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A man from Burnsville, Minnesota, is accused of scamming thousands of dollar from more than a dozen Twin Cities residents who sought his tree care services.
The 44-year-old man was charged in Dakota County earlier this week with two counts of felony theft by swindle in connection to 13 reported cases between Aug. 1, 2024, and Nov. 1 of this year.
According to the criminal complaint, the Burnsville Police Department started investigating the defendant in August “for tree care services that were only partially or never completed.”
Five of the 13 victims reside in Burnsville, while the other eight live in Apple Valley, Eagan, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Prior Lake and Savage. The total amount he’s accused of stealing is more than $17,000.
Court documents show patterns of the defendant’s alleged misconduct include making excuses for why the work was never completed, refusal to issue full or partial refunds and subsequently blocking customers’ phone numbers.
He faces up to a decade in prison if convicted.
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Diane Reynolds said she was caught off guard when someone contacted the Maryland retiree online and said access to her computer had been blocked for safety reasons.
“There was a voice message that was coming on with this that said, ‘Don’t turn your computer on, don’t turn your computer off,’” she told CBS News.
Reynolds was also instructed to call a phone number she was led to believe would provide her with tech support. Instead, she was connected to a scam artist who claimed that hackers had obtained access to her bank account. The only way to protect her money was to convert the funds into bitcoin, the person told Reynolds.
She withdrew her entire bank account balance, which totaled $13,100, and followed the scammer’s directions to go to a bitcoin ATM at a nearby gas station. The ATM was operated by Athena Bitcoin, which has more than 4,000 such terminals across the U.S.
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb said such incidents highlight the surge in cryptocurrency scams linked to bitcoin ATM providers, resulting in the theft of millions of dollars.
“Bitcoin ATMs are a tool that scammers, that criminals, are using to separate people, including D.C. residents, from their hard-earned money,” Schwalb told CBS News. “Athena, as a bitcoin operator, knows that its kiosks are being used by this element, and yet [has] failed to put proper anti-fraud prevention systems in place to keep it from happening.”
He added, “What makes it worse is they are profiting from this because they’re charging very substantial fees.”
Schwalb in September filed a lawsuit against Athena, alleging that it charges “undisclosed fees on deposits that it knows are often the result of scams, and for failing to implement adequate anti-fraud measures.”
In a statement to CBS News, Athena Bitcoin said it “strongly disagrees with the allegations” and that it will contest the charges in court.
“We employ aggressive safety protocols to protect the financial interests of our customers. …Our kiosks employ multiple safeguards, from prominent warnings and daily transaction limits to five separate verification screens designed to stop coerced transactions,” the company said.
Reynolds is also suing Athena Bitcoin. Her attorney, Vaught Stewart, accused the company of “not just allowing the fraud to happen — they’re profiting from it.”
In Washington, D.C., Athena Bitcoin charged fees of up to 26% per transaction, while 93% of all deposits made through the company’s ATMs are linked to scams, Schwalb alleged in his suit.
For her part, Reynolds wants to help others avoid losing their savings. “Now I’m an advocate for just telling people this is real,” she said. “Be aware.”
Financial scams connected to bitcoin ATMs are on the rise, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The Better Business Bureau, which ranks crypto-related fraud as one of the most common types of financial scams, notes that fraudsters tend to target the senior population.
Claims from an unknown source that your computer has been hacked is one major tip-off that someone is trying to swindle you, according to the organization.
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Americans receive tens of millions of unsolicited automated calls and texts each day, often intended to dupe them into forking over personal information or money.
That’s the thrust of a new report by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a consumer advocacy organization, which found that scam and telemarketing calls and texts have proliferated across the country, despite safeguards intended to prevent them. (Of the 9,242 phone companies that filed with the FCC as of Sept. 28, 2025, less than half have installed robocall-fighting software.)
Nationwide, Americans received an average of 2.56 billion robocalls a month from January to September. That’s up from 2.14 billion a month in 2024, and the highest level in six years, according to PIRG’s analysis of data from YouMail, one of the largest robocall-blocking companies.
Meanwhile, the volume of automated texts received by Americans has skyrocketed since 2021, when a government crackdown on robocalls led more telemarketers and scammers to shift to texts. Data from PIRG shows that the annual volume of robotexts received in 2024 was roughly 19 billion, nearly triple the approximately 7 billion robotexts received in 2021.
