Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The Guaridian News Paper: 10/6/16, "Huge phone scam targeting Americans leads to 700 being detained in India"

* This scam has impacted communities throughout Michigan. Exciting to see that at least this group has been caught. Hang up on these types of calls, it's okay to be rude.   CPAM 

Mumbai was the hub of a phone scam that fleeced Americans of millions, according to Indian police.
 Mumbai was the hub of a phone scam that fleeced Americans of millions, according to Indian police. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

 in Mumbai and agencies

Police say Mumbai call centre workers posed as Internal Revenue Service tax collectors to rake in tens of millions of dollars.Thousands of US citizens may have been targeted in a huge tax scam run from call centres in Mumbai, where hundreds of workers were allegedly trained to speak in American accents in order to steal tens of millions of dollars, Indian police have said.

About 700 people are being investigated over what is believed to have been one of the biggest such scams in India’s history, which involved workers posing as US tax officials, according to Paramvir Singh, the police commissioner of Thane.
“Seventy workers have been formally arrested and around 630 others are being investigated,” Singh said. “We expect that many more people will be arrested.”
On Tuesday night about 200 officers raided nine premises in India’s financial capital. Police believe the alleged scam was run from the call centres, where workers pretended to be officials from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US tax authority.
Employees would allegedly tell American citizens that they had defaulted on tax payments and were facing prosecution by the IRS. “They would give an American name and a batch number and tell the [US] citizen that they owed the authorities $4,000, $5,000 or $10,000,” said Singh.
“They were instructed to stay on the phone and told that their homes would be raided by police within 30 minutes if they hung up. They made threats, they said: ‘You have to pay, otherwise you will lose your job, your money, your house.’”
After allegedly duping the victims into revealing their bank details they would then withdraw money from their accounts, police said. The victims were told to stay on the call and go to their nearest Target or Walmart store, where they would buy a prepaid cash card, load thousands of dollars on to it and then transfer the money to an American bank account.
Police have not revealed the amount of money that was stolen, or whether citizens from other countries had been targeted. But Singh said the call centres were running for more than a year and are estimated to have conned billions of rupees out of thousands of people.
“We’ve been getting calls all morning from American citizens, people saying: ‘I think I got one of these calls. I think my money was stolen,’” he said.
The alleged scam was discovered followed a tip-off to police, said Singh, who sent in an undercover call centre worker to investigate. “We had a mole go in to the call centres to verify. The best part is that they were actually recording all their calls. We have recovered 851 hard disks on which the calls were recorded, so we’re going through those now,” said Singh.Police suspect the ringleaders had associates in America, where the payments were processed.
US authorities had not approached Thane police on Thursday, but were expected to do so soon.
Many foreign firms outsource work to offshore call centres in India, where low-wage workers handle a variety of services, from reading out train timetables to selling mobile phone plans. In recent years, firms have started moving call centres to other countries such as the Philippines because of a preference for American-style English.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Crime Prevention Association of MI 2016 Conference "Preparing for the Unimaginable through Crime Prevention"

CPAM members and guests opened the 2016 conference tonight at the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City Michigan. There were 120 in attendance welcomed by the Traverse City Honor Guard and Jeffrey O'Brien, Police Chief Traverse City MI.  Dr. Patrick Mead , keynote speaker provided an uplifting message focusing on  "Touchstones". All in attendance were encouraged to find a touchstone to rely on and to be encouraged to cherish every moment with your loved ones and friends.

CPAM also recognized outstand service in the field of Crime Prevention:

Outstanding Crime Prevention Practitioner of the Year - MSP Trooper Maurice Burton

Outstanding Volunteer of the Year - Matt Barbarino Kent County Traffic Squad

Outstanding Michigan Media - Dani Mann-Civic Center TV Royal Oak MI

Outstanding Corporate Award - Nate Koetje Feyen Zylstra

Outstanding Unit Award- Ottawa County Sheriff's Office Community Policing Unit

Outstanding Youth Award - Pamela Vredevoogd, Walker PD. (Western MI Explorer)

Outstanding School Officer Award- Officer Rory Allen, Wyoming Dept. of Public Safety

President's Distinguished Service Award: Brann's Family


Sunday, October 2, 2016

FTC: 3 Videos to help you be #Cyber Aware

FTC:  Information for consumers-

3 videos to help you be #Cyber Aware



October is almost here — which means, so is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). What does that mean for you? It’s a great time to make sure you’re #CyberAware. Are you doing everything you can to protect your personal information and devices? Check out the questions below — and corresponding short videos — to see what you’re doing right, and where your cyber habits might need some work.

1.) What can I do to avoid downloading malware (like spyware and viruses) to my devices?

2.) How can I safely connect to Wi-Fi when I’m on the go?

3.) What should I do if someone from “tech support” calls out of the blue, and asks for my personal information or money to fix my computer?


FTC - 3 videos to help you be #Cyber Aware