecting critical infrastructure components—like utility companies, transportation systems, telecommunication networks, water and food suppliers, public health, and financial services.

The original program proved so successful that we replicated it nationally. And just as the cyber threat has evolved over the last 25 years, so has InfraGard.

Today, InfraGard—managed by the FBI’s Office of Private Sector—has grown to more than 75,000 members representing the private sector, government, and academia. InfraGard has expanded its initial focus on cyber crime to include terrorism, intelligence, criminal, and security matters.

So while the threat is more complex today, the mission remains the same. InfraGard helps the FBI protect the country’s critical infrastructure sectors through partnerships.

InfraGard participants share information, intelligence, training, best practices, and more through a member website and through more than 70 regional chapters, each having a relationship with a local FBI field office.

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The Unabomber Case 25 Years Later

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

No two people write alike.

It was something Terry Turchie, the lead FBI agent on the UNABOM Task Force, remembered a creative writing teacher saying to him in school. Although that advice came many years before Turchie was investigating a serial bomber, it would prove crucial to solving the case.

The Unabomber began his campaign of violence with a package bomb he left in a parking lot of the University of Illinois’ Chicago Circle Campus in 1978. He would go on to place a bomb on an aircraft and leave others in university buildings and by computer stores. He would also mail powerful bombs to a number of university professors and to businesses and executives. He unleashed 16 bombs that killed three people and injured nearly two dozen before he was arrested on April 3, 1996.

Despite being active for nearly 20 years, the Unabomber was meticulous about leaving no evidence that could be traced to him and took pains to avoid being seen.

“He was the most careful serial bomber anyone had ever seen,” said Special Agent Kathleen Puckett, who worked on the UNABOM task force and led efforts to profile the bomber. (Both Puckett and Turchie are now retired from the FBI.)

But when the bomber began communicating, first in letters to some of his victims and then with the media, Turchie said he was also inadvertently communicating with the FBI. Investigators were analyzing his every word.

“We didn’t have any line to him except the letters he started sending in 1993,” said Puckett. “It was a bonanza of information.” The letters pointed investigators to ideas he held, topics he studied, and books that were meaningful to him. To Puckett, who was working toward her Ph.D. in clinical psychology, they revealed things about his education, age, and personality.

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Raul Bujanda Named Special Agent in Charge of the Albuquerque Field Office

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Director Christopher Wray has named Raul Bujanda as the special agent in charge of the Albuquerque Field Office in New Mexico. Mr. Bujanda most recently served as a section chief in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington.

Mr. Bujanda joined the FBI as a special agent in 2002. He was first appointed to the Portland Field Office in Oregon, where he investigated violent crime, gang, and Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations.

He transferred to the El Paso Field Office in Texas in 2008 to work on the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force strike force. He continued to investigate Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations. In 2010, Mr. Bujanda was promoted to supervisory special agent of the El Paso strike force, which also included members from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Border Patrol, the El Paso Sheriff’s Office, and other agencies.

Mr. Bujanda was promoted in 2013 to unit chief in the Criminal Justice Information Services Division in West Virginia. The Online Services and Operations Unit provided technical services, including real-time secure information sharing and crisis information, to the law enforcement community.

In 2015, Mr. Bujanda served as an assistant inspector and team leader in the Inspection Division at Headquarters. He was promoted in 2016 to assistant special agent in charge of the National Security Branch in the Oklahoma City Field Office. He later served as the assistant special agent in charge of Oklahoma City’s Criminal Branch, where he was responsible for criminal violations, administrative matters, and the FBI offices in the western region of the state.

Mr. Bujanda was named section chief of the Criminal Investigative Division’s National Covert Operations Section in 2019. He managed and oversaw all criminal and national security undercover operations for the FBI.

Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Bujanda was a special agent in the Immigration and Naturalization Service and was a fifth-grade teacher.