Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Despite being in the business of risk mitigation, insurance firms themselves are often subject to risk in the form of insurance crime.

Source: Supplied. Dr Jerry Chetty, manager of the Business Integrity Unit at Santam.

This is a notable increase from the previous year when fewer than 3,500 cases of fraudulent and dishonest claims to a value of R587.3m were uncovered. Statistics for insurance crime in the short-term insurance industry is not readily available.

The Insurance Crime Bureau estimated that the short-term insurance industry lost about R7bn in 2019 due to insurance crime namely 20% of the R35bn worth of claims paid out. As the risk landscape changes, insurers must keep up to date with developments in fraud risk-mitigation strategies if they are to reverse this process.

Through their research, South Africas largest short-term insurer, Santam, has pinpointed some of the areas in which insurers are facing challenges and how they can be combatted.

For example, the claimant may inflate a genuine claim and falsify certain details for financial gain. Claims processes, which have been implemented by insurers to speedily assist policyholders in claims settlement, are being exploited by criminal syndicates.

Some see submitting fraudulent and dishonest claims as a quick and uncomplicated way to help alleviate that pressure.

People filing dishonest or fraudulent claims often rationalise this fraudulent behaviour by tricking themselves into believing that filing fraudulent claims is a victimless crime as no-one gets hurt.

Attitude towards behaviour is related to the outcome and cost factor involved in continuing with a specific behaviour; subject norms are the views which peers or society have about the specific behaviour; and behaviour control refers to the ease or difficulty in continuing with the behaviour.

Theorical understanding is a useful component to include when developing an anti-fraud programme as it includes both transactional and behavioural aspects.

With that said, these crimes can be split into four broad categories, each with its unique characteristics:

One of the examples we uncovered at Santam was as follows. A policyholder claimed for items which were not stolen or which the policyholder did not own during a legitimate claim for a housebreaking incident. This was done so that the policyholder could receive a higher claims settlement amount.

Most correspondence is done by email and as soon as a field assessor is dispatched, the claim is often cancelled, and the claimant becomes unreachable.

Business-email compromise and ransomware attacks are prevalent to industries that are data dependent or that are regularly involved in processing payments.

An alert management system for the collection of both complainant and intelligence-driven information is a critical early-warning system in detecting insurance crime. Complainant-driven platforms include the various whistleblowing channels available for people to anonymously report suspicions of insurance crime.

There are various technology solutions which offer good early-detection capability in identifying patterns and behaviour. We have combined technology with sophisticated intelligence and analysis machinery that can help us detect emerging risks and neutralise them before they get out of hand.

Together, these solutions are able to track a change in behaviours from fraudsters which gives us the advantage of responding quickly. We have also learnt that low-value claims matter and should also be vigorously monitored. As we see with low-value claims where we send out field assessors, fraudsters follow the path of least resistance and when confronted with a robust defence are likely to abandon their plans.

Another way to discourage fraudulent claims is through the deterrence-letter theory. Research has found that the filing of fraudulent claims decreased when insurers advised policyholders about the negative impacts of insurance crime on society and the possible repercussions a person could face for filing inflated or false claims. Such initiatives are cost-effective methods for insurers to employ as part of their antif-raud programme.

Finally, by adequately training frontline staff, sharing information with fellow stakeholders in the industry, undertaking more research and conducting extensive consumer awareness, we can reverse the trajectory of these crimes.

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Claim fraud on the rise: insurance firms hard-hit - Bizcommunity.com

Police in California are investigating a Macys smash-and-grab robberySaturday morning after three suspects stole high-end watches before fleeing the scene.

The Walnut Creek Police Department (WCPD) outside San Francisco said three Black male adult suspects wearing hooded sweatshirts and masks entered the store located in the towns Broadway Plaza shopping center at approximately 10:48 a.m., when they began smashing jewelry display cases with hammers.

The suspects stole the valuables and fled the scene in a white four-door Honda sedan. The WCPD is still searching for the three men. No employees or shoppers were injured during the robbery.

WCPD PIO lieutenant Holley Connors said on Sunday that Macys was still inventorying the loss and estimated cost to repair the damages.

Macys did immediately responded to a request for comment.

The smash-and-grab occurred in the same mall where dozens of looters robbed a Nordstrom in late November last year. Between 50 and 80 looters entered the store just before 9 p.m. during last years incident when they grabbed merchandise and fled, police said. Bystander video showed thieves fleeing the scene and jumping into waiting cars with bags full of stolen merchandise just minutes after entering the store. The WCPD apprehended three suspects, including one carrying a firearm.

That Nordstrom had been a target of robberies earlier in 2021, forcing the store to team up with the WCPD to station a uniformed officer at the location.

Contra Costa County district attorney Diane Becton has instructed her own prosecutors to consider looters needs in theft cases.

As Becton and her team are seeking answers, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg hopes his new plan alongside the Manhattan Small Business Alliance will slow down similar robberies and crimes throughout the New York City borough.

The plan specifically targets repeat offenders, as 18 percent of people arrested for shoplifting comprised nearly half of all shoplifting arrests in Manhattan between 2015 and 2021.

The first phase of the initiative focuses on top retail theft repeat offenders in Manhattan, all of whom are charged with at least one felony, and have either failed to appear at a scheduled court date or have multiple open pending cases.

We cannot accept a system where individuals who shoplift again and again cycle in and out of jail, just to shoplift again. Our society cant function that wayit doesnt help our shop owners, and it doesnt help those individuals, D.A. Bragg said in a statement. At the Manhattan D.A.s Office, we follow the data, and the data shows a small number of individuals are driving the retail theft crisis facing our borough.

Bragg called for targeted interventions, tailored to individuals needs and challenges, combined with accountability to ensure engagement and compliance with programming that can end the cycle. He said this includes potential incarceration for those who repeatedly engage in commercial theft.

