Police are searching for a missing 12-year-old girl who is believed to be a victim of sex trafficking.

Myesha Lee, who also goes by “Nee Nee,” is a habitual runaway who frequents Madison Street in the areas near Central, Laramie and Kenton, according to an endangered missing person alert from Chicago Police. She also likes to use the wi-fi at the McDonald’s restaurant at Madison and LeClaire.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Myesha is described as a 5-foot, 110-pound black girl with black hair, brown eyes and medium brown complexion. She suffers from bipolar disorder and should be taking medication, police said.

Police believe she may be a victim of sex trafficking. Anyone with information should call the Area North Special Victims Unit at (312) 744-8266.

St. Louis County police are looking for a missing 26-year-old man. The Missouri State highway Patrol has issued a missing person advisory for Adam Meyer. His car was last seen in Waterloo, Illinois Monday morning.

Police say that Meyer’s 1999 Toyota Camry was last seen in the 400 block of Covington Drive. When they got to the scene at 8:45am his car was gone.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Investigators say Meyer was last contacted by cell phone on Sunday and has not been heard from since. He has made made previous suicidal threats.

Adam Meyer is described as white, male, age 26, height 5 feet 9 inches, 200 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, and fair complexion. His car is described as a black 1999 Toyota Camry with Missouri plate number KM9D1M.

Please call St. Louis County police if you have any information about Adam Meyer’s location, vehicle or associates. The Missouri Highway Patrol says you should call 911 to contact the nearest law enforcement agency or call police at 314-615-0162.

A bank staff had an unwelcome surprise while walking into work.

As employees arrived at the First State Financial Bank in Bell County, they discovered someone had broken in, reports WRIL radio.

The break-in appears to have happened over the weekend. Everyone is safe but the branch will remain closed today.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

All other branches of First State Financial in Pineville are open. There is no word on if anything was actually stolen.

E-mail Account Compromise (EAC) is a sophisticated scam that targets the general public and professionals associated with, but not limited to, financial and lending institutions, real estate companies, and law firms.

The EAC scam is very similar to the Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) scam, except that it targets individuals rather than businesses.¹

In EAC scams, criminal actors use social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to compromise the e-mail accounts of unsuspecting victims. In many cases, a criminal actor first gains access to a victim’s legitimate e-mail address for reconnaissance purposes. The criminal actor then creates a spoofed e-mail account that closely resembles the legitimate account, but is slightly altered by adding, changing, or deleting a character. The spoofed e-mail address is designed to mimic the legitimate e-mail in a way that is not readily apparent to the targeted individual. The criminal actor then uses either the victim’s legitimate e-mail or the spoofed e-mail address to initiate unauthorized wire transfers.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

In some cases, the funds from unauthorized wire transfers are directed to money mules² located in the United States. In other instances, wire transfers are directed to accounts of financial institutions outside of the United States. Victim reporting indicates criminal actors are starting to follow up on wire transfer requests by calling to confirm the transactions or to comply with wire transfer protocols, thus making the transaction appear more legitimate.

Other schemes seen in complaints filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and in additional information made known to the IC3 indicates EAC money mules may be victims of employment scams, romance scams, or personal loan scams. It is not known why a specific victim is identified to be targeted.

Between 04/01/2015 and 06/30/2015, 21 complaints related to the EAC scam were filed with the IC3, with reported losses of almost $700,000. The FBI has identified approximately $14 million in attempted losses associated with open FBI EAC investigations.

Examples of the EAC scam are listed below:

Financial/Brokerage Services –

• An individual’s e-mail account is compromised by a criminal actor. The criminal actor, who is posing as the victim, sends an e-mail to the victim’s financial institution or brokerage firm requesting a wire transfer to a person or account under the control of the criminal actor.
• An accounting firm’s e-mail account is compromised and used to request a wire transfer from a client’s bank, supposedly on behalf of the client.

Real Estate –

• A seller’s or buyer’s e-mail account is compromised through an EAC scam. The criminal actor intercepts transactions between the two parties and alters the instructions for the transfer of funds.
• A realtor’s e-mail address is used to contact an escrow company to redirect commission proceeds to a bank account associated with the criminal actor.
• A realtor receives a link within an e-mail from an unknown person who is requesting information related to property. When the realtor clicks on the link, the criminal actor is able to access the realtor’s e-mail account. The intrusion exposes client information, which the criminal actor then uses to e-mail the clients and attempt to change wire instructions for loan processing proceeds.

Legal –

• A criminal actor compromises an attorney’s e-mail account, which results in the exposure of client bank account numbers, e-mail addresses, signatures, and confidential information related to pending legal transactions.
• The attorney’s compromised e-mail account is used to send overlaid wire instructions to a client.
• A criminal actor compromises a client’s e-mail account and uses it to request wire transfers from trust fund and escrow accounts managed by the firm.

What to do if you believe you have been a victim of the EAC scam:

• Contact your financial institution immediately upon discovering the fraudulent transfer.
• Contact law enforcement.
• Request that your bank reach out to the financial institution where the fraudulent transfer was sent.
• File a complaint at www.IC3.gov, regardless of dollar loss. Provide any relevant information in your complaint and identify that your complaint pertains to the EAC scam.

