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Memphis Shooting Leaves One Dead And More Than A Dozen Wounded

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

A gunman opened fire in an upscale Kroger grocery store in Collierville, a suburban community about 30 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday, Sept. 23, killing one person and wounding as many as 12 others, the Associated Press reported. The shooter was found dead by an apparent self-inflicted wound after he had committed the attacks. One victim was in the ICU and another in surgery as of Thursday; the status of the other parties is not known.

Brignetta Dickerson, said she was working a cash register when she heard what at first she thought were balloons popping. “And here he comes right behind us and started shooting,” she said. “And he kept on shooting, shooting, shooting. He shot one of my co-workers in the head and shot one of my customers in the stomach.”

Police received 911 calls at around 1:30pm, and found people with multiple gunshot wounds when they arrived and entered the building. Many were just caught in the crossfire. Some employees hid in freezers and locked offices when the gunfire broke out at about 1:30pm. One employee fled to the roof and was escorted to safety by police.

Tawana French said she was heading into the Kroger when she saw people rushing out of the store. “A split second later, I hear gunfire,” French told Linsey Davis in an interview on ABC News Live Prime. “I ran, ran, ran. Before I could get to my car, which was not very far at all, I heard even more gunfire. Rapid succession, just pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. I just wanted to get to a safe place,” said French, who immediately got in her car and drove away.

“We found people hiding in freezers, in locked offices. They were doing what they had been trained to do: run, hide, fight,” said Dickerson.

While police chief Dale Lane would not comment on an ongoing investigation, he did say, “We’re going to carry this thing as far as we can to see and make sure that there’s no else involved. As far as we know there wasn’t any other incident that led up to this.”

The mass shooting in a suburb of Memphis was described as the “the most horrific event that has ever occurred in Collierville history,” WREG Memphis reported.

The lone fatality was identified as Olivia King by family. “Our family is devastated by this senseless act of violence. We ask that you pray for the repose of the soul of our mother,” one of her sons, Wes King, told ABC News. “We also ask everyone for their prayers for all families and friends affected by the events today, as well as for God’s mercy on the shooter and his family. Thank you.”

Collierville Police Chief Lane admitted this was one of the most difficult situations he had dealt with. “This scene is horrific, I’ve been involved in this for 34 years and never seen anything like it,” Lane was quoted as saying by CBS News.

Investigators are working to figure out if workplace violence was a factor in the Kroger shooting and also whether the deceased shooter may have been a disgruntled employee. For the moment, authorities say there is no reason to believe that this was an act of foreign terrorism.

Age Of Consent, Statutory Rape, And “Romeo And Juliet” Laws

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By Aara Ramesh

The exploitation of children is a real and present problem, one that has only worsened — like many others — as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Children are roped into forced labor; they are trafficked for sex; they are coerced into the production of child sexual abuse material — the list of crimes goes on.

There are, thus, many laws in place designed to protect children across these areas of concern. One extremely complicated example is that of the age of consent, both when it comes to sex and marriage. In the U.S., these laws vary from state to state and may have different exceptions and caveats in different jurisdictions. 

Sexual coercion of children has been a long-standing problem across the world. One Department of Health and Human Services report from 2004 highlights the statistic that “adolescents who are sexually active at a young age are more likely to have experienced coercive sex.” Further, almost 75% of women who had had sex before the age of 14 and 60% before the age of 15 “reported having a forced sexual experience.”

Worryingly, the same report cited research that said half of all children born to minor girls were fathered by adult men, and the sexual partners of these young mothers were often 3–6 years older than them.

In today’s piece, we take a look at the history of the concept of an age of consent, and some aspects of this many-sided die.

Terminology

According to most countries’ laws, a child is not considered to be capable of consenting to sexual activity. Who is defined as a “child,” however,” varies from country to country, and in the U.S., from state to state. In America it is generally understood that any sexual activity with children below a certain age are, thus, coercive by nature, regardless of whether both parties consented, because the underage party is not capable of consenting, legally speaking.

There are many different factors to consider here. One is the age of consent, i.e., the age at which “an individual can legally consent to sexual intercourse under any circumstances.” Another is the minimum age of the victim, which refers to the age “below which an individual cannot [legally] consent to sexual intercourse under any circumstances.”

Also taken into consideration in some states is the age differential, i.e., the difference in age between the victim and so-called “perpetrator” or “defendant.” Other factors that may be considered include when the sexual relationship began and the ages of the two parties at that time.

The way this may work, for instance, in Pennsylvania, is as follows: the law states that children younger than 13 years old cannot consent legally to any sexual act (this is the minimum age, then). Children between 13 and 15 years old are not considered able to consent to sexual activity with anyone who is four or more years older than them (this is where the age differential comes into play). Anyone 16 or older can legally consent to sexual activity (i.e., the age of consent is 16).

It’s hard to find an official list of the different age of consent and statutory rape laws. However, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) has made available a fairly comprehensive resource that can be found here.

A Brief History

According to some historians, when early statutory rape laws were introduced in the 1200s (around 1275 in England), the aim was to “protect the chastity of young women.” They were initially conceived as a way to protect girls, and girls alone. The experiences of boys and men were not considered relevant to this discussion. And it had more to do with protecting girls from “ruin” than from any modern understanding of how childhood sexual abuse and trauma can shape the development of an individual.