Senior leadership from the Manhattan D.A.s office and the New York Police Department (NYPD) will hold monthly meetings to analyze data and case outcomes for individuals with high rates of recidivism. The D.A.s crimes strategies unit is coordinating with the NYPD to ensure communication at the precinct level, allowing commanding officers to send the office information in real time.

The office is expanding resources dedicated to investigating retail theft and fencing operations,when criminals resell stolen merchandiseand says it will continue to convene retail security professionals, as well as small retailers, community members and the NYPD to build pattern cases and ultimately prosecute those most culpable for financing and facilitating fencing operations.

Small Business Alliance co-chair Ken Giddon, who is also president of Rothmans, a mens apparel retailer with multiple stores in New York City, said he was truly appreciative of Bragg and his teams work on this issue.

The task force was very effective in bringing the problem of shoplifting and violence against retail workers into focus. Too many people in public service believe it is a victimless crime that is covered by insurance, but in reality, it is a dangerous and debilitating situation, that tears at the very fabric of NYC, Giddon said in a statement. The D.A. has taken some crucial first steps here, and we look forward to working together to continue to make improvements. Thank you D.A. Bragg for bringing together so many different groups to push forward.

D.A. Bragg and the alliance will continue to advocate for the passage of S.8836, a pending New York State senate bill sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman, which would create penalties for online marketplaces and third-party sellers that foster the sale of stolen goods.

Creating these new penalties will push companies where stolen goods often end up, like Amazon or eBay, to take further steps to safeguard their platforms and allow law enforcement to target the ringleaders of these schemes. It will also create disincentivize sellers to put stolen goods up for sale online.

Retail theft crimes have negative and costly impacts on business owners and consumers alike, Hoylman said. I commend D.A. Bragg for bringing people together to develop strategies to hold accountable those who participate in these crimes, including focusing on repeat offenders, dismantling fencing operations, and getting services for those in need. This should make a positive difference for all of us.

Bragg also advocates for the passage of Senate/Assembly bill S8391/A10096, sponsored by New York State Sen. Kevin Thomas and Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, both Democrats, which aims to prevent crime by creating transparency and verification requirements on certain high-volume third-party sellers in the online marketplace. These requirements, which include providing names, contact information and business tax identification numbers, are designed to help ensure that consumers are purchasing from legitimate companies and not entities created to trick online shoppers.

Back on the West Coast, Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson revealed Thursday that his office is creating a statewide Organized Retail Crime Theft Task Force in response to the elevated theft rates.

The task force will focus on sophisticated, organized crime rings like the 13-member operation rounded up in Seattle in April, and will be the tenth such state task force in the U.S. The teams purpose is to improve coordination and collaboration among law enforcement agencies to address multi-jurisdictional crimes that can endanger retail employees and cause significant economic harm to the state.

Ferguson cited an analysis from the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), which estimates that Washington retailers lost $2.7 billion to organized retail crime in 2021. The office also cited federal crime statistics indicating that the value of items stolen from Washington retailers increased by 151 percent from 2019 to 2020.

The first task force meeting will be held on July 7. The attorney general has committed to convening quarterly meetings for at least one year.

Coordination is key to combatting this growing, and sometimes dangerous problem, Ferguson said. These organized crimes cross jurisdictions and cause significant economic harm. Im committed to working together with law enforcement and retail partners to put help combat this significant and growing problem.

The task force will bring together prosecutors and retailers from across the state with local, state and federal law enforcement representatives, including the FBI and U.S. federa attorneys Nick Brown and Vanessa Waldref. The task force will also include the Port of Seattle, small business representatives and workers representatives.

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Smash-and-Grab Hits Calif. Macy's; NY Plans to Target Repeat Offenders - Sourcing Journal

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to recruiting and directing two women to provide sexual services for hire.

The charge stemmed from a lengthy investigation by the Winnipeg Police Services counter-exploitation unit dubbed Project Bluff. Work that involved covert and undercover operations.

At a sentencing hearing for Ferosh Tailor, 34, late last month court heard he made contact with one of the women in June 2020 through a website called Only Fans where people can pay for images and videos from the owner of the account, and later recruited the second woman.

A rental property in Osborne Village was one of three apartments court heard was used by Tailor for what a Manitoba judge described during the sentencing on May 30, 2022, as a sophisticated, well thought-out operation.

An operation court heard involved recruiting and directing a 21-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman to provide massages and sexual services to clients through appointments Tailor would schedule before Winnipeg police arrested and charged him with multiple offences and seized around $42,000 from a safe in his home.

It was an unfair value for the work he did compared to what they had to do, Staff Sgt. Maria Koniuck told reporters Friday.

Tailor pleaded guilty to one count of material benefit from sexual services. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

That three years is very significant because you have an individual here who does not have a criminal record, Koniuck said.

In an agreed statement of facts, the Crown told court Tailor first started interacting with the 21-year-old on her Only Fans account.

Court heard he told the woman he had an opportunity for her and she agreed to the work.

The Crown told court Tailor started arranging appointments between the woman and clients that included massages and sexual services, excluding intercourse at three rental properties.

She would leave him a cut of her earnings in the apartments, which totalled $3000.

Court heard a second woman, a 19-year-old, started working for Tailor and agreed to split her income with him and that both women were fearful of Tailor.

We say that in the case of these two exploited individuals Mr. Tailor preyed on the complainants for his own profit, the Crown told court during sentencing.

We say this conduct is reprehensible and must be denounced which is why we say the three-year custodial sentence is appropriate.

Martin Glazer, Tailors lawyer, told the court his client believed he was helping the women and himself make money but is now ashamed and remorseful.

This was an illegal enterprise, Glazer told the judge. He went too far and for that decision hes going to pay a heavy price today and that price is a penitentiary sentence with all the safety risks.

