eBay sends high-tech care package to Romanian cops

Romanian fraudsters are known as Vlads. Vlad Tepes, a Romanian prince, was the inspiration for the original Dracula story. Interestingly enough, some Romanians consider him a a folk-hero, who drove away invading armies. Photo courtesy of Flickr.

We hear a lot about Romanian organized crime being involved in fraud on auction sites. They are also well known in the world of payment (credit/debit) card skimming.

One of the more infamous Romanian fraudsters goes by the name of Vladuz. Vladuz openly mocked eBay for awhile, publically hacking the site and creating an uproar, but he seems to be laying low, recently.

Apparently, eBay is now providing Romanian law enforcement with technical resources. Ed Sutherland (AHN News) reports:

EBay is assisting Romanian law enforcement to detect and stop fraud targeting losing auction bidders. For months, the auction giant said a large portion of online fraud was coming from the Eastern European nation.

First noticed in 2005, criminals in Romania are taking advantage of a gap in the tech knowledge of local police to prey on eBay users that are outbid in auctions.

"The fraudster can see that a user that didn't win was prepared to spend $145 on a particular item," Matt Henley, part of eBay's Fraud Investigations Team, told News.com. The fraudsters knew most people used their email account name for their eBay username. The criminals would contact the losing bidder by email away from eBay, offering a second chance to obtain the item.

Since uncovering the fraud, eBay began hiding user names when bids exceed $80.

AHN story, here.

Here is a post, I did on a group that fights Romanian fraud on a volunteer level (although I hear they provide a lot of useful intelligence to law enforcement, also):

Auction Fraud and the Romanian Connection

Firemeg.com is also a good place to keep up on eBay fraud happenings, or other rants about eBay. Their site can be viewed, here.

For a lot of information on auction fraud, click here.

AOL has a collection of videos showing some of the hacking/fraud activity on auction sites, here.

Romanian Second-Chance eBay Scammers Busted

The federal authorities are charging twenty-one Romanian fraudsters, who scammed a lot of people in second chance auction scams. According to the federal authorities, the scam was active for about three years and a lot of the victims lived in the Chicago area.

From the article, it was one of the (now) notorious second-chance scams, where a person is given a second chance to win an auction and asked to wire money to a distant locale (in this instance Romania).

Of course, once the money is wired, the person who sent it, never receives "fair value" for their hard-earned money. Please note that wiring money is a "common ploy" in all sorts of Internet scams. I would take a deep breath, when asked to wire money on a transaction (normally overseas) that seems a little "too good to be true."

In this instance, the federal authorities are asking for people, who think they might have been victims to come forward:

Anyone who believes they may have been a victim may e-mail inquiries to usailn.victim.witness@usdoj.gov. Include your name, address, phone number, 10-digit Western Union Money Transfer Control Number, amount transmitted, date funds were provided and the name of the individual to whom the funds were sent. Victims may also call a toll-free hotline number for updates about the case – (866) 364-2621.

Second chance scams have been active on auction sites - you can read all about them on Google, here.

Western Union has a page warning people about wiring money to people they don't really know, here.

I read about this on CBS2chicago.com, who has more details on this story, here.

Romanian Illegal Immigrants Install ATM (Fraud) Machines

(Older picture of a skimming device)

Illegal immigration isn't a "victimless crime" and the work they are performing doesn't always help the economy. Apparently Romanian illegal immigrants are installing fake ATM fronts - used to steal debit-card details - for the very same criminal organizations that helped them get into the United Kingdom, illegally.

Justin Penrose of the Sunday Mirror (UK) is reporting:

They have developed a high-tech ATM front which looks exactly like the original - and it steals a victim's details in seconds.

The new cashpoint fascia is so convincing that gangs are selling it to other crooks for £10,000 a time.

The covers even have a sticker which warns customers to watch out for fraudsters. When a victim uses an ATM it records details while a camera videos the pin number. Within seconds these details are sent to a laptop and a cloned card is made. Several wealthy Romanian "godfathers" run crooked empires from their mansions in the Balkans.

Sunday Mirror story, here.

The article also states that these new and very convincing ATM fronts are being produced and sold to other criminal organizations.

I wonder how long it will be before this new "skimming device" is exported from the United Kingdom? In the past couple of years, debit-card fraud has become a worldwide problem.

This reminds me that the best defense against ATM skimming is to always cover your PIN when doing a transaction!

Here is a previous post about the growing problem of debit-card fraud:

Debit Card Breaches, A Growing Problem

And here is an older post, I did (with pictures) of a skimming device:

ATM Machines That Clone Your Card

If anyone has a picture of one of these new devices, please send it to EdwardDickson@SBCGlobal.net.

