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#280267 by HillBilly Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:06 am
FBI press release found here : https://www.fbi.gov/dallas/press-releas ... -companies

Federal Grand Jury Indicts Nigerian Man for Role in Business E-Mail Compromise Scheme That Caused Attempted $1.3 Million Loss to U.S. Companies

FBI Urges Any Business Who Believes They Were Victimized By the Scheme to Contact Them
U.S. Attorney’s Office September 24, 2015

Northern District of Texas (214) 659-8600

DALLAS—A Nigerian citizen in the U.S. on a student visa has been charged in a federal indictment, returned late today, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud stemming from his role in what has become known as a “Business E-Mail Compromise” scheme, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Amechi Colvis Amuegbunam, 28, of Lagos, Nigeria, was arrested late last month on a related federal criminal complaint, filed earlier this year in the Northern District of Texas, when he entered the U.S. in Baltimore, Maryland. He made his initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in federal court in the District of Maryland on August 25, 2015, and was detained. It is expected that he will make an appearance in federal court in Dallas this week.

The indictment alleges that from November 2013 through August 2015, Amuegbunam and other individuals, sent, and caused to be sent, fraudulent e-mails to companies in the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere, containing material misrepresentations that caused the companies to wire transfer funds as instructed on a pdf document that was attached to the e-mail. According to the complaint, Amuegbunam is responsible for more than a $1.3 million attempted loss, and a $615,550 actual loss, to U.S. companies, including Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase.

The FBI, according to the complaint, is investigating an extensive money laundering and wire fraud scheme primarily operated by individuals in Nigeria, and assisted by individuals in the U.S., who are exploiting open source information and using social engineering techniques to steal millions of dollars from U.S. corporations and individuals. The scheme has become so common that the term, “Business E-Mail Compromise” scheme, was coined, and on August 25, 2015, the FBI issued a Public Service Announcement regarding the scheme.

The investigation of this particular BEC scheme began when two companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area reported to the FBI Dallas office that they had received targeted spear phishing e-mails. These e-mails appeared to be a forwarded message, allegedly from a top executive at the company, sent to an employee in the company’s accounting department who had authority to make financial transfers for the company. Although the e-mails appeared to be coming from a company executive, the messages were actually coming from a false e-mail account fraudulently created to look like a legitimate company e-mail account. A fraudulent domain name was used that contained one small difference from the true company’s e-mail address—such as transposed letters. After complying with the spear phishing e-mail instructions to transfer funds, the companies became victims of the BEC scheme, each losing approximately $100,000. The investigation traced the creation of some of the pdfs to Amuegbunam.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has been tracking this scheme and to date, perpetrators of the scheme have victimized more than 7000 businesses based in the U.S. and more than 1000 foreign-based businesses. The total loss to the U.S. victims is approximately $747 million.

Additional information about the BEC scheme may be found in a Fraud Alert issued by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), the FBI, and the U.S. Secret Service. The FBI urges any business who believes it was victimized by the BEC scheme to contact them at 972-559-5000.

An indictment is an accusation by a federal grand jury, and a defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. If convicted, however, the conspiracy to commit wire fraud offense carries a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. Restitution may be ordered.

The FBI is conducting the ongoing investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney C.S. Heath is in charge of the prosecution.


a few details located here : http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/he ... dallas.ece

Nigerian charged in sophisticated email scam is in custody in Dallas
By KEVIN KRAUSE Follow @KevinRKrause [email protected]
Staff Writer

Published: 01 January 2016 11:01 PM
Updated: 01 January 2016 11:15 PM

A Nigerian man living in the U.S. on a student visa faces federal wire fraud charges in connection with a sophisticated email phishing scam targeting businesses.

Amechi Colvis Amuegbunam, 28, of Lagos, Nigeria, was arrested in Baltimore in August and charged with scamming 17 North Texas companies out of more than $600,000 using the technique. He remains in federal custody in Dallas. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

He is accused of sending emails that looked like forwarded messages from top company executives to employees who had the authority to wire money. Amuegbunam tricked the employees into wiring him money by transposing a couple of letters in the actual company email, authorities said.

The FBI issued an alert earlier this year about the new cyberattack it called the “Business Email Compromise.” The FBI said it is a “growing fraud that is more sophisticated than any similar scam the FBI has seen before.”

Federal officials say more than 7,000 U.S. businesses have been scammed out of a total of about $740 million.

