Are Charity Fraudsters (Phishermen and Pharmers) preparing to exploit the Virginia Tech Disaster?

Internet criminals use disasters to get nice people to donate their hard-earned money to them, personally. Recent examples where this occurred have been the Katrina hurricane, Tsunami disaster and London bombings.

According to the Sans Internet Storm Center, we can probably expect the same activity to occur in the wake of the Virginia Tech Disaster.

Here is what they are reporting in their Handler's Diary:

There has been a flurry of domain registrations related to the Virginia Tech tragedy, as reported by GoDaddy and other registrars. While some of these are undoubtedly well-intentioned organizations joining in the outpouring of support for the friends and family of the victims, others are likely to be opportunists who want to cash in on the suffering of others.

Be on the lookout for a rash of spam & phishing coming from these leeches. If you receive a plea for donations, check the organization out closely before opening up your e-gold, Paypal, Visa or other account or providing any personal information. In some cases the phishers may use voice, fax, email and websites to dupe generous and thoughtful victims into disclosing valuable information.

Full diary post (with potential domains being grabbed), here.

As the SANS post aptly points out, giving out any personal, or financial information to one of these fraudsters (leeches) can have more consequences than giving your money away to the wrong place (identity theft).

Here are some investigative (due diligence) resources someone might take advantage of to make sure they are donating their money to a worthy cause:

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance

Charity Navigator

American Institute for Philanthropy

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has some information on how to make sure your money goes to the cause you intend it for, here. Also contained on this page is where you can report fraudulent activity to them, which is highly recommended.

Counterfeit MoneyGram Money Orders being passed via Internet Scams

Recently, MoneyGram removed the Travelers Express name from their money order product. The new version is branded simply as MoneyGram, printed in Spanish (Espanol) in addition to English.

The old version with the Travelers Express name have been counterfeited and circulated via Internet scams for a couple of years. A lot of them had Walmart's logo printed on them. We've seen similar counterfeit American Express Gift Cheques and Postal Money Orders in recent years, also. Some of these items are still in circulation, including the older Travelers Express version.

The newer version (MoneyGram) printed in both Spanish and English are now being counterfeited and being circulated via Internet scams. The one I saw was accompanied by a letter from Walmart Financial Services.

Like other counterfeit financial instruments, we'll probably see these circulated via romance, auction, job, secret shopper and lottery scams. The common theme is that the scammer will always request that you send a portion of the money back to them (wire transfer is the preferred method).

In the case of auction scams, they may be used to buy expensive merchandise.

Cashing these items will leave you at a minimum, financially liable. I've also been told by readers that people are sometimes getting arrested for passing them!

The new version (recently seen) have receipts attached to them. Money Order companies often attach receipts to their products as a security feature. These receipts are used to obtain refunds, if a money order is lost, or stolen.

The counterfeiters have probably added this feature to instill a false sense of security.

Like their predecessors, these counterfeit Money Orders are (normally) easy identified by calling in and verifying their authenticity.

MoneyGram has an automated system to do this, which can be accessed by calling 1-800-542-3590. Live customer service help is available during normal business hours.

MoneyGram also has a page with a lot of relevant information on how to SAFELY negotiate these items, here.

Since this is something new, if anyone would like to help get the word out, please leave a comment on this post, or drop me a line at EdwardDickson@SBCGlobal.net.

Social Security employee causing $2.5 million in credit card fraud reveals how easily information is stolen from within

Recently, I blogged about a former IRS employee, who committed $330,000 of retail refund fraud (basically shoplifting) in nine states. This morning, I read about a former Social Security Administration employee, who caused an alleged $2.5 million in credit card fraud by providing detailed information on victims to an external identity thief.

Sharon Gaudin at Information Week writes:

The indictment alleges that Batiste conspired with her cohort Craig Harris and others by agreeing to access the Social Security Administration's computer system to run search queries for Harris.

Harris, a 50-year-old Los Angeles resident, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy and unlawful possession of a means of identification. Harris, who faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 17.

The government contends that Harris would give Batiste some identifying piece of information about someone -- either a name or Social Security number -- and Batiste would then query the government system to pull up enough other identifying information to put the person's identity at risk.

Information Week article, here.

According to the article, the arrest was the result of the work of the Economic Crimes Task Force, which includes both federal and local assets in Southern California.

Last October, I wrote about a task force in Southern California responsible for catching a lot of insider related (employee) identity theft. My post is still up, but the link to the LA Times article is now down and nothing else can be found about it on Google.

I suppose insider problems aren't as newsworthy as large scale data-breaches, involving highly skilled hackers. The reason for this might be that they are embarrassing to the organization involved, and they don't help sell expensive (computer related) security fixes.

In fact, a trusted insider, can normally get past all the above referenced security fixes, simply because they have access.

And if you think about it, retail, restaurant and clerical employees have access to a lot of information. It's a lot easier to bribe, or even place a person inside an organization to steal information than hack it from the outside.

Trust me, it's going on in the business (and it appears) civil service worlds, daily.

Perhaps, all the experts, should take a closer look at this problem and how to control it.

Here's a previous post, I wrote on this subject, where the Secret Service is doing this:

Secret Service is Studying the Problem from Within

LA County has a hot line to report government employees committing fraud. The information to contact it can be found, here.

The FBI has also set up a place, where anyone can report public corruption, here.

A lot of large companies have a dedicated hot line to report internal problems, or you can ask to speak to someone in their security department. Smaller businesses normally don't have these resources, but most owners would be highly interested if someone working for them was stealing.

It's not good for business!

In some instances (not all), there are financial incentives for reporting insider dishonesty.

If you are worried about safety issues, I always recommending doing this, anonymously.

Mexican Drug gangs post execution videos on YouTube

It used to be that organized drug gangs wanted to keep a low profile. No more, like their jihadist role models, they are using the Internet to spread their twisted message of death and destruction.

Manuel Roig-Franzia did an extremely informative article about this for the Washington Post, where he wrote:

Bloody bodies -- slumped at steering wheels, stacked in pickup trucks, crumpled on sidewalks -- clog nearly every frame of the music video that shook Mexico's criminal underworld.

Posted on YouTube and countless Mexican Web sites last year, the video opens with blaring horns and accordions. Valentín Elizalde, a singer known as the "Golden Rooster," croons over images of an open-mouthed shooting victim. "I'm singing this song to all my enemies," he belts out.

Washington Post story, here.

Recently, these drug gangsters posted a video on YouTube of one of their rivals being decapitated.

Of course, the money to do all of this is obtained by sending their wares (narcotics) across our Southern border.

While everyone debates the illegal immigration issue, we have something (far more sinister) to worry about. In fact, the sheer number of illegal people crossing (perceived by many of us to be harmless) probably enables a lot of (not so harmless) people to cross, also.

There is no doubt, many of the illegal immigrants are innocent souls -- but as long as we allow criminals to control our borders -- we aren't doing a very good job of protecting our own citizens.

The step daughter of one of the gang leaders (Jefes) producing counterfeit documents, Suad Leija, has a message about this to all of us, which can be read, here.

Counterfeit documents are one of the factors that enable this problem (not very secure borders) to pose a danger to us all.