By 1880, many Western countries had established an age of consent around 12 or 13 years old. This ticked up to around 14 or 15 years old in Europe in the 1920s, and to around 16 in North America, mostly as a result of the burgeoning feminist movement and anti-prostitution sentiment among the public. 

The debate, like our concept of “childhood,” has evolved over the centuries with changing social mores. In the 1970s, second-wave feminists began arguing for sexual liberation for young women and for gender equality in rape laws. As a result, language was modified to be more gender neutral, applying not just to “females” but to boys and men as well. It still, however, only applied to heterosexual intercourse, thereby discounting many cases involving young boys being abused by older men, for instance.

More recently, a few decades ago, the debate became characterized by a rising teen pregnancy rate. Then, as reports of systematic, complicit, and covert abuse by representatives of various organizations, like teachers, sports teams, the Catholic Church, and the Boy Scouts of America began to emerge, the narrative shifted once more.

This latter period has also shed a light on the widespread epidemic of abuse of young boys and men going underreported and unnoticed, as previously statutory rape and age of consent issues were seemingly considered only in regards to girls and young women.

As such, the purpose behind enforcing such laws has changed as well. Nowadays, much like with child labor regulations, age of consent decrees are enacted so as to protect minors, who are vulnerable, from sexual exploitation.

Today, the age of consent across the world varies from 13 to 18, as it does within the U.S., typically between 16 and 18 years of age. To put it simply: “More than 800 years after the first recorded age of consent laws, the one constant is the lack of consistency.”

Protecting Children

The debate over age of consent and statutory rape is characterised by many viewpoints, but two primary ones are the desire to protect children from harm, on one hand, but also to allow young people — particularly women — to exercise their own sexual expression, freedom, and autonomy without being subject to legal worries under the guise of moral policing.

In addition to the aforementioned child abuse and pedophilia, there are other aspects that ought to be considered. One of these is the issue of child marriage.

Unbeknownst to many, the U.S. actually has a child marriage epidemic of its own. Per some estimates, around 300,000 children under the age of 18 were married between 2000 and 2018 in the U.S. In July, the state of New York raised the age of consent for marriage to 18; it had been 14 until 2017, when it was raised to 17 with parental or judicial consent. 

Similarly, just last month, North Carolina’s legislature moved closer towards passing a bill that would make it more difficult for adults to marry children in the state. The bill would raise the minimum age of consent for marrying to 16, from the current 14, and would limit the age gap between a 16-year-old and potential spouse to four years. North Carolina is currently one of the most popular regional destinations for such unions, with around 93% of the state’s child marriages in 2019 involving one adult party (as opposed to two minors getting married).

Having age of consent laws in place ostensibly protects children from being married off, in some cases to their rapists or to predators who groomed them. Take the infamous case of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who raped Vili Fualaau, a 13-year-old student of hers, only to marry him after she was released from prison. The couple had two children together before Fualaau was even 15 years old. 

Though both parties said their relationship was consensual, it is generally understood that Fualaau was too young to be able to knowingly consent to sex and fatherhood, even if they married when he was legally an adult. 

In a 2018 documentary, Fualaau characterized the episode as such: “At the end of the day, it was a real love story.” But, crucially, he added, “A lot of things that should have gone through my mind at the time weren’t going through my mind.”

“Romeo and Juliet” Laws

Another gray area in this legal battle is the distinction between adults preying on vulnerable minors, and adolescents, a handful of years apart in age, engaging in sex. Some say that “low-risk adolescents” should be allowed to engage and experiment with sex without fears of facing a steep jail sentence, fine, or an entry onto the sex offenders’ registry. Engaging in sex should not condemn a teenager to a lifetime of unintended consequences and punishment.

Often called “Romeo and Juliet” cases, the term traces its roots back to the eponymous play by William Shakespeare, in which Romeo was believed to be around 16 years old and Juliet 13. In modern times, as they consummated their secret marriage, Romeo could, in some states, be labelled a sex offender. Note: this situation would undoubtedly be an example of child marriage as well.

For instance, the case of Genarlow Wilson, a young Black man who, at 17, engaged in a sexual act with a 15-year-old girl in 2003. Wilson was accused of, prosecuted for, and convicted of aggravated child molestation as a result. The mandatory minimum sentence for the crime was 10 years. Wilson served two of those years in prison before the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his conviction and released him from incarceration in 2007, when he was 21.

Another article cites the example of Shane Sandborg and his wife Kristina, who met and fell in love when they were 17 and just under 16, respectively. They married and Kristna fell pregnant. When police found out, they charged Shane with criminal sexual abuse, and he was put on the sex offender registry for ten years. Despite being married, with three children, Shane could not attend school functions, or go to the park with his child out of fear of being caught out in violation of the conditions of his conviction.

In most cases, these sorts of “Romeo and Juliet” laws state that individuals with an age difference between (typically) two to four years are not considered offenders or predators if they engage in sexual activity. Some states may also require there to be proof of a “dating relationship” along with those age differences. 

