SCAMS!

[raison de arizona]

I almost didn't watch this episode because I didn't want to watch them butchering actual pigs. I have never heard the term before.
It sounds a lot like a "catfishing" scheme except for the amount of money involved. I can't imagine investing that kind of money without going through my investment advisor.

Total ditto. The name totally threw us off and we nearly skipped. But we enjoy Oliver too much so we chanced it. Whew, were we relieved!

But that was crazy.

[RTH10260]

UK

[RTH10260]

[Luke]

Thanks, RTH! Hadn't seen his videos in a while. This one is hilarious, wait till you see him get these scammers to send photos of sucking their thumbs for "AI verification"

It's satisfactual.

[RTH10260]

Hello folks!

Elon Musk himself just told me that I have won some kind of shares

I need to reply to his gmail address and register a complaint!

--
Diese E-Mail stammt von Elon Musk und Gründer, CEO und Chefingenieur des SpaceX-Teams; Frühphaseninvestor, CEO und Produktarchitekt bei Tesla, Inc.; Gründer von The Boring Company; und Mitbegründer von Neuralink und OpenAI. Mit einem geschätzten Nettovermögen von rund 245 Milliarden US-Dollar. Ihre E-Mail-Adresse wurde zufällig aus einer US-amerikanischen, kanadischen und europäischen E-Mail-Datenbank ausgewählt und Sie haben 18.087,71 Tesla-Aktien zu 228,0 USD pro Aktie (TSLA) im Wert von 4.124.270,00 USD gewonnen. Bitte nehmen Sie diese E-Mail ernst und antworten Sie auf diese E-Mail oder wenden Sie sich an ( emteslastockllastock@xxxxx), um eine Beschwerde anzufordern.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email is from Elon Musk and Founder, CEO and Chief Engineer of the SpaceX team; early stage investor, CEO and product architect at Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. With an estimated net worth of around $245 billion. Your email address was randomly selected from a US, Canadian and European email database and you won 18,087.71 Tesla shares at $228.0 per share (TSLA) worth $ 4,124,270.00. Please take this email seriously and reply to this email or by contacting ( emteslastockllastockxxxxx) to request a complaint.

ps, his sender email is of course suzanademri373663@xxxxx

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

How LUCKY can you be!!!??? Have you responded yet?

[zekeb]

You don't have to know their e-mail address. Just click HERE to reply.

[John Thomas8]

[bill_g]

I like Boyles delivery. His jabs can be subtle. He does have a flair for language.

What I wasn't aware of was the practice of withholding bonuses. That's not a bonus if it's *not deposited* in your bank account. It's vapor. It's fiction. That would piss me off if I was given a big number, told it was mine, and then told in the next breath It's staying under glass so it can be clawed back in case I make a mistake. That's what insurance is for. How many bonuses do I need to bank before some of it becomes mine? Or are you saying with each bonus comes greater responsibility without commensurate compensation?

[RTH10260]

Chinese network behind one of world’s ‘largest online scams’
Exclusive: Vast web of fake shops touting designer brands took money and personal details from 800,000 people in Europe and US, data suggests

Carmen Aguilar García, Sarah Marsh and Philip McMahon
Wed 8 May 2024 06.00 CEST

More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China.

An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created.

A trove of data examined by reporters and IT experts indicates the operation is highly organised, technically savvy – and ongoing.

Operating on an industrial scale, programmers have created tens of thousands of fake web shops offering discounted goods from Dior, Nike, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Versace and Prada, as well as many other premium brands.

Published in multiple languages from English to German, French, Spanish, Swedish and Italian, the websites appear to have been set up to lure shoppers into parting with money and sensitive personal data.

However, the sites have no connection to the brands they claim to sell and in most cases consumers who spoke about their experience said they received no items.



https://www.theguardian.com/money/artic ... line-scams

[RTH10260]

Scam gone wrong

Uber driver shot and killed by 81-year-old Ohio man after both received scam calls, police say

By S. Dev
Updated on: April 17, 2024 / 2:56 PM EDT / CBS News


An 81-year-old Ohio man has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting an Uber driver who thought she was picking up a package from the man's house. Both appeared to have been victims of scam phone calls, the Clark County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

The Uber driver, Loletha Hall, was found shot multiple times near 81-year-old William Brock's South Charleston home on March 25. Brock, who had called 911, had an injury to his head and ear and was bleeding when police arrived, according to a police report.

Hall, a Black woman, was taken to a hospital in Dayton, where she died of her injuries.

Investigators discovered that Brock had earlier received a scam call about an incarcerated relative, which had involved threats and demands for money.

An unknown man told Brock over the phone he needed to pay $12,000 to get his nephew out of jail, according to a police report. Brock told police the caller threatened to kill him and his nephew if he didn't pay the ransom, the report said.

