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Ask HN: How can I report a financial fraud ring?
86 points by Invictus0 on Nov 14, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 28 comments
A scammer contacted me on reddit to invite me to join his carding ring. They are using people's stolen identities to open bank accounts in their name, making fraudulent Amazon purchases with that account, and then selling the Amazon goods on ebay before finally laundering the profits through crypto.

I think the scammer made an error though, which is that he posted his coinbase account url directly in the invitation email.

The scam is structured so that all of the "students" send crypto payments directly to the ringleader; seems fairly simple to find the ringleader's account and then find the rest of the ring by tracing who is sending money to that account.

Here's the intro video I was sent where you can see the coinbase account (I copied the video and made a youtube backup):

https://vimeo.com/user188604890?embedded=true&source=owner_n...

https://youtu.be/eZGqHx8NS1o

Here's also the original text message I was sent:

༺◍━═━═━◓━═━═━◍༻

The only time you'll be invited. Read thoroughly.

Online Carding is when you buy compromised credit card details for $10-$20 via autoshops (jstash, feshop, yalelodge, etc) and use it to place big orders on online sites like Amazon, BestBuy, etc.

Assuming you could navigate Amazon's fraud detection, you could place an $800 order using the card. What I do is simple, I provide a mentorship where I will (1-on-1) walk you through making at least $3,500 per week through routinely carding Amazon, start to finish, in exchange for less than 1/10th of the profit you make long-term. This is 100% digital.

ALL students make over $3,500 per week from this, some nearing up to $6,000. What I'm about to show you is heavily substantiated with mountains of indisputable proof.

◉⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⊰ LEGIT ⊱⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯◉ Over 1,100+ positive rep on Empire from when I used to sell guides. (omnision | 2,900+ total rep, 4.93 ). Teaching carding since 2017.

TWO vouching channels where students routinely post proof of their success.

Students follow thorough guidelines when vouching, providing objective proof that their success is REAL and CURRENT.

Students join via Selly, which means ALL students can rate me & leave feedback, and you can see it prior to joining.

◉⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⊰ TIME ⊱⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯◉ MENTORSHIP: 5 days, 1 hour sessions per day.

AFTER TAUGHT: ~20 min to card an order. 1-4 orders per day. (20m- 1h20m).

◉⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⊰ SAFE ⊱⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯◉ The government convicts 1/13,698 online carders. 1/48 shoplifters for comparison. ANY associated risks will be methodically eliminated through proper digital OPSEC procedure. More detail in our Q&A channel w/ sources provided.

༺◍━═━═━◒━═━═━◍༻

STATUS (11/12/2022): 4 out of 25 slots remaining.




My suspicion is you haven't been invited to a carding ring, but instead somebody is trying to scam you. At some point, you will need to put up some money or somehow give them your financial details at which point they'll disappear.

The best scams always involve baiting the mark into apparently doing something they know is illegal; when they get scammed, they won't go to the authorities.


100% also if you find forums where people are actually into doing this type of shit, you will find that they are not exactly eager to teach newbies or the public in general their techniques. And they sure as fuck don't want to heighten their risk by involving people who don't know wtf they're doing.


A hint that OP is the target is the sense of urgency they try to create:

> The only time you'll be invited.

> STATUS (11/12/2022): 4 out of 25 slots remaining.


I immediately thought, "This is a scam and they just want to take your money," when I got to this part:

>What I do is simple, I provide a mentorship...


A quote that always stuck in my memory is and now I can’t recall exactly :)

I never stole from an honest person they wanted something for nothing and I gave them nothing for something


It all goes back to the maxim that you can't con an honest man. Con "artists" always make the victim be a victim of their own dishonesty and greed.


Yeah this was my first thought.


Yes, the self impaling hook = you rat them = you are part of the catch for taking part - if not your $$ = part of their booty = down from here...


yeah feds might be interested if he's a legit ring of card harvesters but I bet they charge you some tuition, and just don't actually ever have a session with you.

Not worth LEO time, you'll have to take the L and learn.


100% a scam. Just reading the email content makes it clear. They didn't make a mistake of showing OP the coinbase URL. They are trying to appear legit while scamming them.


This bit looks like the hook of the scam:

"I provide a mentorship where I will (1-on-1) walk you through making at least $3,500 per week through routinely carding Amazon, start to finish in exchange for less than 1/10th of the profit you make long-term"

So best case scenario you front your $350 for your first week of 'mentorship', then never hear from them again. More likely they string you along for as much as they can until you start asking when the profit part happens.

(And the limited-time-offer "4 out of 25 slots remaining" is classic bait, gotta build that sense of urgency so the mark doesn't take too much time to think about it before committing.)


I only have one more slot remaining, but due to the high demand will be opening up another 10 slots in december, at the full price of $700.


Hi, you can report internet related financial crimes to the FBI's Internet Crimes Complaint Center: https://www.ic3.gov/


This is likely the best you can do.

If the information is of use, it will be filtered into their systems.

You might also be able to report it to coinbase, but I don't know what they do beyond cancelling accounts.


> I don't know what they do beyond cancelling accounts.

Unless they've got sophisticated with payment URLs, I don't think they couldn't do that on this alone. These kinds of spams would quickly become a DOS attack on other people's accounts, and some spammers could even be planning to get a refund from a wallet holder they only presume to be gullible.


From their FAQ:

Q: Who should file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)? You may file a complaint with the IC3 if you believe you have been the victim of an Internet crime or if you want to file on behalf of another person you believe has been such a victim.

Since I haven't been a victim, I don't think I can make a report.


You can still be considered as a victim in some cases even if the actual criminal attempt failed. Not sure if that would apply here.


Wouldn’t you be filing “on the behalf of another person you believe has been such a victim?”


Is this any better these days? I got scammed by someone out of $1600 and I knew their name and address, FBI never even bothered to respond. It’s been 15 years.


I'm pretty sure criminals making 6k a week aren't stumbling over themselves to give away the secret of their system in the form of a MLM spam DM. 100% chance this 'opportunity' requires you to pay a 'small fee' up front for the initial information, at which point you are out some money and never hear from them again.


1) There is 95% chance this is a scam

2) In the event it is not a scam, that Coinbase account was probably established with a fake or stolen identity and will lead law enforcement absolutely nowhere


100% it's a scam. scams take advantage of people in some way and in this case, if the target is amoral and greedy enough to think it's a good idea, then they're hooked.


The 419eater[1] forum might be a good place to ask as well

[1]: https://aff.419eater.com/


If it is indeed fraud - in addition to submitting anything via ic3.gov - you might want to review the FTC's fraud reporting website: https://www.ftc.gov/media/2


Report the findings to the FBI [1][2] and cease communication with these people unless asked to do otherwise.

[1] - https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber#Respond-and%20Report

[2] - https://www.ic3.gov/


Just assumed this was another FTX post.


Except for the withdrawal "hack" shenanigans, there's doesn't seem to be any outright fraud there.


Do people not receive payment confirmations via SMS or email? I think I receive SMS for every purchase bigger than 5€ and email for every purchase.




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