The problem, according to one researcher, is that these laws are not applied uniformly. Whether a person in such a circumstance is charged depends on the prevailing mood in the community, the police, the parties involved, the prosecutor, and, often, on “how angry the parents of the younger party are.”

It is rare, some experts say, for those caught in a “Romeo and Juliet” situation to be violent offenders, if they can be called offenders at all in some cases. As such, the argument goes, they should not be penalized with a lifelong spot on the sex offenders’ registry. 

With adult predators there is always the real risk of re-offending, which is why things like the sex offender registry exists in the first place. But, with adolescents in relationships, this may not necessarily be the case. It just might be a situation of two teenagers in love. Said Tonia Maloney, president of Illinois Voices for Reform, in 2011, “The majority of these guys are no threat to anyone,” yet they are treated “exactly the same as a child molester or a rapist.”

There are few who would argue that the existing system is unnecessary. Unfortunately, people do co-opt very genuine concerns to suggest that there need not be age of consent laws, citing historical societies as proof that adults have long had sexual relationships with minors, to no ill effect. This is not the case, as organizations like RAINN make clear. Child sexual abuse, assault, molestation, trafficking, victimization, and grooming are real and very urgent threats.

But, many say, this system should not be etched in stone. The trade-off between protecting children and allowing older teens the space to explore their sexuality does not need to be a binary one. As the definitions of childhood and sexuality have evolved over the last millennium, so too must the system instituted to protect children.

Dangers Of Conti Ransomware Brought To The Fore By CISA, FBI’s Advisory

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have observed the increased use of Conti ransomware in more than 400 attacks on U.S. and international organizations. In Conti attacks, malicious cyber actors steal files, encrypt servers and workstations, and demand a ransom payment.

In order to protect against Conti attacks, agencies recommended measures including requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA), implementing network segmentation, and keeping operating systems and software up to date.

In a detailed release CISA listed out the ways in which Conti actors gained initial access to networks.

  • Spearphishing campaigns using tailored emails that contain malicious attachments or malicious links 
  • Malicious Word attachments often contain embedded scripts that can be used to download or drop other malware — such as TrickBot and IcedID, and/or Cobalt Strike — to assist with lateral movement and later stages of the attack life cycle with the eventual goal of deploying Conti ransomware.
  • Stolen or weak Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials
  • Phone calls
  • Fake software promoted via search engine optimization
  • Other malware distribution networks (e.g., ZLoader) 
  • Common vulnerabilities in external assets.

When it came to mitigation, CISA had some recommendations:

  • Use multi-factor authentication
  • Implement network segmentation and filter traffic
  • Scan for vulnerabilities and keep software updated
  • Remove unnecessary applications and apply controls
  • Implement endpoint and detection response tools
  • Limit access to resources over the network
  • Secure user accounts
  • Use the Ransomware Response Checklist in case of infection

In the past, the FBI had implicated Conti in attacks on at least 290 organizations, Zdnet reported.

CISA also noted a key difference in which Conti operators do things from other ransomware attackers. As Conti acts through a ransomware-as-a-service model, the group paid deployers of the ransomware as a wage. With other ransomware, typically affiliates received a cut of the ransom as pay.

Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at NSA, believes that criminals running Conti historically target critical infrastructure, such as the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). “NSA works closely with our partners, providing critical intelligence and enabling operations to counter ransomware activities. We highly recommend using the mitigations outlined in this advisory to protect against Conti malware and mitigate your risk against any ransomware attack,” Joyce said.

Conti initially came into the limelight after attacks on healthcare and first responder networks in the U. S. in May 2021. Targets included 911 dispatch carriers, law enforcement agencies, and emergency medical services — all of which have been under strain in their efforts to manage effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zdnet reported.

Allan Liska, a ransomware expert told Zdnet that the information in the CISA release was well known to industry experts, but that it would serve to educate a broader audience.

“There are a lot of security people who will find this very useful because the tools used by Conti are used by other ransomware groups. For example, rclone is mentioned in the report. I see rclone used by many ransomware groups but rarely by legitimate employees of an organization, so looking for rclone hashes on endpoints could be useful,” Liska said. 

“I also think a lot of people didn’t know that Conti has infected organizations through phone calls. That may be a new threat model for a lot of organizations and one that they have to consider how to defend against. Overall, while it is not a groundbreaking report, it is nice to have so many of Conti’s TTP in a single location rather than combing through 15 different ZDNet articles to find them.”

Conti ransomware was actively targeting unpatched Microsoft Corp. Exchange servers through the same exploit used to target servers earlier in 2021, Silicon Angle reported in early September. Within 48 hours of attackers were able to exfiltrate approximately 1 terabyte of data, and within five days Conti had infected every machine on the network.

SAC Wireless, a subsidiary of Nokia, also revealed that they had been victims of a Conti attack, via a letter sent to current and former employees, ITPro reported.

Following a forensic investigation SAC Wireless found the affected files could contain employees’ details, such as date of birth, home addresses, emails, and phone numbers and even government ID numbers, such as driver’s license, passport, or military ID, Social Security numbers; and more.