The predatory messages are a daily nuisance for many. About one-third of Americans say they get at least one scam phone call a day, while one-fifth say they receive one scam text every day, according to the Pew Research Center.
Roboscams come in many forms, as detailed in PIRG’s report. Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at PIRG, said they usually stem from crime rings or dedicated scam operations whose mission is to extract personal information or get some kind of financial information or actual payment from victims.
“The calls and texts are low cost and high reward,” she said in an email. “As long as some percentage keep working, the scammers will keep trying.”
Examples of some common scams include:
Impersonating IRS, Banks
During tax season, bad actors pose as IRS officials or tax preparation companies. Many scammers impersonate banks and credit card companies to steal account information. Another common trap are calls and texts that incite fear about unpaid loan balances or offer dubious debt relief opportunities.
Package delivery
Package delivery scams have become very common, with fraudsters posing as the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS sending out messages that there was an issue with a delivery. Included in the text is a fake link, leading victims to pay money to ensure the fake package ends up in their hands.
While some escape the scams unscathed, many don’t. According to Pew, approximately a quarter of Americans say they’ve given up personal information to scammers as a result a predatory phone call, text message or email.
Scams are growing more sophisticated and easier to set up, thanks to artificial intelligence. According to PIRG, AI allows bots to send fraudulent texts to thousands of people at a time.
“The bad guys always seem to be several steps ahead of the regulators and phone companies,” Murray said.
Scammers have employed AI voice-cloning tools to trick people into thinking they are talking to a friend, family member or government official.
Up until late 2023, robocalls had declined considerably, according to Alex Quilici, founder and CEO of YouMail, who is cited in the PIRG report. Over the last two years, however, the number of automated texts and calls has increased along with the cost of related scams for victims.
The amount of money lost to phone scams rose 16% from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission. On average, victims lost $3,690 to scam robocalls and $1,452 to scam texts in the first half of 2025, PIRG found.
In 2019, Congress passed the TRACED Act, which directed the Federal Communications Commission to require phone companies to implement stricter technology to regulate robocalls, including caller ID authentication. To keep track of compliance, the FCC launched a robocall mitigation database where companies are supposed to detail their efforts to fight illegal robocalls on their networks.
But those efforts have been met with mixed success. As of Sept. 28, only 44% of phone companies have completely installed the mandated software and adopted anti-robocall policies, down from 47% in 2024, PIRG found.
“You’d think that — given that it’s been more than 15 years since the first federal law to attack spam robocalls — we’d have seen more progress by now,” the PIRG report authors write, “We still don’t know whether to trust our caller ID and may worry we’ll miss an important call if we don’t answer.”
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The U.S. government has seized $15 billion in bitcoin from a Cambodian business conglomerate charged with running a global cryptocurrency scam.
Federal prosecutors claim Chen Zhi, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, oversaw a vast criminal network in Cambodia built on forced labor that extracted billions from victims in the U.S. and around the world.
The indictment, which was unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, charges the 37-year-old Cambodian national with wire fraud and money laundering.
“By dismantling a criminal empire built on forced labor and deception, we are sending a clear message that the United States will use every tool at its disposal to defend victims, recover stolen assets and bring to justice those who exploit the vulnerable for profit,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice, according to the agency.
Chen remains at large, according to the Justice Department. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
“Today the FBI and partners executed one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “This is an individual who allegedly operated a vast criminal network across multiple continents involving forced labor, money laundering, investment schemes, and stolen assets — targeting millions of innocent victims in the process.”
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced Tuesday that it has coordinated with U.K. officials to impose sweeping sanctions against 146 entities associated with the Prince Group, which has been formally designated a transnational criminal organization by the department.
Prince Holding Group’s website lists it as one of the largest conglomerates in Cambodia, with businesses focused on real estate development, banking, finance and consumer services.
The company did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment. The company has previously denied involvement in scam operations and has not publicly responded to the latest allegations.
Federal prosecutors described the cryptocurrency fraud allegedly employed by Chen as a “pig butchering” scam, or when scammers dupe a victim into phony investments.