Court heard Winnipeg police were granted warrants in the case to enter the apartments and observed Tailor picking up his cut of the money.

Officers also used money with pre-recorded serial numbers which were later found in Tailors safe.

Police said they want people to know officers are committed to protecting people from exploitation and perpetrators will be held accountable.

Ive seen where people who arent even in the sex trade are being asked to provide services, Koniuck said. Its happening to youth that are just walking down the street. Its not a victimless crime.

Police ask anyone with information or who wishes to speak to an investigator about crimes related to procuring sexual services or human trafficking to contact the counter exploitation unit at 204-986-3464 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.

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Human trafficking probe in Winnipeg nets three-year sentence | CTV News - CTV News Winnipeg

Courtesy Adam Pomeroy

There are three kinds of lies, the saying goes, lies, damned lies and statistics. Popularized by Mark Twain, this aphorism describes the persuasive power of statistics to bolster weak arguments even when the numbers are false, misleading or incomplete.

The Utah County Attorneys race has recently become mired in confusion as the incumbent, David Leavitt, uses misleading numbers and outrageous claims to muddy the waters.

Lets bring clarity to some of the issues.

Mr. Leavitt claims that disbanding the Special Victims Unit (SVU) has improved outcomes for victims and allowed 90% of prosecutors to become trained in these most complex of cases.

This is only true if one believes, as Mr. Leavitt apparently does, that attending a single conference qualifies a prosecutor to be an SVU attorney. Those versed in prosecutorial best practices would disagree.

If you have not tried multiple cases before a jury, if you have not second-chaired cases with a seasoned SVU prosecutor, if you have not attended extensive training on trauma-informed prosecution, if you have not done direct and cross-examination of expert witnesses, and if you have not been supervised while working with traumatized victims and children, then you are not ready to competently prosecute child molesters.

Mr. Leavitts underestimation of what it takes to be an SVU prosecutor seems to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of how serious these crimes are and how deeply they impact victims.

He argued to the SVU before he disbanded it that being molested by a family member is not as bad as being molested by a stranger. Prosecutors, victim advocates and law enforcement all know the opposite is true: being abused by someone close to you takes away not only your innocence but also impacts your ability to trust, love and feel loved.

He also made clear that he believes that child pornography is a victimless crime. In reality, a majority of children who have been recorded while being sexually abused feel that the recording impacts them differently than the abuse itself because the images are permanent.

For all his claims that he wants more jury trials, he told former SVU members that it would be better for a grandfather who molested his grandchild to resolve the matter with his LDS bishop rather than taking the case to trial and sending the defendant to prison. (See case no. 161403200)

Although Mr. Leavitt has offered a number of shifting reasons for disbanding the SVU, at the time he told me that he disbanded the unit because the attorneys on the SVU disagreed with these and other soft-on-sex-offender views he maintains.

Another problematic statistic is Mr. Leavitts claim that he has actually increased the number of cases he is prosecuting.

However, he has been unwilling to release any data supporting this claim despite GRAMA requests. Given the lack of transparency, it is difficult to credit his claims.

Thankfully the courts have been more forthcoming.

As reported in the news, per their data in 2021 Mr. Leavitt filed 45% fewer cases in the District Court (felony cases), while filing 79% more in the local Justice Court (lesser misdemeanor cases), when compared to the number of cases filed annually by his predecessor.

When Mr. Leavitt claims he is prosecuting more cases than ever, he fails to mention that he is treating serious felony cases as misdemeanors and that many resources like supervised probation and specialty courts are not available options when cases are reduced and sent to Justice Court.

In short, the numbers he provides paint a misleading picture.

Here are a few numbers to help balance the picture:

Mr. Leavitt claims that the criminal justice system is the biggest threat to American freedom that weve seen in a generation and Im the biggest threat to the criminal justice system bureaucracy. By his logic, any criticism of his progressive policies is simply proof to him that he is right.

It seems more likely that Mr. Leavitt is tilting at windmills, imagining them to be giants so he can cast himself as a white knight, riding in to save the day.

Mr. Leavitt is not the victim of a system out to get him. Rather, he is the victim of his own hubris.

Perhaps Mr. Leavitt should take the time to consider two additional statistics:

Hopefully, Utah County voters will realize what liberal San Francisco voters have: Progressive, rogue prosecutors like Mr. Leavitt undermine community safety and real criminal justice.

Adam Pomeroy is a deputy county attorney in the Utah County Attorneys Office. Adam was a candidate for county attorney through the Republican nominating convention; he has since withdrawn from the race to consolidate efforts against the incumbent.

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Guest opinion: Clarity amid confusion in the county attorney's race - Daily Herald

Unemployed Joshua Lear, 28, of Sutton Hill, submitted 15 false Self-Assessment tax repayment claims to HM Revenue and Customs between 2015 and 2021 in an attempt to steal 71,623 from the taxpayer.

To make his claims appear legitimate Lear made up figures for construction jobs he didnt do and used other peoples National Insurance details when completing the online Self-Assessment forms.

Lear received 6,094.83. His other nine claims were blocked by HMRC.

He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on June 17 having pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud and one count of money laundering in April.

Kieran Causer, 29, from Bishopdale, helped Lear transfer the stolen money into a personal bank account as the pair attempted to launder the stolen money.

He pleaded guilty to money laundering at Birmingham Crown Court in April and was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, on June 17.

A spokesman for the HMRC said: Tax fraud is not a victimless crime and we will continue to pursue the small minority of individuals who commit these crimes. We urge anyone with information about tax evasion to report it to HMRC online.