Demand Surge And Supply Contraction Leads To Shortage Of Ammunition, Worrying Law Enforcement

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Law enforcement officers, manufacturers, and sports shooters across the country are expressing worries over recent record gun sales leading to an ammunition shortage, with many saying that such a state of affairs could drag on for at least another year or year and a half.

In Baltimore County, the dearth in supplies is leading some police agencies to turn to shooting range stocks. A local tactical police unit there said it had placed extra orders for some key ammunition in 2020, but had not received it due to a nationwide shortage. As a result, in July, the unit had “critically low” supplies.

Last month, gun shop owners in Iowa similarly reported a shortage of ammunition, mostly due to a narrowing of manufacturing juxtaposed against increased demand. Similar trends have also been noted in South Dakota, Iowa, and North Dakota.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, it is recreational hunters who are complaining due to a rifle and shotgun ammunition shortage, with it impacting their sporting behavior ahead of hunting season, as well as competitive target shooting practice. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), over 50 million Americans participate in shooting sports.

There has been a noted uptick in the number of gun sales over the last two years. Part of the reason behind these circumstances is a constriction in both manufacturing and in the supply chain due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Also at cause is the fear-driven purchase of firearms by the general public. This latter factor has been motivated, according to some, by the protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and associated discussions of police reform.

At the same time, just as with toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and other necessities at the start of the pandemic, people were rushing to panic-buy firearms amidst ongoing discussions over tightening gun control policies. The dual-edged mismatch in supply and demand has, of course, led to a rise in the prices of some types of ammunition.

In 2018, the Washington Post reported that there were more civilian-owned firearms in the United States than people, at 393 million and 326 million, respectively, at that time. The federal government does not, naturally, collect statistics on how many firearms were purchased by who, but one of the best estimators is the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database.

As NICS has to be contacted every time an individual attempts to purchase a firearm, its data can be an approximator for the appetite for buying firearms, though it is not a direct reflection of the pure number of sales.

Per the latest NICS annual report, in 2019, NICS processed almost 28.5 million background check requests, of which it denied 103,592 transactions. As of the end of August 2021, there were over 24.5 million records in total in the NICS incidences — a number that changes as per gun purchase regulations across the country. As of August 2021, NICS has run a whopping 400 million firearms background checks.

In addition, NICS ran over 2.7 million background checks in August 2021 alone, bringing the year’s total thus far to roughly 27.8 million. For context, 2019’s year total was 28.3 million while 2020’s was nearly 40 million — the highest yearly total noted since NICS started keeping records in 1998. Over NICS’ entire existence, six of the top ten days with the highest number of background check requests were in 2021, and two were in 2020. All ten of the weeks with the highest volume of requests were either in 2020 or 2021.

Anecdotal evidence from licensed gun stores also suggests there has been a sudden influx in the number of first-time owners purchasing firearms, demographically representing all races, ages, and political beliefs. Some estimates suggest that as much as 40% of all buyers in 2020 were first-time gun owners.

One piece of survey research recently estimated that women have accounted for nearly 50% of all new gun purchases since the beginning of 2019. Nationally, roughly 56% of gun owners are white men, 16% are white women, 9.3% are Black men, and 5.4% are Black men, according to the NSSF.

Researchers say up to 20% of those who bought guns in 2020 were Hispanic and 20% were Black. One Black-owned gun store in California reported a particular uptick in the number of Black women buying guns, particularly in context of civil unrest and anti-police sentiment. Another factor driving sales among minority groups and women is a fear of violent crime, the rates of which have been rising over this year and last, per reports.

In the past, there has been a tendency, noted by some observers, for gun sales to spike in the aftermath of high-profile mass shootings, as the debate over gun control measures does the rounds once more. Similar trends were noted after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Last year, there was also a spike in gun sales after several large cities announced Covid-19 lockdown measures.

Law Enforcement Line-Of-Duty Deaths Could Hit Grim Peak In 2021: Report

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

As of June 30, 2021, 155 federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement officers (LEOs) died in the line of duty, according to preliminary data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF). That’s roughly a 10% increase over the 141 officers killed during the same period last year. Should the pace continue, the number of LEO deaths in the line of duty could exceed 2020’s total (of 295), which was the second highest on record. If that happens, officer line-of-duty deaths could end up near the 1930 toll of 312 fatalities, which is the most ever recorded by the NLEOMF in a single year.

During the first half of 2021, 33 officers died from felonious assaults including 28 who were killed in the line of duty as of a result of firearms, according to the NLEOMF report. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) latest Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) data showed that 44 LEOs were feloniously killed in the first seven months of the year. That number was just two away from the 46 officers who were reported as being killed feloniously in all of 2020, and quite a bit higher than it has been over the past five years during the first seven months of the year, per the FBI’s LEOKA data.

Covid-19: The Biggest Killer Of LEOs In 2021

In the 155 confirmed LEO line-of-duty deaths in the first six months of the year, Covid-19-related fatalities were the leading cause. In the first half of the year, 71 officers succumbed to the disease, compared to 76 during the same period in 2020. Although that’s a 7% decrease from last year, Covid-19-related fatalities are still a major concern for law enforcement agencies nationwide. It’s been reported to NLEOMF that each of the 71 officers who died due to Covid-19-related causes this year died as a direct result of being exposed while conducting official duties.

