online scam

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Maryland Man Pleads Guilty in COVID Vaccine Scam

Fake site set up to look just like Moderna's offered supposed doses for $30 a pop, feds say

(Newser) - Earlier this year, before COVID vaccines were readily available to eligible patients, a website suddenly popped up advertising Moderna doses for $30 each. That site turned out to be a fake, and now a Maryland man has owned up to his role in getting it up and running. The Baltimore ...

Broken Hearts, Empty Wallets: Seniors Catfished for $139M

FTC report says there was a 'surge' in 2020 in romance scams bamboozling Americans 60 and over

(Newser) - Last month, the Department of Justice announced money laundering and wire fraud charges brought against nearly a dozen "romance scammers," and that's only scratching the surface of what the Washington Post calls a "surge" in such deceptions made worse by the pandemic, especially for the senior...

He Made Millions Selling Glasses—and Bullying Buyers

The 'New York Times' asks whether Vitaly Borker is at it again

(Newser) - The judge said he had never before encountered a defendant who returned "so quickly to exactly the same crime." The question is whether Vitaly Borker is now back at it a third time. Writing for the New York Times , David Segal dives into the Ukrainian immigrant's backstory,...

Vaccine Scams Are Already Happening
Vaccine Scams
Are Already
Happening
the rundown
Dec 19, 2020 12:35 PM CST

Vaccine Scams Are Already Happening

Homeland Security agents are already chasing down fake websites

(Newser) - If you're seeing coronavirus vaccine deals, look again: US officials say they're almost certainly scams. Whether by email, phone, or online, scammers are angling to take advantage of our desire for inoculation. "If you're receiving unsolicited offers for a vaccine—not one, not two, but about...

Cops Bust Dating Scam in 'Operation Casanova'

More than 2 dozen are under arrest in Italy, accused of scamming women online

(Newser) - Their jobs as pilots, sea captains, military or Interpol officials kept them on the go, unable to meet the women they were wooing online in person. That would happen, they told their victims, but first, they needed money for an emergency, such as a child's illness. Police in Italy...

Gift Card Scam Nets Tesla, Waterfront Home, and 9 Years

Ukranian hired by Microsoft to test system found a flaw

(Newser) - As a tester for Microsoft, Volodymyr Kvashuk placed fake online orders to check the system. The software wouldn't allow products to be sent to testers, so there was no risk of the company being scammed. Except there was. Kvashuk, who was hired in 2016, discovered nothing stopped him from...

80 Charged in Massive Love Scam Run Out of LA

Man named Valentine, another Nigerian citizen are accused masterminds of scheme out of California

(Newser) - The feds say elderly women and businesses were the perpetrators' targets, and that they managed to squeeze at least $6 million out of their victims in what prosecutors are calling "one of the largest cases of its kind in US history." CNN reports on the arrests Thursday of...

City Treasurer Falls for Email Scam, to the Tune of $98K

Ottawa releases details of July incident

(Newser) - Ottawa's city treasurer was taken in by a phishing scam, and ended up sending almost $98,000 to an email fraudster, the city auditor general's office has revealed. Last July, Marian Simulik received an email that appeared to come from city manager Steve Kanellakos, asking for the sum—...

Homeless Man, NJ Woman Admit GoFundMe Scam

They pleaded guilty to federal charges

(Newser) - A homeless man and a New Jersey woman who scammed more than 14,000 kind-hearted people with a fake story on GoFundMe are facing time in federal prison. Johnny Bobbitt, Jr., 36, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit money laundering and 28-year-old Kate McClure pleaded guilty to conspiracy to...

Love Seekers Lost $143M to Scammers in 2018: FTC

That's more than any other type of consumer fraud found by the agency last year

(Newser) - If you wanted the Federal Trade Commission's take on Valentine's Day, here it is: Beware of getting scammed seeking love online. The warning comes via the agency's latest revelation, which cites more than 21,000 reports of people getting swindled by internet "paramours" in 2018, NPR...

A Grieving Son Blames Bank Over $732K Con

Dayle Hogg says TD Bank shouldn't have let his father wire the money

(Newser) - Dayle Hogg is hopping mad over the $732,000 his dad sent a romance scammer, but doesn't seem to blame him. "There should have been red flags going up all over the place at the bank," Hogg tells the CBC . "He had no history of sending...

University Fooled Into Paying $11.8M to Fake Account

Emails requested a change in banking info

(Newser) - A university in Canada is the victim of what is being described as one of the biggest known phishing scams ever. MacEwan University in Edmonton discovered the fraud on Aug. 23, when a construction company it works with asked why it had yet to be paid. But the school had...

Experts Issue Warning on Facebook Concert Craze

Listing concerts you've attended could compromise online security

(Newser) - An alluring game on Facebook is coming under intense scrutiny—even though its original intent seems pretty harmless. People are posting lists of the top 10 concerts they've ever attended, including one that they actually didn't attend, to compare and see who can spot the lie. But Facebook...

Why People Spent $450K on a Ring That Doesn&#39;t Seem to Exist
Why People Spent $450K on a
Ring That Doesn't Seem to Exist
in case you missed it
Dec 10, 2016 12:09 PM CST

Why People Spent $450K on a Ring That Doesn't Seem to Exist

Indiegogo campaign is shut down, with no BioRing in sight

(Newser) - A ring that seemed too good to be true is apparently too good to exist at all. So reports Vocativ in an exposé about a product that may have never been in the works—and the marketing teams and fundraisers who were seemingly duped by a shiny gadget. The object...

NBA Team Releases Players' Tax Info to Email Scammer

The scammer 'spoofed' the email address the Milwaukee Bucks' president

(Newser) - The Milwaukee Bucks say their organization inadvertently provided tax information of employees, including players, to someone who was impersonating the team's president over email, the AP reports. The NBA team said Thursday that the "security incident" involving the W-2 forms of all 2015 employees was reported to the...

This Simple Scam Has Cost Businesses $2B in 2 Years

'It's easy; all you need is a computer'

(Newser) - International scammers are successfully tricking businesses into wiring them as much $90 million at a time, and the problem is getting worse, the Financial Times reports. In a scam known as "business email crime" or "CEO fraud," criminals impersonate the email account of a business's CEO...

Older Women Should Beware of This Online Dating Scam

In 6 months alone, $82.3 million was reported in confidence frauds

(Newser) - Con artists are scamming elderly American women out of big bucks—sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars—by wooing them on dating websites and suddenly asking for money, the New York Times reports. "I blame myself," says a Georgia woman who gave a swindler nearly $300,000. "...

Netflix Email Scam Stole Private Documents

And a Pinterest scam is going around, too

(Newser) - Click on any Netflix tech-support emails lately? Then you may have fallen victim to a phishing scam that swiped your login information at the very least, CBS News reports. The Better Business Bureau says the phony emails, sent out by con artists, have been linking customers to a login page...

eBay Scammers Made $3M in Fake Car Sales: FBI

Romanian ringleader now being sought

(Newser) - The FBI has a new wanted man—a 33-year-old Romanian accused of leading a ring of scammers who made $3 million selling non-existent vehicles on sites such as eBay and Cars.com, reports CNN . Nicolae Popescu allegedly found plenty of victims between 2011 and 2012. Authorities say he and his...

Kickstarter Users Uncover Huge Scam on ... Kickstarter

$120K pledged to sham Kobe beef jerky company

(Newser) - They were almost taken for fools. But one almost-unlucky group of Kickstarter users managed to uncover a $120,309 scam on the site, helping to kill the campaign less than an hour before it was set to end—and their money was whisked out of their bank accounts. CNNMoney reports...

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