Category: MIL-OSI

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

The Cleveland Division of the FBI, Canton Resident Agency’s Child Exploitation Task Force, is seeking the public’s assistance in the location of Dennis E. Horn, age 69, of Smithville, Ohio.

A federal arrest warrant for knowingly receiving and distributing visual depictions of real minors engage in sexually explicit conduct and knowingly possessing or accessing with intent to view child pornography was signed on February 8, 2021.

An investigation had been initiated by law enforcement on January 11, 2021, upon discovery that an IP address utilized by Horn was making child exploitative material online for sharing.

Additional details cannot be provided at this time as the arrest warrant affidavit is under seal until Horn appears in federal court subsequent to his arrest.

Tips can be provided to the Cleveland Division of the FBI at 1-877-FBI-OHIO (324-6446). Reward money is available for information leading to the successful location and prosecution of Dennis E. Horn. Tips can remain anonymous.

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

Has the foreign prince you have been talking to online stolen both your heart and your identity? Think you have a fishing date with your dream person, only to have been catfished? Instead of falling in love, you’ve fallen prey to romance scams.

Romance scams or confidence scams, can break your heart and your bank account. A confidence/romance scam can happen to anyone at any time. A confidence/romance scam is when a perpetrator deceives a victim into believing the perpetrator and the victim have a trusting relationship, whether family, friendly, or romantic. As a result of that belief, the victim is persuaded to send money, send personal or financial information, send items of value to the perpetrator, or launder money on behalf of the perpetrator.

Confidence/romance scams have resulted in one of the highest amounts of financial losses when compared to other Internet-facilitated crimes. In 2020, over 23,000 victims reported over $605,000,000 in losses, as compared to over 12,500 victims and over $203,000,000 in losses in 2015.

Individuals looking for love and companionship are the target victims of this type of online fraud. The criminals who carry out romance scams are experts at what they do. They spend hours honing their skills and sometimes keep journals on their victims to better understand how to manipulate and exploit them. The scammers often watch social media accounts or glean information from an online dating profile. Amazingly, the scammer often likes what their victim likes, shares the same hobbies, the same interests, the same books, etc. Over time, the scammer increases communication with their victim through email, texts, phone calls, etc.

Scammers use poetry, flowers, and other gifts to reel in victims, all while declaring their “undying love”. These criminals often use stories of severe life circumstances, tragedies, deaths in the family, injuries to themselves, other hardships to keep their victims concerned and involved in their schemes. Scammers then often ask victims to send money to help them overcome a financial situation they claim to be experiencing. These are all lies intended to take money from unsuspecting victims.

The best defense of confidence/romance scams is education and awareness to deter individuals from falling victim to these scams.

Here are some tips to help avoid becoming a victim:

• Be careful what you post because scammers can use that information against you.
• Only use dating websites with national reputations, but assume that con artists are trolling even the most reputable sites.
• Go slow and ask questions.
• Research the individual’s pictures and profile using other online search tools to ensure someone else’s profile was not used or to see if that same pitch is being used on multiple victims at once.
• The individual sends you a photo that looks like it is out of a magazine.
• The individual professes love quickly.
• The individual tries to isolate you from family and friends.
• The individual claims to be working and living far away, whether that is on the other side of the country or overseas.
• The individual makes plans to visit you, but always cancels because of some emergency.
• The individual asks you for money. Never send money to someone you met online and have not met in person. It may take weeks or months for the perpetrator to get to the point of asking for money, they are most often communicating with several victims at once, so they can go slow.
• The individual may ask for your help in moving money. Never help anyone move money through your own account or another’s, you could become an unwitting money mule.
• The individual asks you to send compromising photos or videos of yourself or asks for your financial information. Never send anything that can later be used to blackmail you.
• If you plan to meet someone in person that you have met online, the FBI recommends using caution, do not travel alone, and check the State Department’s Travel Advisories before arranging any travel. Individuals should know that some victims that have agreed to meet in person with an online love interest have been reported missing, injured, and, in one instance, deceased.

If you are a victim of a romance scam, or believe you have been victimized by an online fraud, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov and call your local FBI field office. We recognize that it may be embarrassing for victims to report this type of scam because they are intensely personal. However, we ask victims to come forward so the FBI can ensure these online imposters are stopped and brought to justice.

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

The Southern Ohio Digital Organized Crime Group (SODOC-G), an FBI-led task force that investigates online criminal networks, is warning individuals of emerging scams targeting area residents. Criminal actors are engaging in romance scams, inheritance scams, and frauds purporting to help “those in need.” The fraudsters are asking victims to send money via wire transfers, prepaid debit and gift cards, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 284 residents in central and southern Ohio lost over $3.5 million in 2020 as a result of romance fraud and confidence scams.

“The FBI has seen an increase in the number of frauds and the amount of money lost over recent months,” stated FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Chris Hoffman. “We want to help prevent these types of scams while working to investigate and prosecute those who are committing fraud and stealing the hard-earned savings of local residents.”

