Posted on

FBI Little Rock Seeks to Educate Community and Law Enforcement Partners on Hate Crimes

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

LITTLE ROCK, AR—As Americans become more aware of violent crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the FBI Little Rock Field Office is urging Arkansas community groups and law enforcement agencies to sign up for an FBI course on hate crimes. This course, developed by the FBI and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, clearly defines the criteria for hate crimes and provides insight into FBI hate crimes investigations. There is no charge for this class, and our previous trainings hosted throughout Arkansas are consistently well-received by course participants. Our presentation seeks to reduce civil rights abuses and promote cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.

The FBI is the primary federal agency responsible for investigating allegations regarding violations of federal civil rights statutes. These laws are designed to protect the civil rights of all persons—citizens and non-citizens alike—within U.S. territory. Using cutting-edge investigative and intelligence capabilities, the FBI works closely with its partners to prevent and address hate crimes, color of law violations, and other civil rights offenses.

If you are a community leader or law enforcement executive, we urge you to contact the FBI and schedule a hate crimes presentation for your organization. Our presentation typically runs for two hours and is conducted by veteran FBI agents who are skilled investigators of federal civil rights violations. This training is interactive and encourages audience members to share thoughts and perspectives about real-world case studies. To schedule a training, please call the FBI Little Rock Field Office at 501-221-9100 and ask for the Community Outreach Specialist.

Posted on

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:

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.