We have reported previously about Operation Hard Copy. This is from the US Department of Justice: The US Marshall’s Service arrested another member of the North Dakota lottery scam in Jamaica recently.
“United States Attorney Chris Myers announced today, that the U.S. Marshals Service, working with Jamaican law enforcement, has located and apprehended another man charged with participating in an international organized crime advance fee “lottery scam” which defrauded at least 90 mostly elderly U.S. residents out of more than $5.8 million.
“Federal fugitive Gregory Gooden was arrested earlier this week in Kingston, Jamaica. Gooden, a Jamaican national, is one of 15 defendants charged federally in an international wire/mail fraud and money laundering conspiracy investigation based in North Dakota, dubbed “Operation Hard Copy.” The investigation resulted in federal indictments throughout the United States. In North Dakota, more than 10 defendants have entered guilty pleas in related cases. One of Gooden’s former co-defendants, Sanjay Ashani Williams, was convicted following trial in North Dakota in 2015, and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for selling victim lead lists used in the lottery scam.
“Nine other defendants charged in the current case were arrested in Jamaica and have been extradited to the United States, where they await trial.”
If you want to review the original stories, they are linked below. The lottery scam uses social engineering and low tech items like post cards to swindle people out of their money. One way to protect yourself from this sort of crime is to know how it works so you recognize it when you see it.
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I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com