“It’s a prime example of organized crime groups engaging in large-scale, computer-enabled fraud, and the losses are staggering,” said Maxwell Marker, an FBI agent who oversees an organized crime section, in a recent bulletin.

The FBI said it’s the work of organized crime groups from Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The Dallas investigation began in 2013 when two North Texas companies reported falling victim to the scheme, each losing about $100,000, according to an FBI complaint.

In the case of Luminant Corp., an electric utility company in Dallas, an employee with the authority to wire money received an email from someone who appeared to be a company executive, the complaint said.

But the email domain name had two letters transposed. For example, someone created the email with a domain name of lumniant.com.

The duped employee wired $98,550 to a bank account outside Texas.

The FBI subpoenaed information about the email account and learned it was created by someone named Colvis Amue, the complaint said.

Agents determined that person was Amuegbunam and that he scammed another company out of $146,550, according to the complaint. A third company realized the phishing email was fake and did not send the $381,903 requested.

“The Dallas FBI quickly learned that this was a widespread scheme,” the complaint said.

The FBI has identified five other conspirators who live in Nigeria who are subjects of the investigation.

In these scams, “money mules” are employed to accept the initial transfers into their personal bank accounts. They then are told to quickly transfer the money elsewhere, usually to a bank account outside the U.S. The money usually ends up in Asian banks, including those in China and Hong Kong, the FBI alert said.

The criminals have become experts at imitating invoices and accounts, agents say. The fraudulent emails are typically well worded and specific to the type of business being targeted, the FBI says. The phrases, “code to admin expenses” and “urgent wire transfer,” are frequently used.

In one recent case provided by the FBI, a company accountant received an email from her chief executive, who was on vacation outside the country. He asked her to transfer money for a “time-sensitive acquisition” before the day’s end, according to the FBI. The executive said a lawyer would contact her with more information.

The accountant said such requests were not unusual.

The lawyer sent her an email with her CEO’s signature on a letter of authorization with the company’s seal that was attached. The email gave her instructions to wire more than $737,000 to a bank in China.

The accountant learned about the scam when the CEO called the next day, saying he knew nothing about the wire transfer request.

The FBI said criminal groups usually target businesses that have foreign suppliers or regularly make wire transfer payments.

“They have excellent tradecraft, and they do their homework,” Marker said. “The days of these emails having horrible grammar and being easily identified are largely behind us.”

On Twitter:
@KevinRKrause

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#280269 by TerranceBoyce Sun Jan 03, 2016 1:03 pm
This scam is quite widespread in the UK and I don't recall that anyone in the UK has ever been prosecuted or money recovered.

Trying it in the USA where penalties for the crime are likely to be much more severe makes it very high risk for a scammer.

CAR ADVERTS - If a car seller mentions escrow - he's scamming you Never ever for any reason pay anything until you have seen and inspected the vehicle
#337942 by Bryon Williams Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:58 pm
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/ni ... on-loss-us

Nigerian Man Sentenced for Role in “Business Email Compromise” Scheme That Caused $3.7 Million Loss to U.S. Companies

DALLAS — A Nigerian citizen in the U.S. on a student visa was sentenced today before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to 46 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $615,555.12 in restitution for his role in what has become known as a “Business Email Compromise” (BEC) scheme, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Amechi Colvis Amuegbunam, 30, of Lagos, Nigeria, pleaded guilty in March 2017 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He has been in custody since the time of his arrest in August 2015.

According to plea documents in the case, from November 2013 through August 2015, Amuegbunam and other individuals, sent fraudulent emails to companies in the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere, containing misrepresentations that caused the companies to wire transfer funds as instructed on a pdf document that was attached to the email.

The investigation of this particular scheme began when two companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area reported to the FBI Dallas office that they had received targeted spear phishing emails. These emails appeared to be a forwarded message, allegedly from a top executive at the company, sent to an employee in the company’s accounting department who had authority to make financial transfers for the company. Although the emails appeared to be coming from a company executive, the messages were actually coming from a false email account fraudulently created to look like a legitimate company email account. A fraudulent domain name was used that contained one small difference from the true company’s email address – such as transposed letters. After complying with the spear-phishing email instructions to transfer funds, the companies became victims of the BEC scheme. The investigation traced the creation of some of the pdfs to Amuegbunam.

According to the factual resume, the scheme involved at least ten victims totaling a loss of approximately $3,700,000.

The FBI investigated and Assistant U.S. Attorney C.S. Heath prosecuted. In May 2017, the FBI issued a Public Service Announcement about the BEC scheme. https://www.ic3.gov/media/2017/170504.aspx

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