Crime
Scammers steal billions from Americans every 12 months. What’s worse is that most scammers get away with it

The cheaters win.
Sophisticated foreign criminals steal tens of billions of dollars from Americans every year, and the crime wave is expected to accentuate because the U.S. population ages and technologies like artificial intelligence make it easier than ever to commit fraud and get away with it.
Online and telephone scams have grown “exponentially,” overwhelming police and prosecutors who’re catching and convicting relatively few perpetrators, said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at AARP’s Fraud Watch Network.
Victims rarely get their a reimbursement. This includes seniors who’ve lost their life savings in marriage scams, grandchild scams, tech support scams, and other common scams.
“We’re at a crisis level of fraud in society,” Stokes said. “So many people have joined the fight because it’s pretty easy to be a criminal. They don’t have to follow any rules. And you can make a lot of money, and then there’s very little chance of getting caught.”
A recent case from Ohio through which an 81-year-old man fell victim to a scammer and allegedly responded with violence illustrates the challenge law enforcement faces.
Police say a person fatally shot an Uber driver after wrongly assuming she was involved in a plot to swindle $12,000 in alleged bail money for a relative. The driver fell victim to the identical scammer, sent to a house halfway between Dayton and Columbus to select up a package for delivery, in response to authorities.
Homeowner William Brock has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting at Lo-Letha Hall on March 25, however the conman who threatened Brock over the phone and set off the tragic chain of events stays at large greater than three months later.
Brock pleaded not guilty, claiming he feared for his life.
Scammers taking advantage
Internet and telephone crimes have turn into so common that law enforcement and adult protective services should not have enough resources to maintain up.
“It’s kind of like drinking from a fire hose,” said Brady Finta, a former FBI agent who oversaw investigations into elder fraud. “There’s so much of it, logistically and rationally, that it’s almost impossible to overcome now.”
Crimes may be difficult to analyze, especially those that originate overseas, where stolen funds are quickly converted into hard-to-trace cryptocurrency or transferred to offshore bank accounts.
Some police departments don’t take financial fraud as seriously as other crimes, which discourages and demoralizes victims, said Paul Greenwood, who has spent 22 years prosecuting seniors in San Diego.
“A lot of law enforcement thinks that because a victim is sending money voluntarily through gift cards or bank transfers or buying cryptocurrency, that it’s actually consensual,” said Greenwood, who travels the country teaching police tips on how to spot scams. “And that’s a big mistake, because it’s not. It’s not consensual. They’ve been scammed.”
Greenwood said federal prosecutors typically don’t intervene in a case until the fraud reaches a specific amount.
The U.S. Justice Department says it doesn’t impose a general monetary threshold for federal elder abuse prosecutions. But it acknowledged that a number of the 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country may set their very own thresholds, giving priority to cases with more victims or greater financial impact. Federal prosecutors bring tons of of elder fraud and abuse cases every year.
The Federal Trade Commission says the “vast majority” of scams go unreported. Often, victims are reluctant to come back forward.
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A 74-year-old woman who was recently charged with robbing a credit union north of Cincinnati was the victim of a web based scam, in response to her family. Authorities say they consider the lady was taken advantage of by the scammer, but there is no record that she filed a proper police report.
“These people are very good at what they do, and they are very good at scamming people and getting money out of them,” said Fairview Township, Ohio, police sergeant Brandon McCroskey, who investigated the robbery. “I’ve seen people almost want to fight with police and bank tellers because … they believe they have to get that money out.”
A destructive plan
Older people have more wealth as a gaggle and are a vulnerable goal for fraudsters. The effects may be devastating because lots of these victims are past their working years and don’t have much time to recoup their losses.
The variety of complaints about elder fraud filed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center increased 14% last 12 months, while losses increased 11% to $3.4 billion, in response to a brand new report from the FBI.
Other estimates put the annual loss much higher.
A 2023 AARP study calculated that Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion a 12 months to fraud. The Federal Trade Commission, attempting to account for unreported losses, estimated that fraudsters stole a staggering $137 billion in 2022, including $48 billion from seniors. The study’s authors acknowledged there is a “significant degree of uncertainty.”
In San Diego, William Bortz, 80, said criminals stole nearly $700,000 of his family’s savings in an elaborate scheme involving a nonexistent Amazon order, a fake “returns processing center” in Hong Kong, fake bank statements and directions that Bortz must “sync bank accounts” to get the a reimbursement.
Bortz’s scammer was relentless and harassed him, harassing him with dozens of phone calls, and at one point took control of his computer.
Even though he was the victim of a criminal offense, Bortz struggles with guilt.
“Now I understand why so many elder abuse scams never get reported. Because when you think about it, you think, ‘How could I have been so stupid?’” said Bortz, who retired after a profession in banking, financial services and real estate.
His daughter, Ave Williams, said local police and the FBI tried hard to trace down the foreign fraudster and get well the cash but bumped into dead ends. The family blames Bortz’s bank, which Williams says ignored multiple red flags and allowed her father to make several large transfers over an eight-day period. The bank has denied wrongdoing, and the family’s lawsuit against it has been dismissed.
“Fraudsters are getting better,” Williams said. “We need our law enforcement agencies to be given the tools they need, and we need our banks to get better because they are the first line of defense.”
The Justice Department believes the industry must do more and the United States is not going to discover a strategy to resolve the difficulty through the courts.
“Private industry — including technology, retail, banking, fintech and telecommunications — must make it harder for fraudsters to defraud victims and launder victims’ money,” the agency said in an announcement to The Associated Press.
The way forward
Banking industry officials told a Senate subcommittee in May that they were investing heavily in latest technologies to stem fraud, “and some of them are very promising.” The American Bankers Association says it is working on a program to coordinate real-time communications amongst banks to higher flag suspicious activity and curb the flow of stolen funds.
But industry officials said banks can’t prevent fraud on their very own. They said the U.S. needs an overarching national technique to combat fraud, calling the federal government’s current efforts scattershot and uncoordinated.
Law enforcement and industry need to affix forces to combat fraud faster and more effectively, said Finta, a former FBI agent who founded a nonprofit called the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center aimed toward strengthening cooperation between law enforcement and huge corporations equivalent to Walmart, Amazon and Google.
“There are very, very smart people and there are very powerful, wealthy companies that want this to stop,” he said. “So I think we have an opportunity to make a bigger impact and help our brothers and sisters in law enforcement who are struggling with this tsunami of fraud.”
Crime
RAPER ROD WAVE stands in front of a dozen or so loads, some of the weapons in Georgia

