Free Republic

The Justice Department announced today the seizure of four domains used by the administrators and customers of a domain spoofing service. The domain seizures were authorized pursuant to seizure warrants issued in the Western District of Pennsylvania and were executed in coordination with the arrest of dozens of administrators and customers of the illicit service by foreign law enforcement agencies.“Together with our international partners, the Justice Department has disrupted another cybercrime scheme originating from Russia that enabled criminals to steal from over a million victims in the United States and around the world,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “I...

The independent journalist Peter Bernegger has uncovered what appears to be a massive fraud scheme related to Fulton CountyDA Fani Willis and her campaign funds. According to Bernegger, a large number of people are being used to make campaign donations to Willis — without their knowledge. More precisely, their names and addresses are being used — an illegal tactic known as “smurfing.” It’s structured money laundering for political campaigns. [snip] This is illegal in the state of Georgia. The current count of suspicious donations stands at over $160,000 — all of it apparently “smurfed” into the Fani Willis campaign.

Soros-funded Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is now at the center of a scandal involving her campaign finances. A new complaint filed alleges that nearly half of Willis’ campaign contributions, amounting to approximately $168,000, are linked to illegal activity, including money laundering and identity theft. The Gateway Pundit first reported Fani Willis’ money laundering network back in September 2023. A bombshell investigation has uncovered jaw-dropping connections between Fani Willis and a sprawling web of election fraud and money laundering activities. The investigation, which spans across multiple states and multiple jurisdictions, has revealed a complex network of illicit operations aimed...

At least no one can say that the January 6 committee didn’t have an impact! Greg Abbott, Kristi Noem, Henry McMaster, and their families will have to guard against identity theft for the rest of their lives, thanks to the committee’s work in exposing their Social Security numbers. How many numbers got exposed? “Around 1900” of them, according to the Washington Post, which came from White House visitor logs supplied to the committee. The J6 committee failed to redact those from a spreadsheet released to the public as part of its final report on the riot. Ben Carson, a Trump...

The Internal Revenue Service lost millions of taxpayer records and federal employees don’t know where they have gone. Lawmakers want answers and accountability for the IRS over those documents, which could be used by nefarious actors to steal Americans’ identity. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel raising concerns about the IRS’ inventory of taxpayer records. “The IRS’s lackadaisical attitude towards the loss of millions of taxpayer records containing Social Security numbers, addresses, and other sensitive tax return information is appalling,” the letter said. “The...

The Oregon DMV data breach is just the latest in a long list that affects consumers. State officials confirmed the breach had extended to about 90% of the state’s driver’s license and ID card files. Nationally, millions of people have sensitive information, such as login credentials, bank account info and Social Security numbers, floating around the internet just waiting to be exploited. At this point, it’s safe to assume that some of your information is out there. Now it’s a matter of doing what you can to protect yourself and deter malevolent actors from making you a victim of identity...

Former CA agent helped a man tied to organized crime learn if his associates were under investigation ... A former FBI agent in Northern California who handled national security issues was convicted Tuesday of accepting at least $150,000 in gifts and cash bribes to provide confidential information to a man with organized crime ties, prosecutors said. Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, was found guilty in Los Angeles of conspiracy, bribery of a public official and monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. He could face 15 to 45 years in...

A little background. My elderly singe mother lives locally, in her own home alone, with daily check-ins by relatives, household employees and friendly neighbors whom she compensates for help with her care. A few years ago, she was contacted by someone who identified themselves as a Census worker. She was requesting financial information a little more detailed than the decennial census would require. Mom says that the lady paid her a personal visit to help her fill out the form. My mom is very kind and tender-hearted, which makes her a little blind to scams and quite naïve about many...

A Hawaii man and his wife were arrested for allegedly stealing the identity of two babies who died in Texas in the 1960s, with prosecutors claiming that the duo may have ties to the Soviet-era KGB. "I still can’t believe it happened," 91-year-old John Montague, the father of one of the babies who died when she was 6 weeks old in 1968, told the Associated Press. "The odds are like one in a trillion that they found her and used her name. People stoop to do anything nowadays. Let kids rest in peace." U.S. defense contractor Walter Primrose and his...

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - Debi Gotlieb knew something was wrong when she could not find her late father’s home on the county assessor’s web page. The property was tied up in probate and should have been listed as owned by her father, Jerry Gotlieb, who died in March of 2018 at the age of 84. “So I put in his address, and it said that it belonged to Zillow. And it showed that it was on the market,” said Gotlieb, who is a real estate agent. “I went to MLS, and it was empty.” All of her father’s possessions...