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Fraudster jailed after trying to scam taxpayer out of 70000 with bogus claims - Shropshire Star

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Ryan Knutzen: Hey, it's Ryan. One of the hosts of The Journal. In our feed today, we're bringing you a new series. It's about hacking. Our colleague, Bob McMillan, is going to tell this story. He knows a lot about hacking. He's been reporting on it for almost two decades. Pretty much anytime there's a major hack, whether it's of Twitter, a hospital, or the US government, we call Bob and asked him to explain it to us. A few months ago, Bob reached out to us and said he had a story he wanted to tell for the podcast. A story that Bob says is key to understanding how Russia produced a generation of cyber criminals. It's the story of one Russian hacker. Here's Bob.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy Smilianets has had a long career.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I had to hustle. I sold unlicensed software. Then, I was building and managing a website for large factory. They were building equipment for producing milk, yogurts and stuff. So I was building a website for them.

Bob McMillan: Okay. You left one thing off your resume though.

Dmitriy Smilianets: Right. That was being manager of the largest hacking group ever prosecuted in the United States.

Bob McMillan: I've written about Russian hackers for years, but Dmitriy is the first one that I met in person. In the early 2000s, he led a team that broke into companies across America. They spend a year quietly pulling off what is still one of the biggest hacks in US history, which caught the attention of the government. Here's a federal prosecutor talking about Dmitriy's crew.

Speaker 4: They would probe, and test, and penetrate, until they would actually get in. And once they got in, they would use custom designed malware, malicious computer programs, that were their unique burglary tools to gain access to different parts of a company's networks.

Bob McMillan: I'll told the feds say that Dmitriy's gang cost its victims more than $300 million dollars in damages.

Speaker 5: And the good news is, it wasn't passed on to the consumer. The bad news is, in the end, it always is, because the companies have to make up that loss somewhere.

Bob McMillan: I knew of Dmitriy's work before I knew his name. But where I found Dmitriy, well, it wasn't where I expected. He wasn't in some bunker in Moscow or a maximum security prison. He was living in a gated community in New Jersey.

Speaker 6: Good morning. Where are you guys heading?

Speaker 7: We're here to see Dmitriy Smilianets.

Bob McMillan: With an immaculate lawn. Yeah. With a big American flag on it. That's it. And a dog. Dmitriy comes out to meet me. Dmitriy. He's wearing sweatpants, and has a bodybuilder's physique. Although he looks tough, he's warm and welcoming. We walk around his home, which, by my count, has six American flags.Okay. So you got your classic backyard setup here.

Dmitriy Smilianets: Yeah. A classic American dream backyard, with barbecue, with fire pit, with a table where we can sit together as a family after I grilled some meat.

Bob McMillan: And I even got to meet his parrot.

Dmitriy Smilianets: His name is Jerome. One night, he landed on my desk, and destroyed my keyboard. He picked all the keys. So I'm (inaudible) post no fly zone, and he's restricted to his cage right now.

Bob McMillan: How Dmitriy ended up here, is the story of how Russia became a criminal hacking superpower. How teenagers schooled in a collapsing empire, went from piloting video games, to stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. And how a cat and mouse game that stretched across continents, would end up with Dmitriy, here in New Jersey, living a double life. From The Journal, this is Hack Me If You Can, the story of a Russian cyber criminal who went to the other side. I'm Bob McMillan. Coming up, part one. The making of a Russian hacker. In the early 90s, when Dmitriy was eight years old, two very important things happened. Computers became widely available, and the Soviet Union collapsed.

Speaker 8: In Moscow, the hammer and sickle is lured for the last time. And an era comes to an end.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy was an only child living in Moscow, and he remembers the violence and the upheaval rot by the breakup of the USSR.

Speaker 9: Mingling with the rush hour traffic, Red Army armored personnel carriers on the streets of Moscow this morning, heading to the Kremlin.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I remember tanks shooting at the parliament building. I remember people with guns, running on the streets shooting. I remember chaos. I remember there was no law. I was raised in a vacuum of the law. Russia, there was a wind of change. They knew Russia is not the Russia we see today. That Russia was freedom. It was unlimited freedom.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy's going to tell most of this story, but I've spoken to a lot of people about it. I've examined documents and video evidence to confirm it. To piece together the details, I've also talked to his friends, associates, even the people who would later investigate him. And I swapped emails with his dad, a former criminal investigator with the Moscow police. When Dmitriy was growing up, his mom was a school teacher. She wanted him to join the FSB, which was Russia's security agency. Dmitriy had other ideas.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I saw my father was in government, and I saw him coming with a lot of cases, with a lot of documents. Investigations, right? But I didn't see him bringing a lot of bags, fruits, juice, candies. So he worked a lot, but there was not enough results for us to see the value in his work.

Bob McMillan: So you felt he was underpaid?

Speaker 12: Absolutely.

Bob McMillan: Yeah.

Dmitriy Smilianets: And I was like, "I don't want to be that guy."

Bob McMillan: What did you want to be when you grew up, at that age?

Dmitriy Smilianets: I knew that computers industry will grow. And I knew it, I will be very close tied to the computers.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy new computers would be the future. So he started learning everything he could about them. He got his first one in fifth grade. And by the age of 13, he says he was selling counterfeit software at a Moscow flea market. He was part of an emerging generation of young hackers in the late 90s in Russia. Their Bible, a magazine called Hacker. You can still buy copies of it today. I went and dug out the first edition. And on the outside, it looks like a kid's comic with cartoon characters on the cover. But the articles inside reveal it to be a very practical guide to becoming a criminal hacker. You can get tips on how to hack computers, how to hack answering machines, even how to steal credit card numbers. It was this magazine that taught Dmitriy about counterfeit software, and how to carry out his first hack, which helped him access something he couldn't afford. The internet.

Dmitriy Smilianets: Internet was extremely expensive in Russian. It was $10 for one hour. I had to collect money, save money, to buy one hour, then use it. And I was like, "How can I stay longer?"

