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ORCAID Works With Law Enforcement to Bust AT&T Theft Ring

Submitted By Curt Crum
-President, Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail (CLEAR)
-CID Special Services Manager: Forensics and Victim Services, Organized Retail Crime, Boise City PD

The success of this described below and other cases apprehended in the Boise area are due to the focus on partnerships. Without these partnerships we would be just another dot on the map where ORC criminals will target. This case started with extensive research and investigation by AT&T tracking an individual to the Boise area and evolved through the partnerships we have developed over many years of networking, investigations, and conferences.

On Aug 16, members of our local ORCA (ORCAID.org) received an email from a federal law enforcement contact, alerting us to possible fraudulent cell phone purchases in the area from a known traveling ORC suspect. They passed along the initial details and contact information for AT&T. With the suspected transactions being in both Boise and Meridian, ID financial crimes detectives from both agencies were alerted and began contact with AT&T. Working together detectives were able to identify local victims of identity theft and establish probable cause for an arrest.

Knowing the suspect was scheduled to pick up a fraudulently purchased phone at a local store, it was arranged for the store to call the detectives and dispatch once the subject arrived. The suspect entered the local store on Aug 18 and police were quickly alerted to his presence. Meridian Police patrol officers, who we already knowledgeable of the situation, responded and apprehended the suspect after fleeing from the store.

The continuing investigation revealed the suspect’s involvement with a larger group of co-conspirators operating from another state. One of these individuals would use compromised victim information, including date of birth, addresses, and social security numbers, to open the fraudulent cell phone accounts online or by phone. Once the accounts were opened, our suspect would be notified via text message or another instant messaging platform. He would then enter a local cell-phone retail locations and add lines to these accounts. He would purchase one or two iPhones, finance these into the fraudulently opened accounts, and leave with the ill-gotten phones. The suspect would repeat this several times over a short period of time before moving on to a new area.

The suspect who is now being prosecuted in federal court was suspected by AT&T to have caused over $400,000.00 in losses across the county.
 

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28-year-old Lake Mary man has pleaded guilty to mail fraud after he bilked eBay users out of $64,000, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday.

Brian Kucharski stole the identities of more than 500 people to set up eBay accounts and sell items, which were mostly gift cards, the affidavit said. He then would mail random items to a wrong address and used U.S. Postal Service tracking items to deceive buyers into thinking their package was on the way, the affidavit said. Read more

For further information on PROACT, email inquiries to PROACT@eBay.com.

Spotlight on Gatekeeper Systems
 

Law Enforcement to Retailers:
“Technology is Your Answer”

Gatekeeper's Purchek Technology is a
Win-Win Solution

At first, Loss Prevention executives thought slow responses by police officers coming to arrest shoplifters was due to understaffed police departments. Then reality hit. Sometime around the mid-1990s, many police departments started to consider shoplifting as a nuisance crime, one not as serious as the others they were dealing with. As violent crimes spiked, shoplifting crimes became about as serious as catching a 5-year-old sneaking a treat from a cookie jar.

This has forced retailers, large and small, to solve their shoplifting problems without help from law enforcement. Retailers have made various attempts to do this by updating or creating company policies. For example, some retailers only prosecute shoplifting after a suspect’s second offense at their store. Others only call the police if the suspect has attempted to steal more than a specified dollar amount. Regardless of the remedy, the law enforcement community has made it clear that retailers need to find other options to deal with shoplifting.

Proposition 47
Proposition 47, a California law passed on November 4, 2014, illustrates the dilemma retailers are being forced to contend with. Proposition 47 reduced the severity of many non-violent crimes, including shoplifting. Now, a shoplifter in California can steal merchandise valued at less than $950 and they will only be charged with a misdemeanor. In 2015, shortly after Prop 47 took effect, the Los Angeles Times reported that “law enforcement officials and others have blamed Proposition 47 for allowing repeat offenders... to continue breaking the law with little consequence.”

Laws reducing specific dollar amount thresholds have already spread significantly throughout the country and are continuing. Most Loss Prevention executives understand this and are still trying to get ahead of it. However, a push for retailers to start employing technological solutions is coming from an unlikely source: law enforcement.

