Category: United States of America

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

PITTSBURGH—Valentine’s Day and the days leading up to it can be exciting, but it can also lead to heartbreak, embarrassment, and financial loss. Well-rehearsed criminals search dating sites, apps, chat rooms, and other social media networking sites attempting to build “relationships” for the sole purpose of getting your money or your personally identifiable information.

Romance scammers often create fake profiles on dating sites and apps or contact their targets through popular social media sites. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center or IC3, romance scams, also called confidence fraud, affected more than 1,600 people in West Virginia in 2020, up from 1,200 people in 2019. This resulted in losses totaling $4.8 million dollars in 2020.

To avoid becoming a victim, FBI Pittsburgh recommends the following:

• Only use reputable, nationally-recognized dating websites; however, be aware that scammers may be using them too.
• Research photos and profiles in other online search tools and ask questions.
• Never provide your financial information, loan money, nor allow your bank accounts to be used for transfers of funds.
• Do not allow attempts to isolate you from family and friends.
• Do not blindly believe the stories of severe life circumstances, tragedies, family deaths, injuries, or other hardships geared at keeping your interest and concern.
• 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.
• If you are traveling to a foreign country to meet someone check the State Department’s Travel Advisories beforehand (http://travel.state.gov/), provide your itinerary to family and friends, and do not travel alone if possible.

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.

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 the Internet Crimes Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov), and contact law enforcement.

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

Welcome to the Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday segment. Today: Building a digital defense against broken hearts and empty wallets.

Love in the time of COVID is harder than ever, and many people have moved online to find Mr. or Mrs. Right. But, while Internet relationships are easier than in-person dates right now, it is also easier for scammers to target you and your bank account. In 2020, victims reported more than $600 million in romance fraud losses to the FBI. That’s up from $475 million in 2019… and only accounts for those who actually reported the crime.

How do they identify potential victims? They actively search dating websites, apps, chat rooms, and social networking sites. They use well-rehearsed scripts that have been used repeatedly and successfully, and some even keep journals on their victims’ likes and needs to be able to better manipulate them. Amazingly, the scammer likes what you like—whether that’s books, music, yard gnomes, or whatever.

To avoid meeting in person, romance scammers often claim to live or work in other parts of the country or world. Eventually, when they feel they have gained their victim’s trust, they request money, oftentimes for a medical emergency, unexpected legal fee, travel expense, or some other seemingly believable situation.

Here are some warning signs that your new love may be a bad bet: The individual –

• Presses you to leave the dating website where you met to communicate solely through e-mail or instant messaging.
• Sends you a photo that looks like a glamour shot out of a magazine.
• Professes love quickly.
• Tries to isolate you from friends and family.
• Claims to be working and living far away.
• Makes plans to visit you, but always cancels because of some emergency.
• Asks you to send compromising photos or videos of yourself or asks for your financial information.
• And, the big one, asks you for money.

Here’s how to protect yourself:

• Only use dating websites with national reputations but assume that con artists are trolling even the most reputable dating and social media sites.
• Go slow and ask questions.
• Research the individual’s pictures and profile to make sure your new love isn’t spoofing someone else’s account or using the same pitch on multiple victims at once.
• Never send money to someone you met online and have not met in person.

This last one is hard because the scammer will always couple an urgent need with a promise to pay you back… a promise that almost always goes unfulfilled.

If you believe are a victim of an online scam, you should report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Center at www.ic3.gov or call your FBI local office.

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).