Bob McMillan: An article Dmitriy read in Hacker Magazine, explained how to steal people's internet passwords. At first, he says he and a friend stole them from other internet users. But soon, his victims noticed that their bills were going up a lot.So you had used some passwords that were but were a consumer, but then they would stop working after a while.

Dmitriy Smilianets: Yeah, because they also had to pay for this super expensive-

Bob McMillan: You would get a bill-

Dmitriy Smilianets: ... I drained their accounts very fast. Right. So-

Bob McMillan: ... So what, how many hours are you on the internet with this, at $10 an hour with these consumer passwords?

Dmitriy Smilianets: I don't remember, but enough.

Bob McMillan: And then, one day, Dmitriy was with his friend, when his friend got a call.

Dmitriy Smilianets: So he said, "Hello." And it's like, "Excuse me. You've been using my account for a while, and you drained my account. Please don't do it ever again or I will go to the police. And we're like, "Oh, shit. How did they discover my phone number? So we've had to stop.

Bob McMillan: How old were you when you did this?

Dmitriy Smilianets: I was like 12, 13.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy may have dabbled in hacks like this, but he wanted a legitimate job in computer science. At 18, he signed up for a degree at a prestigious university in Moscow.What did you think about your prospects, looking at your dad who clearly wasn't being paid what he was worth. What did you think your prospects were for your future then?

Dmitriy Smilianets: They changed. So I was very excited when I started going to college, I picked the most promising specialty. Information security. Information assurance. But getting closer to graduation, I saw no future for myself. I wasn't given opportunity. I wasn't given interviews with my future employers. That never happened.

Bob McMillan: Then, in his third year of college, Dmitriy's future was decided very suddenly.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I had a very good friend. We went to celebrate something. We both got drunk. I already had driver license. He was younger. He did not have a driver license, but he had a very expensive car. So he said, "Dmitriy, we have better chances with you driving, because we both are drunk. It was very slippery. It was raining. And it was very sharp turn. I overestimated my skills. So we got thrown out of the road, and I hit the concrete pole.

Bob McMillan: They both survived. But the car, a Mercedes E-Class worth about $50,000, was totaled. And Dmitriy says he was on the hook for it.What was your plan to pay back the money?

Dmitriy Smilianets: There was no plan.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy didn't have tens of thousands of dollars lying around, and neither did his parents. So he got in touch with some friends he'd made online.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I was just given an advice that there is a place in internet that you could go and discover, and find ways to make a lot of money, very fast. It was website called Carderplanet.

Bob McMillan: Imagine an online marketplace like eBay, except this isn't where you come to buy an antique. This is Carderplanet, a marketplace for stolen credit cards, with thousands of users.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I went there. I studied it. I read every single post. Sometimes I have to reread to comprehend. But in a week, I became very knowledgeable in cybercrime. I knew what was carding, credit card fraud. I knew where to find data. I knew who's selling it. I knew what people do with this data.

Bob McMillan: What Dmitriy had stumbled across was carding, as in stealing credit cards. And it works like this. That black strip on the back of your credit card contains a digital version of your credit card number, along with the expiration date and a security code. That's what the hackers want to steal. Once they have it, they can make a counterfeit of your card and ship it to associates, who then use that counterfeit to empty ATMs and buy products that they sell online. Dmitriy knew he wanted in, but he wasn't sure what his role would be in this criminal operation.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I only had to find a place for myself in this ecosystem, because I wasn't a great hacker. So I found a place as a middleman, between the guy who gets data, and the guys who are using this data. And I became very successful at that.

Bob McMillan: Hackers can't do everything on their own. So when they get good, they work in teams. Dmitriy joined one as a deal maker. His role was to sell the card data they stole. And like a lot of people in sales, he still remembers his first deal.

Dmitriy Smilianets: My first deal, I remember I received $190. And 140 of them, I had to pay for the data to my vendor. So I have $50 and this $50, I also have to receive them somehow. So I hired the person to do this and I split my 50 bucks with him first. That was my first deal.

Bob McMillan: By the time Dmitriy had paid the guy who sold him the data, and the guy who picked up his cash, Dmitriy says he made about 25 bucks from that first deal. That doesn't sound great. But what the sale actually gave him, was something far more valuable. A good reputation.

Dmitriy Smilianets: He left a positive review, and I started getting two, three, deals a day. There were small. But together, they meant something. And I felt a difference.

Bob McMillan: Within months, Dmitriy says he went from $25 deals, to sales worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Dmitriy Smilianets: In a month, I paid my debt. I paid my debt for the Mercedes. And then, in the second month, I bought myself an Audi.

Bob McMillan: That's pretty good.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I go to the restaurant, buy clothes I wanted, and I have money. I have cash to afford all my dreams. So it was great in the moment. And then, I was upset because it's too easy. I had that feeling that everything is affordable right now, and I need to set maybe bigger goals. I got hooked. I couldn't stop.

Bob McMillan: If the car accident hadn't have happened, would you have gone into cybercrime?

Dmitriy Smilianets: Never. I would never join cybercrime. I had to do it. I had to find this money. I had to find $50,000. I know it sounds like I'm making an excuse for my actions, but for a 20 year old boy getting into this situation, and I could have started selling drugs. I could have started doing something even worse. I think I got lucky that I got involved just in cybercrime.

Bob McMillan: But this was just the beginning, because Dmitriy would go on to become a carding king, and lead a team that would pull off one of the biggest acts in US history. That's next.2003 was a big year for Dmitriy. He was halfway through college, and he had met the woman he would go on to marry. And he had even tried working a legitimate job, running a website for a company called Momash, that made, of all things, cow milking machines. But Dmitriy never stopped hacking. Over the next few years, he made big money on Carderplanet. Much more than a legit job would ever pay. After he graduated from college in 2006, Dmitriy told his family and his girlfriend that he was making money from web development in real estate work. But really, he was hacking full time. It was illegal, but Dmitriy and the other users of Carderplanet, weren't worried about the law or their victims. Dmitriy read an article in Hacker Magazine, which explained that stealing American credit card details didn't actually hurt anyone. Nearly 20 years later, he still remembers what it said.

