Elder Fraud, in Focus

"The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (or IC3) released the 2023 edition of its annual Elder Fraud Report on April 30, 2024.

Elder fraud complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (or IC3) increased by 14% in 2023, and associated losses increased by about 11%, according to IC3’s 2023 Elder Fraud Report, released April 30.  

This annual publication provides statistics about incidents of elder fraud—or fraud that explicitly targets older Americans’ money or cryptocurrency—that are reported to IC3. The report aims to raise the public’s awareness of this issue and to prevent future and repeat incidents. 

“Combatting the financial exploitation of those over 60 years of age continues to be a priority of the FBI,” wrote FBI Assistant Director Michael D. Nordwall, who leads the Bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division, in the report. “Along with our partners, we continually work to aid victims and to identify and investigate the individuals and criminal organizations that perpetrate these schemes and target the elderly.” 

And elder fraud is probably a more insidious threat than the report shows. Many of these crimes likely go unreported, and, as the report states, “only about half” of the fraud scam complaints submitted to IC3 in 2023 included victims’ ages..."
Elder Fraud 

Investigating Torture: FBI-HSI Investigation Leads to U.S. Citizen’s Conviction for Human Rights Violations in Iraq

"A U.S. Army veteran who established an illegal weapons facility in the Kurdistan region of Iraq— and who proceeded to both direct and engage in the torture of one of his employees—has been sentenced to 70 years in federal prison for those crimes and for additional crimes linked to his role at the facility.

Ross Roggio of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, directed Kurdish soldiers kidnap an employee and hold him hostage at one of their military compounds for 39 days. There, Roggio and the Kurdish military personnel under his corrupt command physically and mentally abused the victim.

The victim was an Estonian national who worked at the factory, but who planned to blow the whistle on the illegal activities going on there, explained Supervisory Special Agent Crystal Stevens of the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit. In response, Roggio not only directed the victim’s abduction and abuse, but also forced fellow employees to watch the abuse as a deterrent tactic.

The abuses first came to light amid a preexisting counterproliferation case against Roggio. After investigators finished interviewing one former factory employee—a woman from Estonia—she turned over a cellphone audio recording of Roggio that implicated him for torture.."
US Tortue in Iraq 

Hate Crime Statistics

"United States

Hate Crime data for the nation are derived from National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and Summary Reporting System (SRS) reports voluntarily submitted to the FBI.

The 2021 FBI Hate Crime statistics for the nation are based on data received from 11,883 of 18,812 law enforcement agencies in the country that year.

The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program defines hate crime as a committed criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity..."
Hate Crime

Cyber Criminals Impersonating Brands Using Search Engine Advertisement Services to Defraud Users

"The FBI is warning the public that cyber criminals are using search engine advertisement services to impersonate brands and direct users to malicious sites that host ransomware and steal login credentials and other financial information.

METHODOLOGY

Cyber criminals purchase advertisements that appear within internet search results using a domain that is similar to an actual business or service. When a user searches for that business or service, these advertisements appear at the very top of search results with minimum distinction between an advertisement and an actual search result. These advertisements link to a webpage that looks identical to the impersonated business’s official webpage.

In instances where a user is searching for a program to download, the fraudulent webpage has a link to download software that is actually malware. The download page looks legitimate and the download itself is named after the program the user intended to download.

These advertisements have also been used to impersonate websites involved in finances, particularly cryptocurrency exchange platforms. These malicious sites appear to be real exchange platforms and prompt users to enter login credentials and financial information, giving criminal actors access to steal funds.

While search engine advertisements are not malicious in nature, it is important to practice caution when accessing a web page through an advertised link.

TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF

The FBI recommends individuals take the following precautions:

• Before clicking on an advertisement, check the URL to make sure the site is authentic. A malicious domain name may be similar to the intended URL but with typos or a misplaced letter.
• Rather than search for a business or financial institution, type the business’s URL into an internet browser’s address bar to access the official website directly.
• Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches. Most internet browsers allow a user to add extensions, including extensions that block advertisements. These ad blockers can be turned on and off within a browser to permit advertisements on certain websites while blocking advertisements on others..."
  Cyber criminals 

The Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant: A Legal Introduction. Update August 29, 2022

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida. A magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida later unsealed the warrant at the Department of Justice’s request, which the former President did not oppose. The warrant authorized government officials to seize all “documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation” of three federal statutes—18 U.S.C. §§ 793, 2071, and 1519. In addition to the warrant itself and its attachments, the court unsealed other material related to the search, including the cover sheet to the warrant application, an inventory of property seized, and a redacted version of the affidavit supporting the warrant. Former President Trump filed a separate action asking the court, among other things, to appoint a special master to oversee the government’s handling of the seized material.