It is expected that a significant number of LEO deaths due to the virus is yet to be reported by local agencies. NLEOMF and its Covid-19 task force are working with federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies to determine the full extent of this, the report says. Even as they conduct that study, since LEOs across the country continue to be “exposed to this invisible nemesis,” the number of line-of-duty deaths is continually changing and, unfortunately, many more Covid-19-related fatalities are anticipated, the report says.

In terms of geographical distribution, 29 states and the District of Columbia had zero Covid-19-related LEO deaths in the first half of 2021. Texas and Georgia had the highest rates of LEO deaths due to the pandemic.

Covid-19-related LEO deaths are reported by the NLEOMF as part of its “Other” category, which contains a wide variety of health-related deaths and other line-of-duty fatalities. Apart from the 71 officers who died of Covid-19, the category includes 18 more cases, of which 10 officers died from health-related illnesses, such as heart attacks and strokes, while three were beaten to death, three others drowned, and two additional officers were stabbed to death.

Image Source: Screengrab from the NLEOMF report

Traffic-Related Deaths

After Covid-19, the second highest killer of LEOs in the line of duty was traffic-related fatalities, which claimed the lives of 38 officers during the first half of 2021. Of those, 10 were automobile crashes involving a collision with another vehicle or fixed object, five were single-vehicle crashes, 19 were struck-by fatalities while on the side of the road, and four were as a result of motorcycle crashes.

Struck-by incidents are those in which an officer is hit by another vehicle while outside of their patrol vehicle. It was the leading circumstance in the traffic-related deaths category, and was also up 138% when compared with the just eight such deaths recorded in the first half of 2020. Many of these fatal struck-by crashes occurred while officers were investigating motor vehicle crashes or assisting motorists on the side of the road, the NLEOMF report says.

In the previous decade (2010 to 2019), 27 officers were killed on average due to traffic-related incidents in the first half of a given year. But that average has been at a much-higher 31 since the 2020s began.

Firearm-Related Fatalities On The Rise

Firearm-related fatalities were the third-leading cause of law enforcement deaths in the first six months of this year, representing a 4% increase over the same period last year. As mentioned earlier, 28 officers were shot and killed during the first half of 2021 versus 27 during the same period in 2020.

Of the 28 such fatalities this year, five officers were killed while attempting an arrest, four were killed during tactical encounters, four were ambushed and killed, and three each were killed responding to domestic disturbance calls, investigating suspicious activities or persons, and on disturbance calls. Two officers were killed during traffic enforcement and two others were killed while serving a felony warrant. During this time period, two officers were also fatally shot responding to burglary- or robbery-in-progress calls.

Handguns were the leading type of firearm used in fatal shootings of LEOs in the first half of 2021. Of the 28 officers who died as a result of firearm-related fatalities, nine were killed using handguns, six using rifles, and two with shotguns. In the other 11 cases, the type of firearm used is either still under investigation or is unknown.

Although the number of firearm-related fatalities of LEOs increased in the first six months of 2021, the overall average per decade in the first half of a given year since the 1970s has been steadily on the decline. In the 1970s, the average was 63; in the 1980s, it was 44; in the 1990s, it was 35; in the 2000s, it was 29; in the 2010s, it was 26; and in the 2020s, too, it has been at 26 (so far).

The Intersection Of Internet Vigilantism And Missing People Of Color

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By Aara Ramesh

Over the last few weeks, the case of Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito has commanded the lion’s share of the internet and news media’s attention. Petito, a 22-year-old lifestyle vlogger (video blogger) from Long Island, was reported missing by her family around Sept. 10, while she was on a cross-country road-trip with her 23-year-old fiance Brian Laundrie.

Soon after her disappearance made news, people on social media trained their focus in on the search for her, possibly — according to some experts — seeing this as an opportunity both to participate in a real-time “true crime” case and out of a genuine desire to help reunite Petito with her family.

At one point, the tag #gabbypetito on TikTok had 77 million views; #findgabbypetito had 16.6 million views; and #gabbypetitoupdate had 7.3 million views. A subreddit r/GabbyPetito was expeditiously created on Sept. 13, and has amassed over 33,000 members, while the front page of Reddit has been overwhelmed by other threads regarding Petito from various subreddits.

Amidst all the attention, two main narrative threads have emerged from this entire case. Many are calling attention to this as the latest example of the “missing white woman” syndrome, while at the same time, others are decrying the rise of vigilantism among the public. In today’s piece, we take a look at both these issues.

Gabby Petito

Here is a brief summary of the Gabby Petito case for context.

Petito and Laundrie’s road-trip began in July 2021, shortly after they got engaged. Initially, the high school sweethearts intended to spend four months on the road, and documented their journey along the way on social media. Early in September, Laundrie returned home to Florida without Petito, with no explanation for where she was.

Petito’s family last spoke to her on Aug. 24, when she told her mother that she and Laundrie were heading into the Teton mountain range in Wyoming. A day later, Petito posted her last update on Instagram, and on Aug. 30, her family received the last text message from her. Subsequently, they reported her missing around ten days after Laundrie returned home.