Dmitriy Smilianets: Carding is not a crime. It's a victimless action. There is no guilt, because even if the money were stolen from a card holder, the bank will replenish the money. The insurance will cover losses for the bank. The treasury will print more cash and cover insurance. So at the end, as I was explained and told, there is no victim.

Bob McMillan: So you believed that.

Dmitriy Smilianets: I wanted to believe that, because I already saw how profitable this is. So I just needed justification. And that came right in place.

Bob McMillan: What would your dad have said about that?

Dmitriy Smilianets: Oh, if I ever shared with him what I was doing, he'd probably smack me first, and then explained me that I'm going to jail for these actions. He never knew.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy wasn't worried about being arrested in Russia. He was hacking companies outside the country, and Russia didn't extradite, which meant that Russia's hacking into US networks were almost never arrested. So hackers like Dmitriy were able to hone their skills on Carderplanet, all in relative security.

Dmitriy Smilianets: We were pioneers, and we shared real stories right there on the forums. Sometimes with photos. Sometimes people didn't even hide their true identity. We thought we are very close family. Three, 4,000 people knew each other. We did not expect that someone is watching us, especially not in Russian, Ukraine. The cybercrime did not exist. So it was very trusted in close community.

Bob McMillan: This meant that Dmitriy and the hackers on Carderplanet had the time to get good. Really good. And in Dmitriy's case, time to build a great hacking team. First, he needed an exceptionally talented hacker. And after a few months on Carderplanet, he discovered one of the best. Who is Vladimir Drinkman?

Dmitriy Smilianets: Mr. Drinkman is the most gifted hacker in the world. Super gifted. His way of thinking about networks, his way of seeing things is different than what I have. We immediately became friends in real life, spending time together. At some point, we even lived together. We just liked to hang out together, spend as much time as we could together.

Bob McMillan: And what would you talk about?

Dmitriy Smilianets: Everything? Girls, life, business, appliances in the house, cars, new technology things.

Bob McMillan: Dmitriy saw in Drinkman, the deep technical skills that he lacked. And Drinkman, well, he saw something in Dmitriy too.

Dmitriy Smilianets: He saw potential, and he needed a person to handle all this, because it's impossible to focus on hacking and monetizing at the same time. You need to split your day, split your way of thinking. And it was easier to find another person to move data. And that was me.

Bob McMillan: So you were complimentary in your skills, basically.

Dmitriy Smilianets: That's correct.

Bob McMillan: They decided to work together. Drinkman would find new and innovative ways to steal data, and Dmitriy would make the money.

Dmitriy Smilianets: So at first, it was me and him. Then, it grew up to a bigger, larger group, because he needed more people for very specific tasks.

Bob McMillan: Tasks, such as?

Dmitriy Smilianets: Someone is hacking into, someone is literally moving through the network. Someone is harvesting the data. Someone is supplying bulletproof servers. Someone is monetizing the data. So everyone has a very specific role. It's like Ocean's Eleven. You can imagine.

Bob McMillan: The roles went like this. Dmitriy was the CEO. He would do the deals, and sell the credit card dumps. Drinkman was effectively chief technology officer. He was responsible for breaking into networks, and moving within them, searching for the places to hide and pull the data out. He was assisted by a man called Alexander Kalinin. Let's call him head of business development. Then, there was Roman Kotov, who was really the chief data officer, a master at mining networks to steal data. And the final member of the team, was Mikel Ritikov. He was responsible for building a bulletproof server. That server, it was hidden in a rundown shack in Ukraine, that was filled with debris. There was a secret button on the floor of one of the shack's junk filled rooms. If you pushed it, the floor would drop, revealing an underground bunker.This is where Dmitriy's team hid everything they stole. There's a video of that bunker, and it's totally bonkers. It shows a secret stairway you walk down to get into the room itself. You open a door, and bam, there's a room stacked with blinking server towers, cooling fans. The hum is overwhelming. And tucked away in the corner, there's Ritikov's desk. The man responsible for keeping the bulletproof servers running. I was pretty impressed with the team's security. It's not every day you see a server hidden in a bunker. But when I asked Dmitriy about that video, he had a different take.

Dmitriy Smilianets: But did you look at his desk?

Bob McMillan: No.

Dmitriy Smilianets: You should revisit that video.

Bob McMillan: Yeah.

Dmitriy Smilianets: His desk is a mess. And when I saw that desk, I messaged the guys like, "Bro, you disappoint me with this. Why is that?" And he never replied.

Bob McMillan: You keep a tidy desk.

Dmitriy Smilianets: Yes. I feel like if your desk is organized, your mind is organized.

Bob McMillan: Ritikov's lawyer says his client denies any wrongdoing. Dmitriy's all star team of hackers had big targets. They were going to focus on hacking the computer networks of retailers and financial companies, because they held millions of payment card details. Many of the companies were American, and they were unprepared for the matchup against Dmitriy's crack team. This was in the early 2000s, when the huge threat posed by hackers was only just starting to be understood. And investing in cybersecurity, well, that was expensive. Dmitriy's team went on to hack a lot of companies. Companies like 7-Eleven, JetBlue, and Dow Jones, the company I work for, which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

Dmitriy Smilianets: We only were paying attention to financial crimes, because we knew how to monetize those crimes. With this knowledge, expertise, and skill, we could do anything. If there was an order to look at the dark side of the moon, we would get that.

