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extortion

The authorities in Malaysia say that the corona-virus triggered lockdown in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, has led to a 67% reduction in crime. That, of course, might not be all that it seems - crime and reported crime not being the same and if people can't get to a police station, they can't make reports. Also, Malaysians have an odd habit: they make "police reports" at the drop of a hat, for all kinds of reasons, often political or for matters that in other countries would be regarded as civil matters not as police matters. When they do, they often issue a press release tp say they are going to do it and - incredibly, Malaysian media turns up to photograph them entering, or leaving, the police station. If people can't go out, they can't do that, either, so that may (we put it no higher than that) distorts the crime figures anyway.

But that aside, organised crime gangs, which are a business, are finding that their commercial activities are curtailed along with their movements. They...

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Fraud committed against Chinese in Australia has been a problem for a while as criminals use a variety of tactics. It is known, for example, that young foreign Mandarin speakers are recruited abroad to visit Australia for short periods, affecting tourism status, where they follow a script to commit fraud or extortion in a way similar to the boiler-room scams often run by Europeans in South East Asia. This year is is already far worse than the whole of last year.

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It's remarkably easy to spoof telephone numbers i.e. to make any number one chooses to show up in the caller ID of the recipient's phone. So if a criminal is going to do that, why not choose someone special?

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The elderly have always been easy targets for fraudsters using "I can fix the hole in your roof" or charity, even religious, scams. But the internet is making it easier for fraudsters to be convincing and the internet is making even direct personal contact practically anonymous. Advance fee fraud no longer relies on mail, telex or fax but on e-mail and telephones, tech that the elderly are predisposed to trust. But sometimes, they fight back....

The supposed anonymity of crypto-asset accounts, such as bitcoin wallets, depends on two things: first, the creation of accounts attached to fictitious or false identification information and the fact that there are so many that trying to identify one being used for criminal purposes is like trying to decide which drop in the ocean should be looked at first.

Today, World Money Laundering Report, part of The Anti Money Laundering Network announces the GlobalKYC Suspicious Crypto Asset Register, a crowd-sourced method of identifying those accounts that may be used by criminals for reasons of extortion.

We all get the scams telling us that a criminal has our data. Many of us get scams saying that the criminals have details of access to pornographic websites and, even, footage taken from cameras on our desktop or laptop machines. Usually, we are told that we are being blackmailed and ordered to pay a sum, via bitcoin, to a specified wallet, 1Lughwk11SAsz54wZJ3bpGbNqGfVanMWzk. This wallet should, obviously, be disabled with immediate effect.

CoNet Section: 

The Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) has seen a growing number of reports about extortion attempts received by both e-mail and postal mail which use specific information about the potential victim to add authenticity. While there are many variations in these extortion attempts, there is often something common to the approaches, IC3 says.

It would be nice if the US Department of Justice wrote its media releases in correct English. In this case, despite what the DoJ says, the defendant did not "attempt to extort a marijuana dispensary," he attempted to extort money from the owners of the dispensary. And you thought the only problems California's relaxed attitude to the retailing of MaryJane was how the operators would bank their money. No, the operators are exposed to bad guys wearing suits just as much as bad guys wearing bling and carrying weapons.

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The controversy over so-called "swatting," (a stupid name that only an idiot would come up with because it makes something heinous sound cuddly) was the first high-profile spill-over from a massive online computer game to the real world. Yesterday saw the second and it caused extraordinary disruption and expense to public services in the UK. It was launched from the USA.

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