As social media users sifted through material to see if they could spot a clue as to where Petito might be, on Sunday, Sept. 19, officers said they had found a body in the Grand Teton National Park that they believe to be Petito’s, though forensic testing has yet to confirm this. Meanwhile, Laundrie went on a hiking trip on Sept. 14 and hasn’t been heard from since, with his family reporting him missing over the weekend. 

Laundrie has been named as a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance, though he has not been charged with anything yet. The general consensus among armchair sleuths seems to be that he was involved in her disappearance, though there is scant evidence of this, as Laundrie did not speak to police before his own disappearance.

Missing And Murdered Women

Per the Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), over 600,000 children and adults go missing in the US every year. While many of these are quickly found, thousands are not found within a year, classifying them as “cold cases.” The government also says that around 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with around one-fourth of those still being unidentified a year later. Per the NamUs website, there are 20,690 missing persons cases, 13,819 unidentified persons cases, and 11,907 unclaimed persons cases still open and unresolved in the country.

Women and girls account for a majority of these missing persons cases. Women, in general, are more likely to be the victims of violent crime, including physical assault, sexual abuse, domestic violence, date-related abuse, and stalking. In the U.S., men, women, and children of color are disproportionately represented among violent crime and sexual abuse statistics.

For instance, in 2019, CNN wrote about how a disproportionate number of children under 18 who go missing are Black, as compared to the demographics of the overall population. Per the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), of the 610,000+ people reported missing in 2018, 60% were people of color.

Biometrica has written extensively about the epidemic of violence against women and, in particular, against Indigenous women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for Native women aged 10–24, homicide is the third leading cause of death. For those aged 25–34, it is the fifth leading cause. In some tribal areas, the murder rate of Indigenous women is 10 times higher than the national average.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Native American women are reported missing each year, with no resolution in sight. The FBI’s own database says that in 2017, Indigenous women accounted for 1.8% of all missing persons cases, despite only representing 0.8% of the country’s overall population.

As one example, the Seattle office of the FBI is seeking information on a missing woman, Mary Davis Johnson (Tulalip), who has not been seen since Nov. 25, 2020. They are offering a $10,000 reward in return for credible tips. Per a 2019 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute, the state of Washington is second in the nation when it comes to the number of cases of missing Indigenous women, with Seattle itself ranked the top city for such crimes nationwide.

Circling back to Gabby Petito’s disappearance, many have pointed out that at least 710 Indigenous people vanished between 2011 and 2020 in Wyoming, the state where Petito was last reported to have been in. Per Wyoming’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Task Force, over half that figure were women.

In addition, the report found that 50% of missing Indigenous peoples are still missing a week after their disappearance, and 21% remain missing for over 30 days. This is in contrast to the 11% rate noted for white people who go missing in Wyoming. Some estimate that Indigenous people have been reported missing in 22 of the 23 counties in Wyoming, despite the state having only one official Tribal reservation.

Media Coverage

At the crux of this complicated issue is the fact that while Petito’s case has understandably drawn attention from the public and law enforcement, and her death — if confirmed — would be nothing less than a tragedy, there is also a disparity in the attention given to Gabby’s case, versus the thousands of other women and girls of color who go missing and unrecovered every year.

Thousands of people online are trawling through every possible nook and cranny of Gabby Petito’s online footprint, from looking at her social media profiles, where she documented her cross country road trip, to looking at what songs she added when to a public Spotify playlist. As one source put it, “Every new detail of the case has been pored over, analyzed, and dissected by dedicated groups of Petito investigators online.”

Meanwhile, the Wyoming task force also analyzed media coverage and discovered that around 51% of white homicide victims were featured in the news, as compared to 30% of Indigenous homicide victims.

The CNN report mentioned previously also cites several studies that found missing children of color get less media coverage than their white peers. One study from 2010 said that even though around 33% of all missing children being searched for by the FBI were Black, they only accounted for around 20% of the cases covered by the media. A 2015 study, CNN says, was even “bleaker,” finding that Black children accounted for 35% of missing children as noted by the FBI and only 7% of media coverage.

One academic study found that media houses are more likely to select white women to cover, and that such coverage is much more intense as compared to reporting on missing people of color.

True Crime And Vigilantism 

This frustration over the disparate attention paid to missing people of color is, however, a double-edged sword.

On one hand, many advocates lament the fact that a fraction of this same energy and effort put into finding or recovering missing or murdered people of color could be revolutionary in changing the face of this epidemic. On the other hand, this magnitude of scrutiny can be challenging to the police and authorities sincerely working on trying to solve cases and can, in fact, impede their efforts.

North Port Police Department’s public information officer, Josh Taylor, told BuzzFeed News that social media’s role in providing clues to find Petito have been helpful, though such efforts can oftentimes “derail the investigative process.” He also expressed a desire for people to turn footage in directly to the authorities, instead of posting it online and hoping it will go viral.

Taylor added, “You have to take the good with the bad. You might get a thousand completely insane pieces of information, but that one piece that might be the missing piece to the puzzle, it’s important.” 

Todd Shipley, president of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA) and retired senior detective sergeant in the Reno Police Department, on the other hand, told Mashable that amateur online investigators can be more of a hinderance, flooding understaffed and resource-crunched local law enforcement agencies with too much irrelevant information.