Answer a "Too Good to be True" Work-at-Home Ad and Take the Rap for the Phishermen

Ryan Naraine of eWeek did an interesting story about how the phishermen launder their ill-gotten proceeds:

"The dramatic rise in phishing and identity theft attacks includes a well-organized offline component—the not-so-innocent "money mule" recruited by fraudsters to launder stolen money across the globe."

"The ads appear innocently on all the major employment listing sites, offering stay-at-home positions titled "shipping manager," "private financial receiver" or "sales representative."

eWeek story, here.

In the article, they responded to a Craiglist Ad - where after being prompted to submit personal and financial information to the Russian Mob - a base salary of $2000.00 a month was offered, plus $50.00 for each wire transfer and or shipment successfully received by them.

I agree with the article that people involved in this "aren't always so innocent," but since all the stolen money and merchandise will be sent to the new employee -- guess where law enforcement is going to trace it to?

Here is where anyone accepting these jobs could end up.








Also mentioned in the article was that prospective employees for these mobsters are required to submit a lot of personal and financial information about themselves to "hired." My guess is that this will be used to commit even more crimes without the knowledge of the employee (identity theft).

Trust me, Boris and his merry band of "Vlads" are expert at this.

Here is a story about a Better Business Worker caught up in one of these job scams:

BBB Worker Takes Job Processing Fraudulent eBay Transactions

Vigilantes on the Internet

Recently in the mainstream press, there has been a lot of news and commentary regarding Vigilantes on the southern borders of the United States. Vigilantism against cybercriminals is also becoming an organized effort on the internet via websites, who play along with the scams in order to waste the time of the fraudsters. This post is dedicated to those involved in fighting 419 (Advance fee fraud) activity.

These groups are organized by websites, such as 419Eater.com. Here in their own words is how they play the game, "So what is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims and screwing around with the minds of gutless thieves."

There are a lot of these sites out there, here are some of them;

Scamorama.com, great collection of information and scambaits
419 Eater, one of the most famous scambaiting sites
419 Eater's scam baiting community - Forum
The Nigerian Letters
Ebola Monkey Man: Pissing Off Nigerian Scammers
(This one is very amusing)
Frank Rizzo and the 419 Zeros - Scamming the Scammers Without Mercy!
P-P-P-Powerbook, scammer ripped off with really fake Apple laptop
thescambaiter.com, many famous freight-baits originated here
Artists Against 419 - Home of the fake bank database and the FlashMob
scammers-exposed.com - notorious 419 scammers revealed by scam baiters
Conversations with a Nigerian Bank Scammer

One that I visited recently, (which is a Yahoo Group) is "Romance Scam 419 Yahoo Group (US)." When I signed up for this group, I started getting more than 200 e-mails daily from them forcing me to "unsubscribe" due to other commitments. They (as many of the sites do) post pictures of their scammers for everyone to see. I did see evidence that they report activity to the authorities and they claim that law enforcement does monitor the site for intelligence purposes.

Many of these sites do expose fake financial and credit services and I would imagine they have the potential to be a intelligence conduit for law enforcement.

Before engaging in any of this, there are dangers to consider. Here is a warning from 419.Eater.com:

"Please remember that these people are CRIMINALS and should be treated as such.

Under no circumstances must you enter into any communications with these people unless you feel you are adequately prepared to deal with them.

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES give them ANY real private information about yourself. These guys may appear dumb and clueless, but I suspect it wouldn't be so funny if you were to come face-to-face with one of them, although I'll be the first to admit the chances of this happening are astronomical - unless of course you are dumb enough to fly over to meet them in person, in which case you need to be sectioned ASAP!

The tips below are for INFORMATION ONLY. I cannot be held responsible for what you decide to do with the information.

If you are unsure of what you are doing please LEAVE WELL ALONE!"

I would like to add that as technology increases, anyone involved in this activity should become well-versed on the dangers of malware, which is used fraudulent internet activity. Malware can be executed against one's computer system via e-mail and even IM's (instant messaging).

In theory (if not protected properly) this could lead to the scammer turning the tables on the scam baiter and stealing information from their personal computer and even worse, identifying the scambaiter.

There is also the potential in this for sites, or people to be damaged, if wrongfully identified. This has happened in the case of similar sites, which go after sexual predators.

These sites do serve a purpose in fighting fraud and their efforts in most instances are admirable. They can also be used to provide valuable intelligence to law enforcement, who have the resources and expertise to verify the criminal activity and deal with it. If they are simply used for cybersport, then it will confuse and frustrate the scammer, but only temporarily. Nonetheless, these sites serve to raise awareness, which is key in the fight with 419. Besides that sometimes a little revenge is "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

Here is a link, courtesy of my friends at Quatloos, where you can find a lot of resources to report any activity to Law Enforcement.

For the last word from the Ebola Monkey Man, click on the title of this post.