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), without much fanfare, announced last month that samples obtained through PCR nasal swab tests have been sent to labs for genomic sequencing. With an unassuming Tweet, the CDC stated: “Remember that #COVID19 nose swab test you took? What happened to the swab? If it was processed with a PCR test, there’s a 10% chance that it ended up in a lab for genomic sequencing analysis.” What does that mean? Some individuals responded to that admission. “Well, this is a concerning development. Was the intent provided upfront in a disclosure? I would not have agreed...

Michael Avenatti Stormy Daniels Kate Briquelet Fri, February 4, 2022, 2:04 PM·6 min read In this article: Michael Avenatti American attorney and entrepreneur Stormy Daniels American pornographic actress and director Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images California litigator Michael Avenatti, who in 2018 earned stardom as President Donald Trump’s legal foil, was convicted on Friday of stealing funds from adult film actress Stormy Daniels, the client who made him famous. A Manhattan federal jury found Avenatti guilty of single counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to his pocketing nearly $300,000 of Daniels’ advance for her memoir, Full...

How did people in the past prove their identity? How common was identity theft? Let's find out!In this history documentary we ask the question: how did people prove their identity in the past? The results of our research actually resulted in a far more sophisticated answer than I could have ever imagined and which sheds light on the true complexities of antiquity.We began by quickly reviewing the reasons why you might even need to prove your identity in the first place. This involves things like property claims, inheritance, marriage, and more. But perhaps the most important use of ID was...

A bizarre call to a Troy hotel unearthed a slew of possible crimes linked to the people inside one room, including kidnapping, drug use, mail theft, identity theft, lying several times to officers and kicking out the window of a police car. At 6:27 a.m. May 20, Troy police officers were called to the Hawthron Suites at 2600 Livernois Road for a welfare check. Officials said the woman who called said her name was “Mailey” and that she had “awoken from a dead sleep” because of a disturbance. She asked to meet police near the main hotel lobby, according to...

...The Batavia Police Department in upstate New York on Tuesday joined hundreds of local law enforcement agencies in asking both potential victims and concerned residents to report allegations of unemployment benefit fraud directly to the state's Department of Labor. Police in Avon Lake, Ohio, in Whitman, Massachusetts, and in Evanston, Illinois, say frustrated taxpayers have called or even shown up at the station holding 1099-G tax forms which show someone is fraudulently reporting income in their name. ..

According to a newly-unsealed federal criminal complaint, a former employee for California's Employment Development Department (EDD), the state's unemployment agency, allegedly engaged in fraud. Andrea Gervais, the former employee, allegedly used Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) name to apply for unemployment benefits through the EDD, POLITICO reported. The information came to light after a bank employee noticed a deposit for $21,000 in the senator's name. The investigation revealed Gervasis allegedly filed $2.1 million in claims. Of those claims, she allegedly received $216,000 from roughly a dozen claims. This is not the first time the Employment Development Department agency has struggled with...

CHICAGO–Fraudulent driver’s licenses, which are used for criminal activity or fraud, continue to be found by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the International Mail Facility (IMF) at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. ID Since the beginning of the year to June 30, CBP officers at the IMF have seized 1,513 shipments with fraudulent documents- a total of 19,888 counterfeit US drivers’ licenses. The majority of these shipments were arriving from China and Hong Kong, with other seized shipments arriving from Great Britain and South Korea. The driver’s licenses were for various people in different states with a vast...

One of the leaders of the Infraud Organization pleaded guilty today to RICO conspiracy.  Infraud was an Internet-based cybercriminal enterprise engaged in the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division made the announcement.Sergey Medvedev, aka “Stells,” “segmed,” “serjbear,” 33, of the Russian Federation, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge James C. Mahan in the District of Nevada.  According to the indictment, the Infraud Organization was created in October...

"For all her notoriety, Clark remains something of a mystery to even those closest to her. Evidence discovered at her home the day of her funeral raised the possibility Clark fabricated portions of her past, giving rise to a new element of the Georgie legend," reports GrandCanyonTreks.org. "While the theory is discounted by several associates, there is a faction of friends who are puzzled by connections that suggest Clark was in fact Bessie Hyde, who vanished in 1928 along with her husband, Glen Hyde, while the Idaho couple were on a honeymoon adventure floating the Grand Canyon in a wooden...

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Employment Security has confirmed that a new online portal that processes claims for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance briefly allowed public access to applicants’ personal information including Social Security numbers. The PUA system, which went online May 11, is a federal program that provides unemployment benefits to gig workers and other independent contractors who are not normally covered by regular unemployment insurance. The data breach was first made public Saturday when state Rep. Terri Bryant, a Murphysboro Republican, said in a news release that she had been alerted to the issue by a constituent the...