Actual detective work, per Shipley, is more complicated than most people would believe. “The true-crime-obsessed are re-cappers, not investigators,” he said. Amateurs do put in time and effort into their research and content, but they do not have access to the evidence themselves, nor do they have the training or other resources to investigate. This risks blurring “the lines between law enforcement detectives, investigative reporters, and online storytellers.”

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies not only have access to information they don’t release to the public, they also have access to specialized tools and technology that help them in their quest, whether that be arrest record databases, missing peoples’ databases, 911 call logs, etc. They also generally have years of training and trial-and-error on their side, and are able to exercise some caution before leveling allegations.

Unverified and misleading information can also direct a lot of harassment and vitriol towards the families of those involved in such a case, or towards mistaken suspects. In probably the most infamous example of this, after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, members of one subreddit took it upon themselves to identify the second unknown bomber.

After the FBI released “grainy” suspect photos, one user created a collage juxtaposing that photo against another of Sunil Tripathi, a person they thought bore striking resemblance to the suspect. What followed was false accusations broadcasted to millions, Tripathi’s family being subjected to undue and unbelievable levels of vitriol and harassment, and eventually an admission that he was not at all involved in the bombing. In fact, Tripathi had already apparently taken his own life in an unrelated incident. The members of the subreddit essentially tried to act as a manual facial recognition algorithm, with borderline disastrous consequences.

So Is There A Way To Help?

It is not uncommon for law enforcement to solicit help from the public in solving cases. Europol’s “Trace an Object” program periodically releases censored and anonymized child sexual abuse images and video stills, crowdsourcing the public’s help in identifying any unique details in the background that may help identify the location of the abuse being documented.

Similarly, the FBI itself sought the public’s help in identifying those present at the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. According to the FBI, it received over 270,000 digital tips from the public, hundreds of which resulted in arrests and charges being made.

The aim of such appeals, however, is meant to help the police trawl through troves of data in time-sensitive cases. It’s supposed to ostensibly serve additional pairs of eyes. Some, as in the case of the Boston Marathon bombing, consider themselves smarter than law enforcement, believing they can collectively crack the case before the authorities do. One TikTok commenter on a Gabby Petito video even wrote: “I swear tiktok is going to solve this case before the FBI let’s gooooo fam!”

There is, some say, a fine line between helping out law enforcement and the kind of vigilantism that could, in theory, result in a trial by social media, before any conclusive evidence is even found.

Every day, social media is flooded with posts by concerned family members and loved ones about missing people. There are specific websites and databases that compile missing people reports from organizations like the Black and Missing Foundation and the Sovereign Bodies Institute’s MMIWG2 Database where people can go to see how they can help.

Overall, the feeling among law enforcement and investigators is one of understanding. When such cases make headlines, especially those that have a chance of still being resolved positively, people want to help where they can. And when these efforts are directed efficiently, they can be of tremendous help. Meanwhile, activists and people of color continue to hope that they can draw such levels of attention to their missing persons, and galvanize the internet to help find their loved ones.

As Toumaian, one TikTok user whose account has pivoted to sharing updates on the Gabby Petito case, says — “In five days, we found Gabby because of all that we put into this and we’re not gonna stop. […] We’re gonna keep reaching more people, we’re gonna keep finding people who are missing. We’re gonna help get justice for victims that have not gotten justice. We’re not gonna stop. We have such a big opportunity to make a difference in the world and we’re not gonna stop.”

Grizzly Scouts Members Admit To Destroying Evidence In Killing Of A Federal Officer

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Evidence in the alleged murder of a federal security officer in Oakland was destroyed by four Northern California members affiliated with the far right boogaloo movement, authorities said on Sep. 20.

Jessie Rush, Robert Blancas, Simon Ybarra and Kenny Miksch, pled guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice in the fatal shooting of Dave Patrick Underwood at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on May 29, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in California’s Northern District said in a statement.

A second police officer was injured in the incident which happened in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, NBC News reported. Steven Carillo, another alleged militia member, pled not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with the incident.

Authorities say the men first connected through a Facebook group associated with the boogaloos, an anti-government group calling for an uprising, and then became a part of Grizzly Scouts, an armed militia group.

The four men have admitted to deleting messages from Carillo in the chat group, as well as digital files that detailed the Grizzly Scouts’ rank structure, non-disclosure agreements, liability waivers, uniform descriptions and combat, firearms and training assessments.

In an unrelated case, Blancas pleaded guilty in August to producing child pornography after enticing a 15-year-old girl to produce dozens of pornographic videos and photos. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

According to a statement by the Justice Department from April: “The Facebook group’s description stated, “they say the west won’t boog,” a reference to the “boogaloo” movement, and that “were [sic] here to gather like minded Californians who can network and establish local goon squads.” As alleged in the indictment, “boogaloo” is a term sometimes used by certain militia extremists to reference a politically motivated civil war or uprising against the government. The “boogaloo” is not a single cohesive group, but rather a loose concept that has become a rallying point for some extremists.”