The same caller, or an accomplice, later hired Hall using the Uber app to pick up a package from Brock's residence, according to investigators. Hall was not aware that Brock had been threatened, the sheriff's office. said.

"Ms. Hall, suffering from medical conditions and unarmed, made no threats or assaults toward Mr. Brock, and made no demands, other than to ask about the package she was sent to retrieve," the sheriff's office said.

Brock allegedly held Hall at gunpoint and demanded to know the identities of the people who had called him. He also took Hall's phone and refused to allow her to leave, officials said, adding that Brock did not try to call police at this point.

When Hall tried to get back into her vehicle, Brock allegedly shot her, and there was a "subsequent scuffle at the door of Ms. Hall's vehicle," the sheriff's office said. Brock then allegedly shot her two more times, before calling 911.



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uber-drive ... k-loletha-

comment: according to current scammer procedures the paket would have been dropped off at an AirBandB by the Uber driver. The place was rented by an involved third party where they or yet another person would pick up the money package to mail to the scammer overseas.

[RTH10260]

These dangerous scammers don’t even bother to hide their crimes
Cybercriminals openly run dozens of scams across social media and messaging apps.

MATT BURGESS, WIRED.COM -
5/4/2024, 1:37 PM

Most scammers and cybercriminals operate in the digital shadows and don’t want you to know how they make money. But that’s not the case for the Yahoo Boys, a loose collective of young men in West Africa who are some of the web’s most prolific—and increasingly dangerous—scammers.

Thousands of people are members of dozens of Yahoo Boy groups operating across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, a WIRED analysis has found. The scammers, who deal in types of fraud that total hundreds of millions of dollars each year, also have dozens of accounts on TikTok, YouTube, and the document-sharing service Scribd that are getting thousands of views.

Inside the groups, there’s a hive of fraudulent activity with the cybercriminals often showing their faces and sharing ways to scam people with other members. They openly distribute scripts detailing how to blackmail people and how to run sextortion scams—that have driven people to take their own lives—sell albums with hundreds of photographs, and advertise fake social media accounts. Among the scams, they’re also using AI to create fake “nude” images of people and real-time deepfake video calls.

The Yahoo Boys don’t disguise their activity. Many groups use “Yahoo Boys” in their name as well as other related terms. WIRED’s analysis found 16 Yahoo Boys Facebook groups with almost 200,000 total members, a dozen WhatsApp channels, around 10 Telegram channels, 20 TikTok accounts, a dozen YouTube accounts, and more than 80 scripts on Scribd. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Broadly, the companies do not allow content on their platforms that encourages or promotes criminal behavior. The majority of the Yahoo Boys accounts and groups WIRED identified were removed after we contacted the companies about the groups’ overt existence. Despite these removals, dozens more Yahoo Boys groups and accounts remain online.

“They’re not hiding under different names,” says Kathy Waters, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Advocating Against Romance Scammers, which has tracked the Yahoo Boys for years. Waters says the social media companies are essentially providing the Yahoo Boys with “free office space” to organize and conduct their activities. “They’re selling scripts, selling photos, identifications of people, all online, all on the social media platforms,” she says. “Why these accounts still remain is beyond me.”



https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/0 ... ir-crimes/

[RTH10260]

Six Austrians Arrested in Multi-Million Euro Crypto Scheme

Alessandro Mascellino Freelance Journalist
8 MAY 2024

Law enforcement agencies from Austria, Cyprus and Czechia have collaborated to dismantle an online cryptocurrency scam, resulting in the arrest of six Austrians allegedly behind the scheme.

The investigation, supported by Europol and Eurojust, targeted the orchestrators of a purportedly new cryptocurrency launched in December 2017.

Following six house searches, authorities seized over EUR 500,000 in cryptocurrencies and EUR 250,000 in fiat currency and froze numerous bank accounts. Additionally, assets, including two cars and a luxury property valued at EUR 1.4m, were confiscated.

According to a blog post published by Europol today, the scam unfolded between December 2017 and February 2018. During this time, the perpetrators masqueraded as a legitimate online trading company offering a new cryptocurrency through an initial coin offering (ICO).

Investors were enticed to purchase tokens with established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. To bolster credibility, the fraudsters claimed to have developed proprietary software and a unique algorithm for token sales.

However, suspicions arose due to a lack of transparency regarding the team members and the cryptocurrency’s algorithm.

“Traditionally, an ICO will build upon transparency and communicate clearly about each team member responsible for it,” the blog explains. “In this instance, there was a lack of transparency regarding both the team members involved and the algorithm underpinning the cryptocurrency.”

In February 2018, the scammers abruptly shuttered the project’s social media accounts and website, executing what is known as an exit scam. This sudden closure exposed investors to the realization they had been deceived, though not all victims have been identified.



https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/n ... ro-crypto/