The Justice Department announced indictments of 8 people today in the Western District of Tennessee in the US Midwest. The indictments are attachments to the press release.
What surprised me about a couple of these is the age of some of the scams these people continue to foist on people in the US. On the other hand, they have upgraded considerably in their capability to go after businesses, and in the words of the indictment, "an intruder monitors email to determine when a large financial transaction is going to take place. After initial transfer or wiring instructions are conveyed between legitimate parties to the transaction, the intruder sends a follow-up email that appears to be coming from the original legitimate sender. The "spoofed" email contains a a change of plans, instructing that the money be wired to different account - one that is under the intruder's control and set up for the purpose of receiving the redirected funds."
Among the others were the old "romance scam" tricking people into believing there is a relationship forming with someone outside the country, and the "advance-fee" scam which I first saw in 1985. Pay me a fee and you can have the money put aside for you. It is amazing that these kinds of tricks still work on people who don't know any better, and people outside the US can take advantage of our citizens to benefit themselves. The FBI did good work on this one.
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