Theft-Preventing Technology
With a newfound focus for retailers to solve their own shoplifting problems, a fresh look at technological solutions is being pushed by law enforcement. Gatekeeper Systems Purchek® solution has been at the forefront of such discussions. For many law enforcement officers involved in community policing, they see Purchek® as a win/win solution. This is because the Purchek® prevents cartloads of unpaid merchandise from exiting the store by locking the wheels on shopping carts that fail to pass through a working checkout lane. With this solution, the merchandise stays with the retailer, and the failed shoplifter flees the store without the need for an employee/shoplifter confrontation.

Read more here.

Find out why 19 of the top 20 retailers that use shopping carts rely on Gatekeeper solutions. 

‘White Hat’ Hacker Discusses How Retailers Can Defend Themselves
Jason Glassberg is co-founder of Casaba Security, a “white hat” hacking firm that regularly analyzes new malware and hacking techniques used by criminal groups and tracks carding forums in the “dark net.” STORES contributing writer David Schulz spoke with Glassberg about his work and current activities among criminal hackers.

Why are retailers such popular targets for hackers?

To quote Willie Sutton, “Because that’s where the money is.”

That said, it’s important to distinguish between various “hacks,” such as phishing attacks, point-of-sale network breaches, network breaches and other criminal activity. Hacks are often, if not always, carried out by sophisticated groups. They require skill, malware and some knowledge of the buyer-seller system on the darknet.

Breaching a network is a much harder task, but as we’ve seen through countless reports in the press, it is happening quite often. For retailers, it can be difficult to prevent these attacks because there are multiple ways the attacker may seek to exploit them — from hitting individual store networks to the main corporate network, payment card processors, online payment processes, phishing individual employees or executives.

The primary disadvantage for a retailer as opposed to many other companies is that a retailer has a much larger footprint. Stores are miles if not states apart, which makes it harder to manage IT security consistency, auditing, software updates and patching and vulnerability tests.

How can retail incident response teams keep up with hackers?

They need to evolve to the threat. Right now, incident response is largely stuck in 2000s mode. Companies still think of hacking as a “one-time event,” as you said. They think of it as a static event that isn’t morphing all the time and escalating rapidly. They don’t think about persistence. They don’t think about diversionary tactics. They don’t think about destructive attacks — and that’s another thing here that retailers, in particular, need to start considering.

Retailers also need to be more active in the threat intelligence field — information sharing. They should deploy threat hunter teams to track and monitor various high-risk groups and active darknet forums. They also need to go beyond the standard payment card industry audit — robust penetration tests are vital to determining just how exposed and vulnerable a retailer’s very large footprint, both virtual and physical, actually is.

Read the full Q&A here: stores.org

Small-Time Cybercriminals Landing Steady Low Blows
Organizations under siege by both high- and low-level criminals

High-end crime groups are acquiring the sorts of sophisticated capabilities only nation-states once had, while low-tier criminals maintain a steady stream of malicious activity, from cryptomining to PoS malware.

A steady level of malicious activity by relatively low-level criminals is impacting businesses all around the world as well and should not be ignored, a new report warns.

At the high end, sophisticated financially motivated cybercrime gangs have recently begun using tactics that were once associated only with nation-state backed actors to plunder organizations around the world. Though relatively small in number, these organized crime gangs are responsible for a bulk of the cybercrime-related damage that businesses are experiencing, Secureworks found.

Highly organized groups of criminal actors in Central and West Africa, for instance, are targeting organizations with sophisticated business email compromise and business email spoofing campaigns that over the years have resulted in billions of dollars in losses.

Other high-end criminal gangs, like the FIN7 group, are making millions by combining advanced social engineering and network-intrusion techniques with point-of-sale malware to steal payment card data.

Small groups of highly professional operators from Eastern Europe and elsewhere are targeting online retailers, cryptocurrency exchanges, banks, and ATMs in campaigns that are netting them millions of dollars.

At the same time, low and mid-tier cybercriminals are maintaining a steady level of malicious activity related to cryptocurrency mining, ransomware, spam, and banking and POS malware.