This Sidebar describes the process for and implications of obtaining a search warrant. It then examines the criminal offenses identified in the Mar-a-Lago warrant. Finally, this Sidebar analyzes presidential authority to declassify documents and the role of declassification for the crimes at issue..."
Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant 

Estimates Will Help Fill in Crime Statistics Gap

"When the annual Crime in the United States (CIUS), 2021 data is released this fall, it will look different from previous releases. CIUS 2021 will only represent state-level data and federal data reported by law enforcement. In conjunction with CIUS, the FBI will release a trend study that will look at a year-over-year change in violent crime and property crime.

The reason for the change is that not every law enforcement agency in the U.S. has successfully moved to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for reporting their crime data to the FBI. With support from the FBI, some agencies have been reporting crime statistics via NIBRS for more than 20 years. After the CJIS Advisory Policy Board adopted the recommendation in 2015 to retire the traditional Summary Reporting System and transition to the more comprehensive NIBRS by January 2021, more agencies made the switch to NIBRS reporting. Every state is now NIBRS compliant and can accept NIBRS data. A few major cities, however, are still working on the transition.

Crime estimates will fill in the gaps where data is not available this year. Estimation has been associated with the release for more than 50 years. This year, FBI data experts will use robust estimation tools, developed in collaboration with the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, to create the most accurate crime estimates possible during this transition period..."

Crime Satistics 

Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer

"The FBI's Crime Data Explorer (CDE) aims to provide transparency, create easier access, and expand awareness of criminal, and noncriminal, law enforcement data sharing; improve accountability for law enforcement; and provide a foundation to help shape public policy with the result of a safer nation. Use the CDE to discover available data through visualizations, download data in .csv format, and other large data files..."
Crime Data 

16 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol

"Friday, May 6, 2022, marked 16 months since the attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress in the process of affirming the presidential election results. The government continues to investigate losses that resulted from the breach of the Capitol, including damage to the Capitol building and grounds, both inside and outside the building. According to a May 2021 estimate by the Architect of the Capitol, the attack caused approximately $1.5 million worth of damage to the U.S. Capitol building.

Under the continued leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the attack continues to move forward at an unprecedented speed and scale. The Department of Justice’s resolve to hold accountable those who committed crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, has not, and will not, wane.

Based on the public court documents, below is a snapshot of the investigation as of Friday, May 6, 2022. Complete versions of most of the public court documents used to compile these statistics are available on the Capitol Breach Investigation Resource Page at https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases.

Arrests made: More than 810 defendants have been arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (This includes those charged in both District and Superior Court)..."
Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol 

Hate Crime Statistics:2020

"FBI Releases 2020 Hate Crime Statistics

Today the FBI released Hate Crime Statistics, 2020, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2020 data, submitted by 15,136 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes.

Law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,759 criminal incidents and 10,532 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. Please note the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Highlights of Hate Crime Statistics, 2020, follow. (Due to rounding, percentage breakdowns may not add to 100%.).."
Hate crime

Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism

"I. Overview of Reporting Requirement

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (the Act) requires the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), to jointly produce a report containing a strategic intelligence assessment and data on domestic terrorism (DT).1 The Act requires the report to contain a strategic intelligence assessment, a discussion of activities, certain data on DT matters, and recommendations.

II. Executive Summary

Preventing terrorist attacks remains a top priority for both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The threat posed by international and domestic threat actors has evolved significantly since 9/11. The greatest terrorism threat to the Homeland we face today is posed by lone offenders, 2 often radicalized online, who look to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons. Many of these violent extremists are motivated and inspired by a mix of socio-political goals and personal grievances against their targets. With this report, we are providing our strategic intelligence assessments on DT, a detailed discussion of our procedures and methods to address DT threats, as well as data on DT incidents and our investigations.

III. Introduction

The FBI and DHS are both charged with preventing terrorist attacks in the United States, including those conducted by Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs).3 This goal drives the FBI’s mission to proactively lead law enforcement and domestic intelligence efforts to defeat terrorist attacks against US citizens and US interests through an integrated strategy to detect, penetrate, disrupt, and dismantle criminal DT plots, and the FBI and DHS missions to provide strategic analysis of the DVE landscape..."
Domestic Terrorism 

IC3 Logs 6 Million Complaints

"It took nearly seven years for the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to log its first million complaints. It took only 14 months to add the most recent million.