The most prevalent recent frauds are romance scams. These frauds often begin on legitimate dating, social media, or professional networking sites and the victim believes they are dating someone without actually meeting in person. The scammers carefully build relationships and emotional attachments before asking for money to assist with a fictitious financial need. A common theme in these scams is a reason why the perpetrator is unable to meet in person. Excuses like being overseas for work, in the military, or even quarantined for health reasons are some of the explanations utilized by the fraudsters.

Romance fraud and other scams are also consistently used to recruit money mules—people who may unwittingly be used to illegally transfer money obtained through criminal activity. Once a trust relationship is established, the scammers may ask the victim to open bank accounts, cash checks, purchase pre-paid debit cards, or use CVC kiosks (also called bitcoin ATMs or crypto ATMs, which are devices that allow users to exchange cash and virtual currency) to move money. Criminal networks use romance scam victims, acting as money mules, to victimize other individuals and businesses by laundering the proceeds of fraud.

Organized crime groups, especially those located in Africa, have capitalized on the pandemic and the emergence of cryptocurrency to quickly move funds acquired from the victims out of the United States.  

The FBI recommends the public take these measures to prevent becoming a victim:

• Be cautious of online relationships with people you have not met in person.
• Never send money or personal information to anyone you have only communicated with online or through texts.
• Go slow and ask a lot of questions. Be very suspicious if the individual promises to meet in person or via video chat, but always comes up with excuses why they cannot meet.

Any individual who believes they may be a target of this type of fraud should stop talking to the person involved, not send money, maintain communications and receipts (chats, texts, emails, etc.), notify the bank and the service used to make any financial transactions, contact law enforcement, and report the incident to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

Additional information and resources on romance scams are available at fbi.gov/romancescams and the FTC’s website.

Participating members in the Southern Ohio Digital Organized Crime Group (SODOCG) include the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), Middletown Police Department, Mason Police Department, Cincinnati Police Department, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), Ohio National Guard Counterdrug program, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

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

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Zachariah Juwaun Shorty.

On July 25, 2020, Shorty was found deceased on a dirt pathway in a field in Nenahnezad, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation.

The cause of death was gunshot wounds.

He was last seen on July 21, 2020, in the area of the Journey Inn in Farmington, New Mexico.

Shorty, who lived in Kirtland, New Mexico, was 23 years old at the time.

The Navajo Department of Criminal Investigations is assisting in this investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at (505) 889-1300 or go online at tips.fbi.gov.

An FBI poster with photos and a physical description of Shorty is available at: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/zachariah-juwaun-shorty

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

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, the Albuquerque FBI Division wants to remind the public to be aware of online romance scams, also called confidence fraud.

In this type of fraud, scammers take advantage of people looking for romantic partners on dating websites, apps, or social media, with the ultimate goal of financially exploiting the victims.

The consequences of these scams are often financially and emotionally devastating to victims; they rarely get their money back and may not have the ability to recover from the financial loss.

“Social media has become a popular place to meet people, especially when COVID-19 restrictions make face-to-face gatherings difficult,” said James Langenberg, special agent in charge of the Albuquerque FBI Division. “Unfortunately, criminals know that’s where they can find victims, too. Anyone looking for love in cyberspace should make sure they keep their feet on the ground by educating themselves about the risks.”

According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which provides the public with a means of reporting Internet-facilitated crimes, romance scams result in greater financial losses to victims when compared to most other online crimes.

In 2020, almost 24,000 complaints categorized as romance scams were reported to IC3, and the losses associated with those complaints exceeded $605 million.

In New Mexico, the IC3 received 189 complaints from victims reporting almost $5.36 million in losses related to romance scams.

Victims may be hesitant to report being taken advantage of due to embarrassment, shame, or humiliation.

It’s important to remember, romance scams can happen to anyone at any time.

The criminals who carry out romance scams are experts at what they do. If you develop a romantic relationship with someone you meet online, consider the following:

Research the person’s photo and profile using online searches to see if the material has been used elsewhere.

Beware if the individual attempts to isolate you from friends and family.

Go slow and ask questions.

Criminals may try to recruit you to help launder proceeds derived from online scams and frauds or crimes like human trafficking and drug trafficking. This is called a money mule scheme. Be suspicious if an individual you met on a dating website wants to use your bank account for receiving and forwarding money.

Beware if the individual seems too perfect or quickly asks you to leave a dating service or social media site to go “offline.”

If you are planning to meet someone in person you have met online, meet in a public place and let someone know where you will be and what time you should return home.

Never send money to anyone you don’t know personally.

If you suspect your online relationship is a scam, cease all contact immediately.

If you are a victim who has already sent money, immediately report the incident to your financial institution, file a complaint with IC3 (www.ic3.gov), and contact law enforcement.

More information is available at:

https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/romance-scams

https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/money-mules