The Justice Department alleges the criminal network convinced victims over social media and messaging apps to transfer cryptocurrency based on the false promises that it would be invested. The scammers then stole the funds, laundered them and used the proceeds for luxury travel, entertainment and other extravagant purchases, according to the agency.
Federal prosecutors said Prince Group targeted victims around the world with assistance from local networks, including one operated from Brooklyn, New York. To carry out the schemes, the criminal actors allegedly trafficked hundreds of people and forced them to work in a network of compounds across Cambodia. The “violent, forced labor camps” consisted of vast dormitories surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, according to the Justice Department.
To dodge law enforcement, Chen and Prince Group’s top executives allegedly paid bribes to public officials and used their political influence, the department said.
Mark Taylor, who formerly worked on human trafficking issues in Cambodia for the nonprofit Winrock International, said that Chen was embedded in the Cambodian elite and “well protected” by the government, showing “the larger role that Cambodia has played as a safe center for this online scamming to prosper.” Chen was formerly a personal adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.
“Cambodia is the physical location where a lot of it operates, but it’s also the money laundering center for the entire region,” Taylor said
Independent research group Cyber Scam Monitor has documented more than 200 online scamming centers and casinos in Cambodia alone, based on first-hand accounts from former scam workers, field surveys and media reports.
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Plano, Texas — In many ways, Tejasvi Manoj of Plano, Texas, is an average 17-year-old.
“You’ve got to balance, like, all of your classes, and then you have college applications as well,” Manoj told CBS News.
But she’s spending much of her senior year of high school with a different type of senior, visiting older adult community centers, where she teaches them how to avoid being financially scammed.
Her calling started last year when Manoj’s grandfather was the target of a scam effort in which he received a text message from someone pretending to be a family member, claiming an emergency and asking him to wire $2,000 to a bank account.
Fortunately, Manoj’s grandfather and grandmother contacted family members and discovered the scam before wiring the money.
But the event was alarming to Manoj, who began researching and subsequently building a website and app called Shield Seniors, which shows what online scams look like and how to report them.
In July, she did a TEDx talk. And this week, she made the cover of Time magazine as its “Kid of the Year.”
“So I found out 12 hours before the article released,” Manoj said. “I was in so much shock. It was the greatest surprise of my life, honestly.”
Manoj says her research shows scammers are increasingly using artificial intelligence.
“There are so many people who are using AI to make scams seem more real,” Manoj said.
These frauds are becoming increasingly common. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, people 60 and over who reported scams in 2024 lost a total of $4.8 billion — double the losses from just five years ago.
“Particularly when you’re older, you feel more vulnerable,” one woman who attended one of Manoj’s classes explained. “I think too, as you get older, you become less, computer savvy.”
Her app, which utilizes AI, allows users to detect potential scam efforts.
“So here I can add, like, a text message,” Manoj explains as she shows her website. “And then I can press ‘please identify whether this is a threat.’ So it’s saying that this request seems suspicious.”
Manoj has taken some computer science courses, but she said she mostly learned everything about coding and AI on YouTube.
“Obviously, my mission is to make sure older adults are aware of cybersecurity,” Manoj said. “And they shouldn’t be embarrassed about asking for help.”
She says her long-term plans involve continuing her work on Shield Seniors, but also finding ways to use “tech for social good.”
Manoj is still looking for funding for her app. She hopes landing the cover of Time will allow her to launch Shield Seniors by the end of the year.
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State officials are warning Minnesotans about a scam that asks recipients to provide their banking information in order to receive their tax refund.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue says the text tells the person who received it that their refund request has been “processed and approved” and directs them to click a link to provide their payment information. The message also states failure to submit payment information will “result in a permanent forfeiture” of the refund.
Officials say the Minnesota Department of Revenue will never send unsolicited communications asking for personal or financial information.
The department advises those who receive the text not to click the link in the message and to report the text as junk or spam before deleting it.
Anyone who clicked the link and put in their financial information should contact their bank.
Earlier this year, the IRS issued a warning about a similar scam claiming recipients were due a $1,400 stimulus check.
The Better Business Bureau says to never click on links in unsolicited messages and to be cautious of urgency, taking time to confirm claims independently.
You can forward suspicious messages to phishing@irs.gov and report them to BBB.org/ScamTracker.
