It has been a challenging year for scam victims! Indeed!

Overall, the quantity of new victims continues to rise, while at the same time so do arrests and convictions – but the number of scammers and new victims vastly outstrips what law enforcement can do!

However, hope is not lost. Law enforcement worldwide is increasing the sharing of data and is going after ever bigger fish in the war against scams. Especially promising is the effectiveness of going after the money! AML & KYC regulations show signs of having a real impact.

Law enforcement has had some real successes!

Law enforcement has been quite successful in learning how to go after cryptocurrency stolen by fraudsters. People like Erin West, a prosecutor in Santa Clara California are leading the charge to educate police and prosecutors throughout the United States and beyond. This is a shining light of hope for the victims of the new Pig Butchering scams, and others that gave crypto to the criminals that defrauded them.

Also, law enforcement has been increasing the number of arrests globally. The United States had a record year for fraud arrests and convictions. Even Nigeria reached new records with almost 4,000 convictions and well over 5,000 arrests – demonstrating their national commitment to address their corrupting criminal influence. But something few know is that China (PRC) is the major star in arresting online criminals – revised numbers indicate that they arrested nearly 2 million scammers in 2020, with about 1.2 million being online criminals. It is no wonder that e have seen an explosion in the migration of Chinese criminal gangs out of China and into the Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand regions, utilizing slave labor to commit these crimes.

We have also seen police agencies really step up, such as: the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrimes Group; cybercrime units in India, and fledgling agencies all across Africa.

But there have also been failures and disgraces too. Law enforcement worldwide is grossly undertrained, both in how to use the power they have against cyber-enabled criminals, and how to interact with and support the traumatized victims of these crimes. Police routinely reject any action, even when they can take it – such as in crypto or money recovery, leaving the victims on their own. Attitudes of victim blaming remain the norm worldwide.

While there are wonderful examples of police excellence, overall, on a worldwide basis, law enforcement is failing in the fight against financial fraud, led by the United States.

A Question of Victims’ Rights!

Scams & Financial fraud have truly highlighted the great disparity of victims’ rights around the world. In Nigeria for example, the EFCC (Economic & Financial Crimes Commission) has raised millions of dollars auctioning off seized criminal assets, but almost none of it is going back to the victims!

Even in the United States, the FBI routinely ignores their statutory obligations to victim rights for those victims that report their crimes through the FBI’s www.IC3.gov portal. This is something that we have regularly reported to the Department of Justice and FBI leadership, so far without any interest on their part.

Countries need to come together and codify universal victims’ rights and then require countries to honor and uphold them! Victims deserve their rights and their money back everywhere. Nowhere is this more important than with transnational organized crime – victim money is not free money for governments to use as they would like!

SCARS Publishing

SCARS continues to be the leading publisher across the topics of financial fraud reaching 1.7 million victims per year through just one of its websites, and even more through our social media and other publications. Our www.RomanceScamsNOW.com Encyclopedia of Scams contains the most information about all types of scams, and most importantly on the psychology of scams and scam victims – making it the preferred self-help victim recovery publication.

We encourage you to learn more about the Psychology of Scams by visiting www.RomanceScamsNOW.com

You can also find SCARS Scam Victim Self-Help Book at shop.AgainstScams.org

SCARS Support

SCARS continues to provide primary online crime victims assistance and support through our publications, self-help book, and active victims support groups supporting scam victims worldwide.

If you are or know a scam victim they can join one of our SCARS Support Groups free of cost for as long as they need it. They can apply at support.AgainstScams.org

A Nonprofit

SCARS – the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. is an incorporated Florida nonprofit with offices in the U.S., Mexico, and affiliates and partners in more than 60 countries worldwide. As with most nonprofits, we are dependent on donations to provide support and services to online crime victims. We are very grateful to our donors and are always looking for additional support from corporate partners.

Unlike other nonprofits, SCARS is 100% volunteer managed and run! We do not pay salaries when victims suffer – so 100% of our funding is for our services to victims.

If you can help us provide more services please donate. You can donate to SCARS at donate.AgainstScams.org

And as always, please share your feedback about what we do!

2023

We hope that this next year will be the year when the world really comes together to get serious about these crimes and the multi-trillion-dollar drain on the world economy that they represent. With only 1-3% of these crimes reported, most governments have no real idea how large the problem is – but we see the victims!

We thank you all for staying informed and allowing SCARS to be of service.

We wish you all a Happy & Scammer Free 2023!