Category: United States of America

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Welcome to the Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday segment. Today: Building a digital defense against the dangers of posting COVID-19 vaccination information online.

Last week, we talked about fraudsters who are selling fake vaccination cards on the Internet. One way they get those realistic images of cards to sell is by stealing them off legitimate people’s social media pages.

For that reason, once you have received your COVID-19 vaccine, the FBI is asking that you do NOT post a photo of your CDC vaccination card online.

There is more than just the problem of bad actors re-selling images of your card, though. They can also use your post to harvest lots of personal information—which can include your name, date of birth, patient number, and location where you received your vaccine. Once a fraudster has these details, he can steal your identity and do all sorts of damage to your financial health.

If you have already posted a photo of a vaccine card, consider removing it and update your profile picture with a banner or a sticker saying that you got your shot. Some social media platforms have frames or graphics you can use—or you can download stickers from www.cdc.gov.

Finally—if you feel that you have been a victim of identify theft, contact your financial institutions immediately and monitor your credit reports.

You should also report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov or call your FBI local office.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Special Agent in Charge Stanley M. Meador is pleased to announce Dr. Bonnie Price as FBI Richmond’s Director’s Community Leadership Award recipient for 2020.

Annually, since 1990, each FBI field office presents the Director’s Community Leadership Award to an individual or organization in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the education and prevention of crime in their communities.

Dr. Price, an administrative director within the Bon Secours Richmond Health System, is a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) for Adults/Adolescents (SANE-A) and Pediatrics/Adolescents (SANE-P), and holds an Advanced Forensic Nursing Certification (AFN-BC).

Dr. Price, along with a team of law enforcement officials, prosecutors, victim advocates, and medical professionals established the Richmond Regional Human Trafficking Collaborative (RRHTC) in 2016. Since the RRHTC’s inception, she has served as the chair and has been instrumental in fostering professional relationships which ensure victims’ needs are met, rights are preserved, and best practices are adhered to while enhancing investigative and prosecutorial outcomes.

The RRHTC also seeks to educate its members and the community at large. Dr. Price has incorporated training components during RRHTC meetings focused on how gangs infiltrate sex trafficking, international trafficking victims assistance, available resources from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, shelter resources, and monitoring changes in the Commonwealth’s Codes dealing with trafficking. Dr. Price has also led the RRHTC in supporting multiple local and regional training and education panels within Central Virginia.

The commitment Dr. Price has demonstrated to law enforcement and the community in support of raising the awareness of, and response to, human trafficking and the coordination of essential resources is laudable and worthy of this recognition. On behalf of the FBI Richmond Field Office, we are honored to present her with the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award for 2020.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

A man wearing a light-colored cowboy hat and a shirt with broad horizontal stripes robbed a Los Lunas bank on Monday, April 19, 2021.

The suspect also wore a plaid jacket, dark pants, and a mask.

He is described as a Hispanic male, approximately 5’5” tall, weighing about 180 pounds, and has salt and pepper hair.

The robbery occurred at U.S. Bank, 2421 Main Street SE, at approximately 1 p.m.

The suspect entered the bank and showed the teller a note demanding money.

The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of money to the suspect, who left the bank.

The FBI and Los Lunas Police Department are investigating whether this suspect could be responsible for a robbery at the same bank that occurred on April 7, 2021.

Anyone with information about these robberies is asked to contact the FBI at (505) 889-1300, or Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at (505) 843-STOP.

Tips can also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.

Information about other bank robbers wanted by the FBI can be found at bankrobbers.fbi.gov.

Bank robbery carries a possible prison term of up to 20 years. The use of a gun, other dangerous weapon, toy gun, or hoax bomb device during the commission of a bank robbery can be punishable by a prison term of up to 25 years.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

PHOENIX, AZ—The FBI Phoenix Field Office, in commemoration of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW), April 18–24, 2021, joins its federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners in taking this opportunity to raise awareness about crime victims’ issues and rights. NCVRW is celebrated each year in communities across the nation to honor, acknowledge, and support crime victims.

The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. When a scammer victimizes the elderly, a predator targets a child online, or terror strikes a community, the FBI works to bring the perpetrators to justice. But our job doesn’t stop there. One of the most important additional roles we play is assisting victims of federal crime through our victim services division. The FBI Phoenix Field Office has Victim Specialists in Phoenix and in each of our seven Resident Agencies across the state to include: Tucson, Sierra Vista, Yuma, Flagstaff, Pinetop-Lakeside, Lake Havasu, and Gallup.

The victim services mission is to inform, support, and assist victims in navigating the aftermath of crime and the criminal justice process with dignity and resilience. That includes, but is not limited to, working with elderly couples who lost their savings to a scam, providing emotional support to a child victim, and providing all assistance a family may need after the loss of a loved one.

“Our compassion for victims of crime is at the core of who we are and why we do what we do,” said Sean Kaul, special agent in charge of the FBI Phoenix Field Office. “This week, we remember and honor the millions of Americans who have been impacted by a devastating crime. The FBI and our victim specialists stand with them and recognize their strength and courage.”

For additional information about the FBI victim specialist program, visit: https://www.fbi.gov/resources/victim-services. For additional information on how the FBI helps victims of crime, visit: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/vsd-ensures-crime-victims-get-support-041921.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

To further the victim service capabilities of domestic and international partner agencies, VSD provides training and support to law enforcement and other professionals to enhance their victim assistance programs. These trainings include how to build victim services programs, enhance child/adolescent forensic interviewing skills, deliver death notifications without further traumatizing family members, and conduct victim and family briefings following mass casualty events.

Many of the services and resources VSD provides are used in tandem—especially when the need arises to surge support for a particular case or area. This includes the FBI’s response to last summer’s Supreme Court ruling that a large segment of the eastern portion of the state of Oklahoma would return to federal/tribal reservation land, which added many additional cases under the FBI’s jurisdiction. For VSD, this led to approximately a 1,130% increase in victims requiring FBI assistance in that area. The FBI has responded by surging resources, to include victim services assets, to Oklahoma to support the local communities. VSD has been providing services, resources, and forensic interviews to victims as well as training law enforcement personnel on providing culturally sensitive death notifications and assisting in setting up multi-disciplinary teams to coordinate across local agencies during investigations.

As the country marks National Crime Victims’ Rights Week this week, take a moment to learn more about the assistance and services the FBI provides victims of crime and their families.