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Riley Moser
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A man from Jamaica has pled guilty to multiple federal charges in connection with a seven-year sweepstakes scam that defrauded a California woman out of more than $180,000, prosecutors said.
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced that 35-year-old Dwayne Anderson of Hanover, Jamaica pled guilty Friday to federal wire fraud charges in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota.
Anderson was arrested by Jamaican authorities in July 2024 after being indicted on eight counts of wire fraud and was extradited to the U.S., where he was incarcerated pending trial.
“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting Americans from the threats posed by transnational criminals and will vigorously pursue them, wherever they are located,” assistant attorney general Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement. “Anderson is the latest example in the Department’s ongoing efforts to combat these kinds of foreign based schemes and hold those involved accountable.”
According to the plea agreement, Anderson admitted to the scheme to defraud the woman, which took place from 2010 to Sep. 2017.
Anderson admitted he used phony names and contacted the victim via phone, text and emails, falsely saying she had won millions of dollars in a sweepstakes. The victim sent money to pay purported fees and taxes.
Prosecutors said Anderson repeatedly contacted the victim with additional requests for money, saying she would receive her winnings if she paid the requested money. The victim lost $181,000, but did not receive any purported winnings.
Authorities did not say where in California the victim was from.
“Whether it happens in a rural community or a metropolitan area, the Department of Justice will ensure these criminals are held to account for their shameless targeting of vulnerable individuals and their hard-earned savings,” said U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell for the District of South Dakota.
Prosecutors did not announce when Anderson would be sentenced. Officials previously said Anderson faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count.
Anyone over the age of 60 who may be a victim of financial fraud is urged to contact the Department of Justice’s National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311).
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Tim Fang
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A Japanese octogenarian was swindled out of thousands of dollars after falling in love online with a self-described astronaut who sought her help to avert a spaceship crisis, police said Tuesday.
The hapless woman in Japan’s northern Hokkaido island met the fraudster in July on social media who claimed to be a male astronaut, a local police officer told AFP, describing the case as a romance scam.
After some exchanges, the scammer one day told her he was “in space on a spaceship right now” but was “under attack and in need of oxygen,” the official said.
The scammer then urged her to pay him online to help him buy oxygen, and successfully hoodwinked around 1 million yen ($6,700) out of her.
The woman lives alone and started developing feelings for him as their online communication progressed, local media including Hokkaido Broadcasting said, quoting investigative sources.
“If a person you met on social media ever demanded cash from you, please be suspicious of the possibility of scam, and report to police,” the official said.
Japan has the world’s second-oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank, and older people frequently fall prey to various forms of organized fraud.
These include the classic “it’s me” scam, where perpetrators impersonate family members in trouble to extract money from the victim.
Elderly people can also be cajoled into using ATMs to get non-existent “refunds” of their insurance premiums or pensions, police have warned.
Romance scammers drain billions of dollars from people seeking love, and their tactics have evolved in sinister ways in the online age. More than 64,000 Americans were taken for over $1 billion in romance scams in 2023— double the $500 million just four years earlier, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
About half of people who are using dating sites say they’ve come across somebody who’s tried to scam them, according to Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat who says tech platforms need to do a better job of protecting their users.
“No matter how advanced you think your ability to understand what’s out there, they’re gonna deceive so many people and we really have to get in front of this,” Republican Rep. David Valadao of California told CBS News last year.
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Activity on dating apps and websites increases leading up to Valentine’s Day, and so does your risk of being scammed, according to new research.
Increasingly, scammers are using high-tech tools like bots and artificial intelligence to trick victims into sending them money. Cyber security company Arkose Labs reported between January 2023 and January 2024, dating apps saw a 2087% increase in bot attacks.
A bot is software that operates on the internet and is designed to perform automated tasks faster than humans ever could.
Scammers deploy bots to register new accounts and phony dating profiles at a massive scale. If they succeed, they use the fake profiles to lure unsuspecting singles into developing online relationships and ultimately ask the victims to send money.
In 2022, nearly 70,000 people said they fell victim to romance scams and reported $1.3 billion in losses, according to data released by the Federal Trade Commission.
Research from Barclays shows the age group most likely to fall for romance scams are people between the ages of 51 and 60.
