https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/newsfeature/an-international-gang-has-been-charged-in-a-widespread-romance-scam-that-defrauded-businesses-and-elderly-women-out-of-at-least-dollar6-million/ar-AAGejrb?ocid=spartandhp
US prosecutors charged 80 scanners in connection with a "romance scam", in which businesses and elderly women were defrauded of about $6 M. The gang apparently operated out of Nigeria, reaching out to sink its tentacles into the US.
Apparently of those 80 people, 17 were in the US, of which 14 were in the LA area. There's no indication if these were Nigerian citizens, or if any American or other nationalities were involved.
This is another scam that used "fake" military people to lure people in. In addition, they displayed sophisticated tech skills, hacking e-mails. They also impersonated employees, but it's not clear which companies or industries or what level of employee they impersonated.
I couldn't help thinking that anyone who might be sharing caregiving, personal, or other identifying information on social networking sites might be targeted, especially if there's indication that they're older people.
I think anyone who's gotten one of the fake IRS calls, advising that the recipient may be arrested for nonpayment of taxes, knows how unsettling these fake and threatening calls can be.
There's no indication what other international agencies may have been involved in the operation. I'm guessing that this might have been a multi-national operation though, especially with agencies that had jurisdiction in Nigeria.
At any rate, this is another reminder why we need to be so careful of our loved ones being sucked into these scams and losing money, if not their safety.
I received a voicemail (I never answer my phone if I don't recognize the number) supposedly from Social Security stating my account had been frozen due to suspicious activity. Received the same voicemail twice in thirty minutes, they are certainly insistent. Social Security will never call us.
Hope that gradually we are rid of the scammers.
I generally use Ctrl, Alt, Del, to get to Task Manager, then close out the program through which it appeared. This group of scammers seems to have an affinity for MS Edge; it's the only place I've gotten these "alerts" that my computer is infected and I need to click on their scam ad to get their fake help.
My boss is a pretty smart guy except when it comes to scams on the internet. He has learned to ask me whether something is true or a scam.
Like those darn pop-up scams that come out of nowhere that fill your screen saying your computer has been infected or whatever. No way one can get that scam off your screen expect by pulling the plug. I thought I would have needed to handcuff my boss to keep him from clicking on anything on that site or to make a phone call to fix the software that the scam was telling him to do. He did call his computer tech who told him to also pull the plug.