The rapper referred to as Rod Wave will face a dozen or so charges, some engage the gun after he entered the officials of the sheriff in Georgia on Tuesday.
Wave, whose real name is Rodarius Green, voluntarily surrendered to the Fulton Sheriff Office regarding orders arising from the Police call of April 21 in the suburbs of Milton in Atlanta, the police said.
“There is no truth in these allegations,” said the lawyers of rapper Findling and Marissa Goldberg in a statement for the Associated Press.
“Rod Green was a victim of burglary and did not commit any crimes,” they said. “How he was even accused as a result of this situation is incomprehensible. It will be absolutely resolved for Mr. Green.”
Police Milton responded to a house in the city north of Atlanta after the report from 911 described “possible home interference,” the police said in a statement.

The police said that the officers determined that the connection was related to previously unpaid burglary and release of firearms. Later they obtained arrest warrant for Green, who was a resident of the house.
The allegations include an exacerbated assault, a conspiracy aimed toward committing a crime, criminal property damage and referring or aiming at someone weapons and hindering legal officers, show the files of the Fulton Fulton prison. He can be accused of manipulating evidence – a crime – and obstructing legal officers.
He was released from Bond shortly after he turned the same day on Tuesday, the authorities reported.
The 26-year-old rapper in Florida is well known for his soul trap, a unique combination of R&B and Rap, which brought him 11 Singles Certified Platinum by the American Industry Association. Four of his six albums hit No. 1 on the best list of albums Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop, including his latest, “Last Lap” from 2024.
This yr he brought the title song Sing Title “Sinners” to the Ryan Coogler record, recognized by critics Hit with the same name.
Green grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he had not less than one past with the law before The national battery charge has been rejected in 2022
The ex -girlfriend accused Green of entering the house in the Orlando area and choke her, while their two children were in a different room, in response to the arrest warrant. They each arranged for about 4 years, and the girl told investigators that Green accused her of seeing other men during their breakdown.
Later, prosecutors told court officials that the case is just not suitable for prosecution.