The easy availability of malware tools and services, and demand for personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive data continue to drive a lot of the malicious activity.

Also lowering the bar for cybercriminals are underground marketplaces selling direct access to compromised systems and to anonymized servers for carrying out malicious activity. Numerous forums for instance offer access to Virtual Private Servers and dedicated hosting services for between $10 and $300. darkreading.com

Most ATMs can be hacked in under 20 minutes
An extensive testing session carried out by bank security experts at Positive Technologies has revealed that most ATMs can be hacked in under 20 minutes, and even less, in certain types of attacks.

Experts tested ATMs from NCR, Diebold Nixdorf, and GRGBanking, and detailed their findings in a 22-page report published this week. Experts said that 85 percent of the ATMs they tested allowed an attacker access to the network. The research team did this by either unplugging and tapping into Ethernet cables, or by spoofing wireless connections or devices to which the ATM usually connected to. zdnet.com

Cloud risk management explained: Just how secure are you?
Cloud risk management should therefore be linked to corporate governance and enterprise risk management. That means that the same principles should be applied. Corporate governance is a broad area describing the relationship between the shareholders and other stakeholders in the organization versus the senior management of the corporation. These stakeholders need to see that their interests are taken care of and that the management has a structure and a process to ensure that they execute the goals of the organization. This requires, among other things, transparency on costs and risks. (May need subscription to read full article) techtarget.com

Third-Party Data Breaches Rise To 61% In US

“Smile-to-Pay” facial recognition system now at 300 locations in China

Blockchain tech tracks turkeys

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U.S. Consumers Spend More, Care Less about ID Theft at Holidays: Report
15% Would Risk ID Theft for Good Cyber Monday Deals
U.S. consumers will spend an average of $846 each on gifts this holiday season, an increase of 14 percent from last year, according to data aggregator Experian in its Annual Holiday Shopping Survey. The company also found that across all demographics, nearly half (47 percent) of U.S. consumers will do most of their shopping online. Millennials lead the way in this category, with 55 percent reporting they will do most of their shopping online (22 percent say they will do most on a mobile device while 33 percent will use a PC).

Protecting their identities, however, is less of a priority than it used to be, according to the report. When asked to rate how concerned they are about having their identities stolen during holiday shopping, the percentage of people who reported absolutely no concern rose from 10 percent in 2017 to 17 percent this year. And those who were most concerned about ID theft fell from 35 percent to 27 percent. Nearly 15 percent of U.S. shoppers said they would willingly risk having their identities stolen in exchange for a good deal on Cyber Monday.

At the same time, however, nearly 80 percent said their bank should be doing more to protect them from ID theft. cnpexpo.com

Most retailers expect big sales gains during Cyber Monday 2018
Most retailers are optimistic about their chances of generating large online sales gains on Cyber Monday, according to a survey of more than 14,000 U.S. e-commerce companies by international shipping carrier DHL.

In fact, 52% of retailers expect their e-commerce sales to grow more than 21% during Cyber Monday compared with the Monday after Thanksgiving a year ago. That includes 23% of respondents that expect an increase of more than 40%. Just 22% said they expect no increase in Cyber Monday sales.

To help bolster their online sales, 27% said they will expand their information technology teams to support increased website traffic around Cyber Monday, and the same percentage plan to bring on more customer service staffers. 12% are increasing their mobile capabilities in some way. digitalcommerce360.com

New Guide Helps Businesses Effectively Handle PayPal Disputes, Claims & Chargebacks to Protect Profits
Chargeback Gurus, an industry leader in chargeback and fraud mitigation services, has released A Merchant’s Guide to PayPal Chargebacks. This guide helps businesses that process e-commerce and other card-not-present transactions—including the over 17 million who use PayPal for payments—better understand the risks and realities of chargebacks and how to handle them most effectively.