The IC3 logged five million complaints on March 12, 2020, a few weeks before it marked its 20th anniversary. After a period of record reporting, the center received its 6 millionth complaint on May 15, 2021.

“On one hand, the number holds some positive news,” said IC3 Chief Donna Gregory. “People know how to find us and how to report an incident.” Gregory said more reporting makes the FBI more effective in investigating cyber-enabled crime. “But on the other hand,” she added, “these numbers indicate more people are being affected by online crimes and scams.”

The IC3 collects and reports out its data in an annual report and educates the public by sending out notices about new scams or upticks in certain type of crimes. Its other key role is to support law enforcement. Federal, state, local, and tribal agencies can access the IC3’s data through a secure database, and, with a prompt report, FBI-led teams can support efforts to freeze lost funds.

IC3 saw complaints increase nearly 70% between 2019 and 2020. The top three crimes reported by victims in 2020 were phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. Victims lost the most money to business email compromise scams, romance and confidence schemes, and investment fraud..."
Internet crime 

Federal Data on Hate Crimes in the United States

"A number of recent and high-profile crimes where the offenders’ actions appeared to be motivated by their bias or animosity towards a particular race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity has contributed to a perception that hate crimes are on the rise in the United States. These incidents might also generate interest among policymakers about how the federal government collects data on hate crimes committed in the United States.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started its Hate Crime Statistics program pursuant to the requirement in the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HSCA, P.L. 101-275) that the Department of Justice (DOJ) collect and report data on crimes that “manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, gender and gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where appropriate the crimes of murder, non-negligent manslaughter; forcible rape; aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation; arson; and destruction, damage or vandalism of property.” In addition to the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics program, DOJ also collects data on hate crime victimizations through the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS’) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS measures self-reported criminal victimizations including those perceived by victims to be motivated by an offender’s bias against them for belonging to or being associated with a group largely identified by the characteristics outlined in the HSCA.

Scholars, advocates, and members of the media have pointed out that there is a significant disparity between the number of hate crimes reported by the FBI each year and the number of hate crime victimizations reported by BJS. This has led some to criticize the hate crime data published by the FBI as an undercount of the number of hate crimes committed in the United States each year. However, this statistics gap can be partially explained by the different measures and methodologies utilized by the FBI and BJS to collect these data. For example, the FBI only reports on crimes that have been reported to the police, while BJS collects reports of criminal victimizations that may or may not meet the statutory definition of a hate crime and may or may not have been reported to the police. There are a number of reasons why some victims do not report their victimization to the police, including fear of reprisal, not wanting the offender to get in trouble, believing that police would not or could not do anything to help, and believing the crime to be a personal issue or too trivial to report.."
Hate crimes 

Crime in the United States: 2019

"Since 1996, editions of Crime in the United States have been available on the FBI’s Web site, www.fbi.gov. . Although first released in Portable Document Format (PDF) files, more recent editions have been published as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program staff are committed to improving annual publications so that the data they collect can better meet the needs of law enforcement, criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal planners, the media, and other students of criminal justice who use the statistics for varied administrative, research, and planning purposes. For more information about how the UCR Program collects data, see About the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Data provided

Crime in the United States, 2019, presents data tables containing information on the topics listed below. Data users can download Microsoft Excel spreadsheets of the data tables and PDFs of most of the text.
 

Offenses Known to Law Enforcement—Includes information about violent crime offenses (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crime offenses (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson).
 

Expanded offense data—Provides additional data that the program collects on the eight offenses. Depending on the offense, these details may include the type of weapon and the type and value of items stolen. For the offense of murder, expanded homicide data include information about murder victims, offenders, and weapons that are collected as supplemental homicide data.
 

Clearances—Furnishes information about crimes “solved” either by arrest or exceptional means.
 

Persons Arrested—Provides the number of arrests made by law enforcement and the age, race, and ethnicity of arrestees for the 28 offenses (see Offense Definitions) for which the UCR Program publishes arrest data.
 

Police Employee Data—Supplies information regarding sworn officers and civilian law enforcement personnel..."
Crime Statistics 

Domestic Terrorism: Definitions, Terminology, and Methodology

"As required by the National Defense Authorization Act, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, have developed standard definitions of terminology related to domestic terrorism and uniform methodologies for tracking domestic terrorism incidents..."
Domestic terrorism 

Hate Crime Statistics, 2019

"Today the FBI released Hate Crime Statistics, 2019, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2019 data, submitted by 15,588 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes.