Tips to protect yourself:

• Do not open e-mail messages or attachments from unknown individuals.
• Be cautious of clicking links within e-mails from unknown individuals.
• Be aware of small changes in e-mail addresses that mimic legitimate e-mail addresses.
• Question any changes to wire transfer instructions by contacting the associated parties through a known avenue.
• Have a dual step process in place for wire transfers. This can include verbal communication using a telephone number known by both parties.
• Know your customer. Be aware of your client’s typical wire transfer activity and question any variations.

This Public Service Announcement (PSA) is an update for the Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) PSA I-012215-PSA posted on www.IC3.gov and includes new information and updated statistical data as of August 2015.

Definition

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is defined as a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments. The scam is carried out by compromising legitimate business e-mail accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds.¹

Most victims report using wire transfers as a common method of transferring funds for business purposes; however, some victims report using checks as a common method of payment. The fraudsters will use the method most commonly associated with their victim’s normal business practices.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

Statistical Data

The BEC scam continues to grow and evolve and it targets businesses of all sizes. There has been a 270 percent increase in identified victims and exposed loss since January 2015. The scam has been reported in all 50 states and in 79 countries. Fraudulent transfers have been reported going to 72 countries; however, the majority of the transfers are going to Asian banks located within China and Hong Kong.

The following BEC statistics were reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center from October 2013 to August 2015:

These totals, combined with those identified by international law enforcement agencies during this same time period, bring the BEC exposed loss to over $1.2 billion.

Recent Trends

There has been an increase in the number of reported computer intrusions linked to BEC scams. These intrusions can initially be facilitated through a phishing scam in which a victim receives an e-mail from a seemingly legitimate source that contains a malicious link. The victim clicks on the link, and it downloads malware, allowing the actor(s) unfettered access to the victim’s data, including passwords or financial account information.

Three versions of the BEC scam were described in PSA I-012215-PSA. A fourth version of this scam has recently been identified, based on victim complaints. Victims report being contacted by fraudsters, who typically identify themselves as lawyers or representatives of law firms and claim to be handling confidential or time-sensitive matters. This contact may be made via either phone or e-mail. Victims may be pressured by the fraudster to act quickly or secretly in handling the transfer of funds. This type of BEC scam may occur at the end of the business day or work week or be timed to coincide with the close of business of international financial institutions.

Suggestions For Protection

Raised awareness of the BEC scam has helped businesses detect the scam before sending payments to the fraudsters. Some financial institutions reported holding their customer requests for international wire transfers for an additional period of time, to verify the legitimacy of the request.

Businesses reported using the following new measures for added protection:

• Create intrusion detection system rules that flag e-mails with extensions that are similar to company e-mail. For example, legitimate e-mail of abc_company.com would flag fraudulent e-mail of abc-company.com.
• Register all company domains that are slightly different than the actual company domain.
• Verify changes in vendor payment location by adding additional two-factor authentication such as having a secondary sign- off by company personnel.
• Confirm requests for transfers of funds. When using phone verification as part of the two-factor authentication, use previously known numbers, not the numbers provided in the e-mail request.
• Know the habits of your customers, including the details of, reasons behind, and amount of payments.
• Carefully scrutinize all e-mail requests for transfer of funds to determine if the requests are out of the ordinary.

Additional information is publicly available on the United States Department of Justice website www.justice.gov publication entitled “Best Practices for Victim Response and Reporting of Cyber Incidents”.

What to do if you are a victim

If funds are transferred to a fraudulent account, it is important to act quickly:

• Contact your financial institution immediately upon discovering the fraudulent transfer.
• Request that your financial institution contact the corresponding financial institution where the fraudulent transfer was sent.
• Contact your local Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office if the wire is recent. The FBI, working with the United States Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, might be able to help return or freeze the funds.
• File a complaint, regardless of dollar loss, with www.IC3.gov.

When contacting law enforcement or filing a complaint with IC3, it is important to identify your incident as “BEC” and also consider providing the following information:

• Originating business name
• Originating financial institution name and address
• Originating account number
• Beneficiary name
• Beneficiary financial institution name and address
• Beneficiary account number
• Correspondent bank if known or applicable
• Dates and amounts transferred
• IP and/or e-mail address of fraudulent e-mail

Detailed descriptions of BEC incidents should include but not be limited to the following when contacting law enforcement:

• Date and time of incidents
• Incorrectly formatted invoices or letterheads
• Requests for secrecy or immediate action
• Unusual timing, requests, or wording of the fraudulent phone calls or e-mails
• Phone numbers of the fraudulent phone calls
• Description of any phone contact, including frequency and timing of calls
• Foreign accents of the callers
• Poorly worded or grammatically incorrect e-mails
• Reports of any previous e-mail phishing activity

Kansas City police have asked for the public’s help finding a missing 27-year-old Kansas City woman and her 2-year-old daughter.

Nicole J. Nelson and her daughter Dajahnay J. Nelson last were seen about about 5:20 p.m. near 58th Street and Prospect Avenue after leaving their home near 32nd Street and Walrond Avenue.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Nelson, who has a traumatic brain injury that has left her with a mental capacity of a teenager, is described as a black woman, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds. She has her hair in corn rows and was wearing a cream shirt with black leggings.

Her toddler was described as 2 feet tall and about 30 pounds. Dajahnay possibly was wearing a pink shirt, jeans and pink jelly shoes.

Police ask anyone who has seen them to call the Homicide Unit at 816-234-5043 or the Missing Person Unit at 816-234-5136.