Bob McMillan: Were you consider yourself to be the best hacking team in the world, then?

Dmitriy Smilianets: Yes.

Bob McMillan: These hacks made Dmitriy a lot of money. And what does a 20 something do with that kind of money? He spends it.

Dmitriy Smilianets: We are young. We don't care about money. We spend them. Fancy cars, renting boats, spending on luxury alcohol. The money flew away very quickly.

Bob McMillan: He hung out a lot with Drinkman, his best friend and partner in crime. When they weren't hacking, they liked to party.

Dmitriy Smilianets: We went to Sochi a lot, many times. Nightclubs, of course. All the top clubs in Moscow.

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Hack Me If You Can, Part 1: The Making of a Russian Hacker - The Journal. - WSJ Podcasts - The Wall Street Journal

Prostitution

Prostitution is a crime of moral turpitude that involves the buying or selling of sex for profit. Prostitution includes soliciting for sexual acts and compelling another to complete sexual acts for money. This criminal act is punishable in most states by jail time. The focus of criminal law has increasingly thought of prostitution as not respectable, illegal and immoral.

Bigamy is a crime against morality that involves a married person marrying a second person while still being married to the first person. This is considered to be a crime against morality because it is considered to be harmful to the family - even if the current spouse agrees to it. Bigamy in most states is considered to be punishable by jail time.

An example of bigamy would be if a man and woman got married. Then, a year later, the husband decides to go out and marry a second woman while still being married to the first wife. This is considered to be a crime because he was still married to the first woman. The only way this would not be a crime is if the first wife had died.

Pornography is sex-related material designed to sexually arouse the person looking at it. These materials can be movies, pictures or magazines. Not all types of pornography are illegal, and in fact, many forms of it are protected by our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Pornography loses this protection when it becomes obscene or child-related. Possession, creation or sale of pornography that is obscene or child-related is a crime against morality.

Criminal pornography that is obscene lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. This definition may vary state-to-state because what some citizens in California may consider obscene or not obscene may not be the same as what citizens in Iowa think. Therefore, the laws may vary.

Child-related pornography is any photograph, film or computer-generated image that shows a minor, or someone under the age of 18, engaged in sexually explicit conduct. These laws do not vary state-to-state and are very strict. The crimes against morality of obscene or child-related pornography are punishable with a prison sanction.

Illegal gambling is defined as pool-setting, bookmaking and various other illegal slot machines and lotteries. Illegal gambling is a crime against morality. It is considered a crime against morality because in recent years the law has come to be regarded as having the job of improving the quality of life for citizens and, in some cases, protecting them against themselves. Among other things, illegal gambling has been viewed as destroying families.

Illegal drugs are substances that have been deemed illegal by the federal government due to their lack of medicinal value. Illegal drugs are considered a crime against morality due to the potential harm to the user and his family. Additionally, certain drugs are legal due to medicinal value, but it is illegal to possess them without a prescription from a doctor. These drugs are not only considered a crime against morality due to the effects previously stated but also because they tend to go hand-in-hand with higher crime rates.

Crimes against morality are a category of crime that is considered victimless because there is no specific victim, especially when they are committed against consenting adults. These crimes are considered illegal mainly due to the offense of the moralities of the general public. The different types of crimes against morality include:

Most types of crimes against morality involve a prison sanction as a punishment to the offender.

When you complete the lesson, you should be able to do the following:

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Crimes Against Morality: Definition & Examples - Study.com

Twice as many shoplifting offences were solved after police set up the UKs first specialist unit to catch prolific thieves.

Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, has hailed the initiative as a potential model for tackling one of the most common but least prosecuted crimes amid fears the cost of living crisis could spark a surge in shoplifting.

It follows complaints from shops and retail chiefs that forces have been ignoring low level crimes like shoplifting, leading stores to give up on reporting the crimes to police due to a loss of confidence that they will investigate them.

The retail crime unit of nine officers led by a sergeant has been set up by Sussex police and is thought to be the first in the country where they are dedicated solely to investigating shoplifting and building a database of prolific offenders to link crimes.

They have created a computer hotline so retailers can file their theft reports instantaneously at the press of a button rather than spending 30 minutes passing on details over the phone.

The team build their cases with evidence including CCTV footage, witnesses and forensic analysis before passing it to frontline response or neighbourhood police officers to arrest and prosecute offenders.

Some 2,100 shoplifting offences in the past six months have been judged to have sufficient leads to merit a full investigation. As a result, the proportion solved has risen from 27 per cent to 53 per cent for response teams and from 21 per cent to 61 per cent for neighbourhood policing teams.

It follows a letter by Mr Malthouse in September 2020 to every chief constable ordering them to stop effectively decriminalising thefts under 200 and that they can and should prosecute thieves who steal small value items.

Mr Malthouse told The Telegraph: Shoplifting is far from being a victimless crime. It can seriously damage our small businesses, and the thuggery that often comes with it can have a profound impact on victims as well as the wider community.

We are working to outsmart these petty criminals, and it is local initiatives like this one by Sussex Police which, alongside our world-beating GPS tagging of offenders, are key to making our streets safer.

The initiative was set up by Sussex police chiefs and Katy Bourne, the forces police and crime commissioner and national lead for business crime, after discovering retailers were only bothering to report as little as eight per cent of offences because of a loss of confidence in investigators.

I dont like shoplifting being called a low-level crime. It is not, said Ms Bourne. The shoplifter today can become the organised crime boss of the future. We must not overlook these high volume crimes. It is about building back trust in the police and making sure people report crimes in the future.

Chris Neilson, Sussex Polices lead on business crime, said consultations with retailers found they felt the force did not take shoplifting seriously and that it was difficult for them to report crime.