Law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,314 criminal incidents and 8,559 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. Please note the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Highlights of Hate Crime Statistics, 2019 follow. (Due to rounding, percentage breakdowns may not add to 100%.).."
Hate crime 

National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)

"NICS Process

When a person tries to buy a firearm, the seller, known as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), contacts NICS electronically or by phone. The prospective buyer fills out the ATF form, and the FFL relays that information to the NICS. The NICS staff performs a background check on the buyer. That background check verifies the buyer does not have a criminal record or isn't otherwise ineligible to purchase or own a firearm. Since launching in 1998, more than 300 million checks have been done, leading to more than 1.5 million denials.

NICS Availability

The NICS is customarily available by phone 17 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays (except for Christmas). Calls may be monitored and recorded for any authorized purpose. The NICS E-Check is available 24/7.

NICS Services

The NICS provides full service to the FFLs in 30 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. The NICS provides partial service to seven states. The remaining 13 states perform their own checks through the NICS..."
Criminal background check 

Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted , 2019

"The following information concerns law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2019 as a result of felonious incidents. The law enforcement officers included in this report met certain criteria, such as they had full arrest powers and they ordinarily wore/carried a badge and firearm.

Overview

• In 2019, 48 law enforcement officers died from injuries incurred in the line of duty during felonious incidents. (See Table 1.)
• Line-of-duty deaths occurred in 19 states and Puerto Rico. (See Table 1.)
• By region, 27 officers were feloniously killed in the South, 9 officers in the Midwest, 9 officers in the West, 1 officer in the Northeast, and 2 officers in Puerto Rico. (See Table 1.)
• Of the officers feloniously killed, 25 were employed by city police departments, including 7 who were members of law enforcement agencies in cities with between 100,000 and 249,999 inhabitants. (See Table 2.)

Victim profile

• The average age of the officers who were feloniously killed in 2019 was 40 years old. (See Table 10.)
• The slain officers’ average length of law enforcement service was 13 years. (See Table 11.)
• Of the officers who died due to felonious incidents in 2019, 45 were male and 3 were female. (See Table 15.)
• By race, 40 of the victim officers were White, 7 were Black/African American, and 1 was Asian. (See Table 15.).."
  Law Enforcement Officers Killed 

Rescuing Victims of Child Sexual Abuse

"FBI Programs Support a Global Effort to Save Children from Harm

With every report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and every law enforcement investigation dealing with child sexual abuse material, a largely unseen—but urgent—effort begins to identify and aid the child or children being harmed in the images.

It is an effort that relies on technology and painstaking investigative work—where details as small as a baseball cap or a soda cup have provided the clues that allowed investigators to find a child.

At the FBI, the Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP) works alongside Operation Rescue Me to explore every possible avenue in identifying a child victim of sexual abuse. Operation Rescue Me is focused on rescuing the child victim from further abuse and exploitation. In pursuit of that same goal, ECAP seeks national and international exposure of unknown adults whose faces and/or distinguishing characteristics are visible in images of child sexual abuse..."

Offenses Known To Law Enforcement In Large Cities, 2018

"The tables published in Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Large Cities, 2018, enable users to access FBI reported crime data for large cities of 250,000 population or more. These same data are published by the FBI in the Crime in the United States publication and can be found in tables associated with the state in which the agency is located. Tables published here by BJS provide those large city crime data in a singular set of tabulations. In addition, the FBI make these data available at the agency level through the Crime Data Explorer, and BJS and the FBI make these data available through the online UCR Data Tool. BJS has provided these tables for easier access to the public.
Full report (PDF 1.1M).." 
Offenses know to law enforcement

2019 Internet Crime Report

"Internet-enabled crimes and scams show no signs of letting up, according to data   released by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in its 2019 Internet Crime Report. The last calendar year saw both the highest number of complaints and the highest  dollar losses reported since the center was established in May 2000.

 IC3 received 467,361 complaints in 2019—an average of nearly 1,300 every day—
and recorded more than $3.5 billion in losses to individual and business victims.
The most frequently reported complaints were phishing and similar ploys,
non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. The most financially costly
complaints involved business email compromise, romance or confidence fraud,
and spoofing, or mimicking the account of a person or vendor known to the victim
to gather personal or financial information.

 Donna Gregory, the chief of IC3, said that in 2019 the center didn’t see an uptick in
 new types of fraud but rather saw criminals deploying new tactics and techniques to
 carry out existing scams.."
Internet crime