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Crime
“Protection of his public image was very important”: a psychologist, former assistant to testimony at the Diddy trial

Dawn Hughes, a clinical and criminal psychologist certified by the management board, testified on Wednesday in a federal case for criminal trade against hip-hop tycoon “Diddy” Combs.
Hughes, who particularly testified as an authority in the process of defamation of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in 2022, said that she was in court to provide contextual details about individuals who experience domestic violence and traumatic stress.
“They (survival that survived) experience great shame, humiliation, degradation,” said Hughes, discussing sexual abuse, According to CNN. “They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t even want to think about it in their brain.”
In the case of people used, Hughes testified that many remain in relations, and financial dependence and lack of resources are the most important aspects why someone stays.

She also talked about trauma ties and the way offensive relationships often have a component of love and kindness for them, which hinders the departure of individuals who survived.
“There is such a pattern of return and reconciliation and then returning,” Hughes testified.
During her testimony, she explained that abuse could seriously affect memory, which hinders individuals who survived the recall of individual incidents. However, individuals who survived can remember the event more often if it coincided with a significant date, comparable to the anniversary, holiday or birthday.
However, the defense lawyer Johnathan Bach was incompatible.
As interrogated Bach Dawn Hughes, she testified that she had not checked the specific details of the case. Her interrogation led to several side strips when the defense of the control of her six meetings with the prosecutor’s office, some of which took place after the trial began. As a blind witness, her role was only in providing knowledge about domestic violence and sexual abuse, not comments on the details of the case. She maintained that the discussions between the prosecutor’s office and her didn’t contain detailed details about the case.
Bach also questioned Hughes’s credibility, arguing that she approached the stand with a specific “perspective”. The court further warned that witnesses could possibly be “dangerous” because of the “aura of power” they carry.

After Hughes, he was a former executive assistant of Combs, George Kaplan, he took a position. Kaplan, who joined Combs Enterprises in 2013, testified that he worked from 80 to 100 hours a week. His duties included ensuring that the chef and cleansing staff were prepared for the whole day and preparing the Bathroom Comb with medicines. He exchanged each day connections with Combs, who expressed what he needed, allegedly included drugs or alcohol.
Kaplan also testified that part of his responsibility was to protect the image of Combs.
“Protecting him and protecting his public image was very important and it was something that I really wanted to do,” said Kaplan.
Kaplan testified that just about every month Combs allegedly threatened his work. Combs allegedly wanted to be surrounded by the best, and “people around him did not perform at this level,” Kaplan reminded.
At the starting of the day, a special agent Gerard Gannon ended his testimonies, expressing that agents who searched Comb ‘Miami Beach House in March 2024, found a range of pills and a “crystal substance resembling rock” in the Gucci COMBS bag. There were also six people at home, including a music producer, real estate manager and other facilities.
Looking to the future, the musician Kid Cudi is to testify on Thursday morning.

(Tagstranslate) Crime
Crime
Skai Jackson addresses the order to refrain from his son’s father regarding allegations of domestic violence

Skai Jackson, a 23-year-old actress and graduate of Disney Channel, asked for a order to stop Los Angeles against her son, Deondre Burgin, claiming that he physically attacked her, threatened her life and damaged her personal property, and damaged her personal property, and damaged her personal property, reports people.
According to court documents, on Mother’s Day, Jackson claims that Burgin attacked her, hitting his head on the window of the automotive and hitting her in the face. Jackson claims that in the attack she kept their newborn son Kasai.
He also claims in reporting that Burgin physically attacked her during a relationship, suffocating her and slamming her in the partitions, and in some unspecified time in the future, when she was pregnant, she demanded that she drink the bleach to end the pregnancy. He also claims that Burgin threatened that he was stabbing her stomach and held her at KnifePoint.

In one incident described in the documents, while Jackson claims that he locked himself in the bathroom to escape from him, Burgin allegedly hit the door and strangled her until she couldn’t breathe.
The son of Jackson and Burgin, Kasai, was born in January 2025, and in February Jackson told people who he enjoys motherhood. “I love to be a new mother. It’s so exciting. So exciting. I’m here tonight, I miss my child already. But it was a great month with my new toddler,” she said during the 56th NACP Image Awards.
Burgin has not yet responded to claims against him.

(Tagstranslate) Crime
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