ZeroHour

Search: “wire fraud”

5 stories in the last 3d

Suspected Black Axe gang leaders face cybercrime charges in the US

Five alleged Black Axe leaders extradited from South Africa to the US face wire fraud and money laundering charges over romance scams.

Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Osagiede, Osariemen Clement, Collins Otughwor, and Musa Mudashiru were extradited to the US on September 11, 2026, accused of running advance-fee and romance scams from Cape Town between 2011 and 2021. Victims were deceived via dating sites, aliases, and VoIP numbers, and coerced with threats to publish sensitive photos. The case follows Operation Jackal IV, which arrested 58 people across 22 countries; Black Axe is estimated to have 30,000 registered members.

BleepingComputer · 1d agoPolicy & legal

Members of ‘Black Axe’ cybercriminal group extradited from South Africa

Five Black Axe members extradited from South Africa face US wire fraud and money laundering charges over romance scams defrauding more than 100 victims.

Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, Osariemen Eric Clement, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor and Musa Mudashiru, leaders of Black Axe's Cape Town branch, were extradited September 11 and appear before a federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey under a 2021 indictment. They ran romance scams from 2011 to 2021 that stole thousands of dollars from over 100 people, threatening to leak sensitive photos and laundering proceeds through South African companies; some funds also traced to business email compromise. Wire fraud and money laundering charges each carry up to 20 years. Treasury estimates $12.7 billion stolen from Americans since 2023 via overseas romance and investment scams.

The Recordupdated · 1d agofirst · 2d agoPolicy & legal 3 sources

Black Axe Members Extradited to US Over Internet Fraud Claims

Five alleged Black Axe leaders were extradited from South Africa to the US over romance scam and money laundering charges.

Five Nigerian nationals who allegedly led Black Axe's Cape Town zone were extradited to the US on September 11 and appeared in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey on September 14. The superseding indictment alleges romance scams, advance-fee fraud, BEC, and money laundering via US bank accounts between 2011 and 2021, using social media, dating sites, and VoIP, with coercion via threats to distribute victims' intimate photos. Charges include wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy carrying up to 20 years each, plus aggravated identity theft for three defendants.

Infosecurity Magazine · 1d agoPolicy & legal

America's Driver's License Breach Is a National Security Disaster

Dark web service Nexus sells 153 million US/Canadian driver's licenses linked to a breach of identity verifier IDScan.

Krebs on Security revealed a dark web service, Nexus, selling access to 153 million driver's licenses and 3 million travel documents from US and Canadian citizens, roughly 63 percent of all US licenses. Circumstantial evidence links the data to identity verification firm IDScan, which confirmed it is investigating a breach, and the FBI is probing the incident. Licenses belonging to senior US officials, including Pete Hegseth, an FBI assistant director, and Krebs's own contacts were verified as genuine. The exfiltration appears ongoing, with the database growing by nearly 400,000 licenses in a single day, and the data carries significant national security value for foreign intelligence services.

Hacker News · security · 1d agoData breachHN 26↑ · 4 comments3· 1 read

Who gets to define the rules for AI?

Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez attacks big-lab antitrust exemption proposals as cartel behavior that lets incumbents write AI safety rules.

Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez argues that proposals from large AI labs—particularly Anthropic's roadmap requesting antitrust exemptions for safety coordination—amount to a cartel letting incumbents define rules for everyone else. He draws parallels to the 1975 SEC NRSRO credit-rating designations and the EU's 1985 Motor Vehicle Block Exemption, where safety justifications produced incumbent-protecting market structures. Gomez supports independent review of highly capable AI systems but disputes who writes the standards, who conducts review, and who participates. He also warns AI cyber offense is getting cheaper faster than defenses are improving.