FBI Says Wire Fraud Scam Sending Millions To China

Trailrunner7 writes "The FBI is warning businesses about an ongoing spate of attacks that are stealing millions of dollars from companies through unauthorized bank transfers to Chinese companies. The fraudulent wire transfers are not a new tactic, but the FBI says the current round of attacks is notable in that virtually all of the transfers are going to shell companies based in China and have cost U.S. businesses $11 million. The FBI said that many of the cases it has seen involve well-known pieces of malware, such as Zeus, SpyEye and others. The amount of money the attackers try to transfer varies from $50,000 up to nearly $1 million."

Comments

Re:Cant figure this one out. Quite inexplicable.

[erroneus]

We said and feared something similar when Japan was on an economic rampage.

China owns a lot of US Debt. That's not the same as owning the US... not yet anyway. China has been playing a lot of dirty money games such as valuing their currency based on US currency which is a very certain way to maintain a trade deficit.

But let's not confuse "chinese government" with "chinese people." They are an interesting set. On one hand, they are the most viciously capitalistic people on the planet. On the other, they live under an oppressive government that claims to be communist but are actually just an abusive bunch of control freaks.

So some clever Chinese people realized that they are pretty much "untouchable" and have decided to perform criminal acts from across the internet. They also know they are likely not to get punished so long as they pay off the right officials in the process. It's how their game is played.

HELLO

[GameboyRMH]

Greetings,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xing Liuxian, the son of emperor Xing Liaopeng, hailing from China. Recently my father has passed away leaving a fortune of 10 billion yuan to me and my siblings, however we are unable to receive the full sum inheritance due to recent changes to tax law that would leave us with only 10%. I am seeking an intermediary overseas who would be able to assist us in exploiting a tax loophole which would allow us to inherit the full sum. For these services we would offer you 5% of the full sum, an amount equal to roughly 80 million US dollars. This is not technically illegal however it is in a legal gray area and would be embarrassing to the family if word got out, so if you are able to assist us, please keep this in the strictest confidence.

Regards,

Liuxian

liuxian@xingpalace.cn

Re:Cant figure this one out. Quite inexplicable.

[erroneus]

What's the difference? Wow. Learn what "communism" is supposed to be. For most people, it is the picture of utopia. Most people are "communist" and don't even realize it. The problem is that communism has never happened in the history of the world and the promise of it has been used to overthrow governments and cultures all over the world and have invariably resulted in oppressive and abusive states like China, the former USSR, Cuba and who knows where else.

Seriously, I invite you to learn what communism is supposed to be. If you spend even a little time learning about that and about human behavior, especially from a sociological perspective, you will see pretty clearly that communism is a huge lie that can never happen because people are involved. Once you have learned those things, you will see the difference. Communism ain't what you think it is.

Obama's warning..

[HockeyPuck]

Dear China,

Please stop or we'll say stop again.

-Barack

Re:Obama's warning..

[nedlohs]

Do you just make stuff up?

Under W the yuan moved from 8.27 per USD to 6.84 per USD or a rise of 21%.

Under Obama it's moved from 6.84 to 6.53 or a rise of 5%.

of course Obama has had less time, but it wasn't unpegged until mid-2005 and the highest rate of increase was during W's time.

And of course this isn't really the Yuan slowly rising, it's the dollar falling. Since Obama's been in, sure the Yuan has risen against the US Dollar. But it's fallen aginst the Aussie Dollar, it's fallen against the Euro, it's fallen against the Japanese Yen. It's fallen against the British Pound. And so on and so on. Making your own currency fall is trivial, just print more of it (see QE1 and QE2).

Port cities?

[zalas]

The companies used for this fraud include the name of a Chinese port city in their official name. These cities
include: Raohe, Fuyuan, Jixi City, Xunke, Tongjiang, and Dongning.

Odd that they'd use the term "port city", as these don't sound like major transportation hubs. What's interesting is that all these places they've named are actually places on or near the border of Russia and China, in Heilongjiang Province.

Re:Cant figure this one out. Quite inexplicable.

[Hatta]

The problem with communism as it's been tried so far is that it hasn't been democratic. Totalitarian communism is just as bad, and bad for the same reasons, as totalitarianism capitalism. What the world needs is democratic communism.

FWIW, Bakunin forsaw the problems with Marxism well before it was ever applied. He famously said "freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice and that Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality". He was right on both counts.