Having investigated endless "romance confidence scams" (among many, many others) during my career in the U.S. Secret Service, and working to recover proceeds of the illicit activity for victims, I was especially interested in this information and wanted to further share. Especially, because we continue to see this at 360 Security Services with trying to educate and help investigate these crimes for what seems to be a never-ending pool of victims that sadly fall for these crimes and lose everything. Social-engineering tactics remain at the root of where it begins for the victim...
I am including with this CHIRP (blog post) information I came across the last week from other colleagues, titled; "Written Testimony of Matthew Noyes, Cyber Policy & Strategy Director, Office of Investigations, United States Secret Service, Before [the] Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Committee on Financial Services, United States House of Representatives on - Protecting Americans' Savings: Examining the Economics of the Multi-Billion Dollar Romance Confidence Scam Industry", dated September 18, 2024. This is truly worth the read for anyone who is responsible for, or interested in fighting this crime and preventing future victims from falling prey to not only the results of the financial loss....but human trafficking as well!
For those that cannot take the time to read the entire testimony, I offer the following key takeaways from Noyes' testimony:
Transnational Organized Fraud Crime Groups are significantly involved- and a concentrated amount of "Scam Camps" are operating in the SE Asia region of the globe.
"Reported" incidents/complaints to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) ALONE...of this scam has increased from 2019 to 2023:
2019: # of complaints - 467,361
2019: $ losses - $3.5 billion
2023: # of complaints - 880,418
2023: $ losses - $12.5 billion
(Remember, the above stats are from "actual reports" to the IC3 only, and do not include non-reporting, reporting to other federal or state law enforcement, or consumer protection groups and others)
Global estimates of $43.8 billion (that's a 'b') in scam revenue for these criminal syndicates - which equates to approx. 40% of the estimated combined GDP of Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
Victims are usually first targeted on various, SMS and social media platforms (e.g., dating services, LinkedIn, Facebook/Instagram, etc.), where the social engineering begins.
A fake "persona", who often may be a victim of human trafficking themself, interacts with the victim.
Once the victim is engaged, a new team of scammers often builds the relation and trust, while gathering more information to execute the investment scam, thereby gaining and obtaining access to the funds of the victim for theft and transfer through complex money-laundering and digital currency networks.
5 Key elements to disrupting transnational fraud schemes:
Arresting 'Scam Operators', seizing their assets to return to victims, and targeting the "leaders for prosecution";
Fortifying communication paths through industry cooperation and education to the public;
Preventing victimization and assisting victims through educaton and more awareness within the financial industry;
Disrupting the illicit financial networks utilized for money transfers, and;
Foundational efforts to understand and build international capability to address the activity. Not just waiting for victims who come forward to report the crime and reacting to each incident in a vacuum.
Again, this testimony and the supporting facts are a great background for the uninformed but interested person to understand one silo of multi-billion dollar transnational criminal fraud enterprises. More importantly, it serves as a wake up to understanding how the illicit activities of fraud, human trafficking, and drug trafficking intersect and impact not only our national security concerns but real people's lives who count on government's to protect them.
From my experience, I found targeting transnational organized fraud crime groups, down to the regional and local level, does in fact have a significant disruptive impact on other illicit activities such as human trafficking and drug trafficking. But it requires everyone from the victims to government to private sector and financial industry to work together and share information to the extent they can, in order to begin and make a bigger dent in this industry.
Ultimately, we need to ALL be informed, because it may be your parents or loved one who responds to that unsolicited text or email and ultimately goes down the rabbit hole to lose everything.
360 Security Services offers financial institutions, wealth management groups, businesses, and many others awareness training and education on these crimes and many other cyber and physical security topics of importance to keep people safe.
Stay safe and stay informed! Happy Holidays!
-Mike Olson, 360 Security Services
The report can also be found online through the following link:
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