By creating a specialist unit, it meant officers were dedicated to tackling shoplifting without being distracted by other tasks. They develop their skills and knowledge around specifically being able to speak and liaise with whoever they need in the business communities, said Mr Neilson.

They have the connectivity into individual CCTV control rooms, the managers in the local stores. They build relationships and that then builds confidence. It also increases our capability to identify offenders. We focus on the prolific thieves committing the most offences and harm.

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Britain's first police shoplifting squad catches twice as many thieves - The Telegraph

I have to remind (you) that drug abuse is a victimless crime

"To conduct rehabilitation, of course there is a condition (issued by) the integrated assessment team. There are seven ministries and institutions that collectively determine whether (a case) is (goes as proceedings) as per criminal justice system process or (offer) rehabilitation (instead)," the head of the National Narcotics Agency, Petrus Reinhard Golose, said in a statement at the agency's office in North Jakarta on Thursday.

The seven ministries and institutions involved in the integrated assessment team are the National Narcotics Agency, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Social Affairs Ministry, the Attorney General's Office, police force, and the Supreme Court.

Golose stated that rehabilitation for narcotics users must include proper supervision, because drug abuse was a victimless crime, as it leaves no victim other than the user.

"I have to remind (you) that drug abuse is a victimless crime. (The user) is a victim, (the user) is also the perpetrator. For (the drug lords) and dealers, there is no tolerance," he remarked.

Golose also said that the Government and the agency shared the same concerns regarding the revision of the Law on Narcotics, that was to reduce the number of inmates which have exceeded the capacity of correctional institutions.

Should all criminals be gathered in one place --be it petty crimes, corruption, terrorism, and more-- they would all still be outnumbered by the amount of perpetrators of drug-related crimes, he pointed out.

"Currently, In correctional facilities, (they make up) more than 70 percent in large areas, urban areas. (In case of) small areas, 50 percent of (incarcerated were made up of) perpetrators of narcotics crimes," he said.

Related news: BNN, Customs bust drug smuggling rackets in Medan, DenpasarRelated news: Yogyakarta BNN expands community-based intervention team formationRelated news: Central Java BNN thwarts shipping of 50 kilograms of marijuana

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Integrated assessment team to be involved in Narcotics Law revision - ANTARA English

Black manhood is envisioned as a delicate garden full of blossoms and wilts in Donja R. Loves compelling new play Soft, receiving its world premiere at MCC Theater in Manhattan.

Adam Riggs classroom set, encircled by vibrant flowers and audience members, lulls you into a sense of tranquillity before the clang of prison bars announces the start of the play, which takes place in a youth correctional facilitys English class. Despite the distress at the heart of these young mens circumstances, Love convincingly offers a sense of hope, showing how outside encouragement and a commitment to self-improvement are crucial to their liberation.

A phenomenally grounded Biko Eisen-Martin as Mr. Isaiah, the facilitys English teacher, helps the Whitney White-directed production skirt the trope of the saintly educator who brings out the best in his pupils. With sparse sentimentality but firm understanding, his performance creates space for Loves larger themes of redemption in a system set up to keep young Black men locked away.

As the play begins, Isaiah, conveying hes not much older than his late teen students through daps and earnest hype-manning, is impressed by their recent essays on Othello, particularly Kevins (Shakur Tolliver) observation that the abuse and isolation felt by Shakespeares tragic moor are not so different from the circumstances that landed them inside here.

Some, like hotheaded Bashir (Travis Raeburn) and the extravagantly queer Dee (Essence Lotus), maintain that their crimes were victimless borne out of a necessity to survive. Others, like the easygoing crack dealer Jamal (a fantastic Dario Vazquez), have no such illusions. Eddie (Ed Ventura, in the productions most physical role), meanwhile, is simply happy to be away from his abusive home.

Isaiahs own past includes a brush with the law, as he is somewhat threateningly reminded by his boss, Mr. Cartwright (Leon Addison Brown): Were all where we are because of somebodys good graces. If the students must turn to Isaiah for approval and mercy, the teacher himself is resigned to Cartwrights godlike status within the facility, his voice periodically issuing commandments through speakers.

Caught in the double bind of toxic masculinity and a racist revolving-door carceral system, where does the buck stop? When one student escapes through suicide, his close friend (or was he more?) Antoine, played by a simmering Dharon Jones, opts out of the bind by refusing to speak. Heavy with guilt, Isaiah tries to have his students verbalize their discontent, resulting in (sometimes contrived) arguments, and physical fights incredibly choreographed by UnkleDaves Fight-House.

Instructed by Loves script to feature no onstage crying, the production finds instead catharsis through Whites direction, attentive to the characters physicality and complex relationships to one another. Qween Jeans costumes cleverly locate a chic aesthetic somewhere between orange jumpsuits and athleisure. (How the flamboyant Dee cuts up and alters his outfits is a charming nod to queer creativity).

All is in service to Loves belief that hope springs eternal, if not here, then in our next lives, as graciously evoked by Riggs simple, almost schoolyard-like set and Mauricio Escamillas harp-heavy original music during an ethereal coda. In earlier plays like Sugar in Our Wounds and one in two, Love has demonstrated an admirable commitment to thoughtfully depict Black queerness in all its forms. The new work broadens the canvas, reminding us (in the words of Tennessee Williams) that we are all children in a vast kindergarten, trying to spell Gods name with the wrong alphabet blocks.

Love doesnt lean on such grandiose statements here, but he powerfully conveys a paradoxical modern malaise a sense of unsupervised supervision, where it feels were both left to our own devices and under someones watchful eye. His Soft is a lovely encouragement to let our guards down, and leave the hardness to our hardships themselves.

SoftThrough June 26 at MCC Theater, Manhattan; mcctheater.org. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

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Soft Review: Young Black Men, Gently Pointed Toward Liberation - The New York Times