The FBI today said it was warning what it called Asian business owners of a nationwide attempt to extort money via threats of violence over the phone.
Offering very little detail, the FBI said the telephone calls appear to be originating from foreign countries. The caller acquires an adequate amount of open source information about the victim through Internet searches. This misleads the victim into believing the subject has personal knowledge about the victim.
The scam has been showing up across the country. For example, the FBI and Houston Police Department are working the cases as part of the Asian Organized Crime Task Force.
“There have been cases around the country including New York, L.A., Chicago and Atlanta,” said one Houston police department employee in a report on KHOU.com’s Web site. The extortionist is seeking anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000. Owners get death threats if they don’t pay.
There have been no reported incidents of violence to date, the FBI stated.
The Risk Professiolal.com site says that for the FBI, the current problem is much more basic than identifying the culprits: it’s working out where the calls are coming from. Investigations so far show that the calls are being made using VoIP making tracking the calls more difficult.
Asian business owners and law enforcement in other countries have been faced with the same scheme.
The FBI is urging anyone who receives a threat to report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Layer 8 in a box
Check out these other hot stories:
The Borg lives: BBN gets $30M for artificial intelligence wizard
Court says government background security checks go too far
FTC shuts down notorious Internet Service Provider
Sears gets wrist slap over spyware activities
Cirque du Soleil founder set to blast into space
US shells out $10M for unmanned aircraft that can perch like a bird
Inside the Top 10 hot aerospace technologies
CIA wants more foreign language skills in a big way