The latest technology enables scammers to become more convincing to their victims, according to Kevin Gosschalk, Arkose Labs’ Founder and CEO.
“They’re using artificial intelligence to craft their in-app or on-platform messages,” said Gosschalk.
Arkose is one of a growing number of U.S. companies helping businesses fight off cyber-attacks with a focus on bots.
“It’s a huge arms race,” Gosschalk said. “The attackers are motivated by huge amounts of money, and it’s just so lucrative.”
Here are some warning signs you may be communicating with a scammer on a dating app:
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A gift card issuer is facing a lawsuit over allegations it failed to make its popular prepaid cards less susceptible to a common scam.
The lawsuit, filed last month by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, alleges Incom’s “Vanilla Gift” and “One Vanilla” non-reloadable cards featured “insufficient” packaging and “lax security features” that made them susceptible to scams.
According to the complaint, the gift card packaging allows for “easy access to the card inside,” enabling thieves to record the barcode and PIN information so they can make unauthorized transactions, a practice known as card draining.
The complaint also alleges that Incomm failed to improve its product’s packaging despite knowing the flawed design led to incidents of theft.
“As the direct result of Incomm’s years-long negligence, numerous consumers and gift recipients have been needlessly subjected to card draining,” Chiu alleged in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleged that when victims reported their funds stolen, Incomm and its partners did not reimburse them and declined to provide refunds, the complaint states.
Card draining is a scam in which fraudsters carefully remove an unpurchased gift card from its packaging, record its number and PIN code, then place it back in its original packaging,” according to Consumer Reports.
Once an unsuspecting victim purchases a tampered card and loads funds onto it, the thief will use the stolen information to make unauthorized purchases, draining the gift card of its prepaid funds.
Compromised gift cards may be hard to spot, but there are several ways consumers can protect themselves against being scammed, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry.
Before buying a gift card, consumers should always examine the card’s packaging for any damage and ensure sure the scratch-off covering concealing the card’s PIN number is intact, Henry advised in a consumer notice.
If a consumer discovers a card they bought has been compromised, they should immediately report the issue to the card company and ask for a refund, according to the Henry.
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A grand jury in New York has convicted former NBA players of bilking the basketball league’s health care plan of millions of dollars while trying to recruit other players to join the scheme.
Among those found guilty were Ronald Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who played eight seasons in the NBA and won a championship in 2008 with the Boston Celtics, and William Bynum, who last played in 2015 for the Washington Wizards.
According to federal prosecutors, Davis and the other players conspired with California dentist Aamir Wahab and William Washington, a doctor in Washington state, between 2017 and 2021 to submit fake medical and dental bills for reimbursement, even though the services were not actually done.
“While many of the more than 20 defendants convicted in this case were well-known NBA stars, their conduct was otherwise a typical fraudulent scheme designed to defraud the NBA’s health care plan and net the defendants over $5 million in illicit profits,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Wednesday, adding that “despite notoriety or success in sports or any other field, no one is exempt from criminal charges if they engage in fraud.”
Terrence Williams, who played four seasons in the league, was sentenced in August to a decade in prison as the ringleader of the scheme.
Bynum, Davis and the NBA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The NBA offers a supplemental health care plan for active and former players — along with their spouses and other dependents — that pays certain medical expenses that a primary health plan provider would not cover. The plan is paid for by revenue generated from each of the league’s 30 teams. Members of the plan are asked to submit a medical claim to the league and certify that the claim does not have false or misleading information.
Federal prosecutors charged Davis and other players of healthcare fraud and wire fraud conspiracy in April 2022. Under Williams’ plan, former players Keyon Dooling and Alan Anderson were in charge of recruiting other former players to submit fraudulent medical claims, prosecutors said in an unsealed indictment.
Dooling and Anderson offered to provide players with fake invoice paperwork in exchange for payments, prosecutors alleged.
The basketball players’ conviction this week suggests that health care fraud is a growing issue in professional sports. In September 2021, a group of former NFL players pleaded guilty for their roles in defrauding the football league‘s health care plan. Former star Clinton Portis and other retired players submitted $3.9 million in false claims, with $3.4 million of that amount paid out between June 2017 and December 2018, federal prosecutors said at the time.
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