The guide covers PayPal transaction issues (disputes, claims and chargebacks), how to fight and win them, and what options merchants have to protect their business and profits. It also addresses five PayPal chargeback and fraud scams with actionable steps to help prevent them. prweb.com

Roundup: Home Depot grows online sales 28% in Q3

Walmart is about to overtake Apple in e-commerce

Retailers Team With Providers For eCommerce Payments’ Tear

Brands Are Doubling Down on eCommerce Heading into 2019, Finds Profitero/Kantar Consulting Benchmarking Survey

Customer Online Shopping Expectations Set by Top Retailers
 

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Athens, GA: Police arrest 3 people in ‘complex’ shoplifting scheme
Three people are behind bars in Athens after police say they stole thousands of dollars’ worth of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. Police say the three suspects organized a complex operation to steal items from multiple Walmart stores in Georgia. According to police, the group emptied out boxes that contained large items like crockpots and then, filled the boxes with DVDs. fox5atlanta.com

Berks County, PA: Pair facing charges of multiple retail thefts at CVS and Rite Aid
Police are charging a man and a woman with multiple retail theft incidents around Berks County. Shanece Clark, 28, of New York City and Omoudu Iwesi are facing charges of retail theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy. On Oct. 4, police investigated a retail theft at the CVS in Douglassville. Video surveillance showed a man and a woman taking over-the-counter medicine and putting it into a bag. They left the store through an emergency exit. According to the affidavit of probable cause, the total value of the medicine they took, which included Nexium, Zicam, Mucinex and Prisolec, was around $2,500.

In another incident, police responded to a report of retail theft at a Rite Aid in Exeter Township where a shelf of Mucinex cold medicine was missing. A male and a female were seen filling a black bag with merchandise and exiting the store through the emergency exit door. They stole 130 items and the known retail loss for the theft was over $3,000, according to the affidavit of probable cause. wfmz.com

St Augustine, FL: String of unsolved thefts at St. Augustine outlets
A string of thefts at the St. Augustine Premium Outlets has deputies looking for crooks and stores working to recover after losing thousands of dollars in merchandise just ahead of Black Friday. According to deputies, there have been 76 thefts at the St. Augustine Premium Outlets since the beginning of the year. An additional 22 thefts were reported at stores at the St. Augustine Outlets on Outlet Mall Boulevard. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office says sometimes it's just one person, but in some cases groups of thieves are working together to steal from the retail stores.

"They're walking in and stealing $1,000 or $2,000 worth of items, many times from the same shelf," said Chuck Mulligan with the Sheriff's Office. According to incident reports, one store at the outlet mall was targeted two times within a 48 hour time frame. Mulligan said some of the stores are being targeted because the front door makes for an easy getaway. "One you step out the door, you're in the parking lot. If you have a car waiting to pick you up when you exit, you're in the car driving out the parking lot," Mulligan said.

The National Retail Federation identifies the loss of merchandise as inventory shrinkage. The federation says inventory shrinkage is costing the U.S. retail industry billions of dollars each year. The federation also says 36-percent of retail shrinkage is the result of shoplifting. Unfortunately, the cost of retail shrinkage can get handed down to the consumer in some cases. "Anytime someone steals, it's truly stealing from all of us," Mulligan said. "In the end, it comes back to the consumer who is walking in to make a purchase." According to a the security firm FaceFirst, 60 percent of known shoplifters were detected entering two separate locations of the same retail chain. As for the merchandise that was recently stolen at the St. Augustine, authorities believe the thieves are likely to sell that merchandise online. news4jax.com

New Orleans, LA: Family Dollar Shoplifter Puts 17 Bottles Of Body Wash In His Pants, in just over a minute
On Tuesday, a man entered the Family Dollar on Caton Street and walked to the body wash/ soap isle. The man proceeded to conceal about 17 bottles of body wash inside of his baggy pants. He then casually walked past all points of sale and exited the location without paying for the merchandise. liveleak.com

Battle Creek, MI: Victoria’s Secret reports $1,400 theft of merchandise at Lakeview Square Mall

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The simplest things can always have the biggest impacts. From having a firm hand shake, turning off your cell, not chewing gum, shining your shoes, cleaning your briefcase, having multiple copies of your resumes, getting business cards from everyone you interview with, taking the water they offer, stopping by the facilities merely to clear your head, making direct eye contact, and making sure you wear a smile and you're upbeat with everyone you meet. These are the basics of every successful interview. And it seems that many great executives lose opportunities because they don't practice the basics.

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