The indictment references the May 29, 2020 shootings at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Oakland, California. At about 9:44 p.m. that evening, a passenger inside of a white van opened fire and shot two federal Protective Security Officers (PSOs); one of the PSOs died of his gunshot wounds and the other sustained serious injuries that required surgery.

The indictment also references the June 6, 2020 shootings of deputies of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. At about 2 p.m. that day, sheriff’s deputies responded to an address in Ben Lomond, California, associated with an abandoned white van.

According to the indictment, a member of the Grizzly Scouts exchanged messages on the WhatsApp group with other Grizzly Scouts, in which that member allegedly told the group that he was preparing to engage in a shoot-out with law enforcement. The member allegedly asked the other Grizzly Scouts to come to his aid.

Boogaloo is an anti-government movement that advocates a violent uprising targeting liberal political opponents. It primarily organizes online and includes groups on mainstream internet platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit. 

‘Criminals Don’t Take Breaks’ — The Impact Of Covid-19 On Organized Crime

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

In late 2020, much before anyone ever imagined that a deadlier variant of the Covid-19 virus would sweep across the world and wreak renewed havoc on healthcare and governance systems, organizations like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned that the pandemic had brought about new opportunities for organized crime groups (OCGs). Measures to prevent the virus from spreading, like lockdowns and restrictions, did affect OCGs much like the rest of us.

For instance, the UNODC said in a report in July 2020 that the Covid-19 crisis disrupted drug trafficking chains; changed the dynamics of demand, supply, and prices of illicit drugs; made it difficult to use traditional smuggling routes; and constrained activities related to the trafficking of persons and the smuggling of migrants. But even as it did that, it also opened up other opportunities for OCGs. There’s a “parallel pandemic” of crime threats linked to Covid-19, INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock warned at the start of this year.

Widespread sweeping global crises, like the one Covid-19 caused, give OCGs more room than otherwise to infiltrate the legal economy. Struggling private businesses are more likely to look for loans on the illicit market than during normal times. Then, of course, there’s the management of the pandemic itself that also brings new opportunities to the table for criminals, and that doesn’t just just include chances to enter the counterfeit masks and medicines market. There have been instances where OCGs have even boosted their standing in communities by delivering aid packages to the common man to increase their influence in those communities.

In this piece, we give you an overview of how the modi operandi of OCGs changed because of and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Infiltration Into Legal Sectors

One of the biggest opportunities for OCGs, as we mentioned earlier, is that the Covid-19 gave them chances to expand their influence into legal sectors of the economy.

Back in April, for example, Biometrica wrote about how OCGs were cutting themselves a piece of Italy’s strong tourism sector, according to a report published by Italian think-tank Demoskopika. That report showed OCGs had managed to carve out a $2.6 billion cut in Italy’s tourism sector. These mafia groups typically take control over legitimate businesses so that they can launder money from their illegal activities like trafficking of drugs and arms, experts say, according to an article by the Organized Crime And Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Around 4,400 businesses are at risk of mafia infiltration, the OCCRP article said, citing Demoskopika, largely for the purpose of money laundering. This problem has only been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the UNODC report, businesses in the transport, hospitality, arts, retail, and beauty sectors are particularly vulnerable to infiltration by OCGs. When these businesses began to reopen, some may have found themselves either in the debt of OCGs, or directly controlled by them. OCGs can seize control either through an exchange of money for buying shares or by directly taking over operations. This generates more opportunities for criminal activity, including money laundering and trafficking, enabling OCGs to further expand their control and power over the legitimate economy.

Then there were some sectors that saw a significant spike in demand due to the pandemic, such as medical devices, pharmaceutical products, e-commerce, food retail, cleaning, and funeral services. Procurement procedures were relaxed by governments to shore up their defenses against the pandemic, especially during the initial months of the virus’ spread and after the first vaccinations were launched. And it’s in the hope to exploit this surge in demand that OCGs moved into some of these sectors, UNODC said in the report, adding that there was already some evidence of this.

For instance, falsified medical masks have been seized in Spain and Italy; attempts to smuggle vital equipment have been stopped in Ukraine, Iran, and Azerbaijan; and one Mexican cartel has been promoting the production of falsified Covid-19 medical products and forcing pharmacies to sell them. In June, a record number of fake online pharmacies were shut down under Operation Pangea XIV, targeting the sale of counterfeit and illicit medicines and medical products, INTERPOL said. The operation showed that criminals were continuing to cash in on the demand for personal protection and hygiene products generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, it added.

With governments around the world investing large sums into shoring up their economies and making sure their vulnerable populations are cared for, appropriation of public funds is another target area for criminals. As recently as Aug. 16, INTERPOL issued a global alert saying OCGs were trying to  defraud governments with fake offers to sell Covid-19 vaccines. The warning came after around 60 cases were reported from 40 different countries where individuals in health ministries and hospitals have received offers for Covid-19 vaccines approved for distribution in their country.

Community Push

The massive scale of the Covid-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses in governing structures in various levels and ways. One of it was in terms of providing emergency aid that was desperately needed in the poorest and most vulnerable communities. With governments struggling to keep up in some cases, OCGs “stepped in” to deliver aid packages and other necessities, which allowed them to exert more control over the geographies and territories where they operate.

Some examples of this, per the UNODC report, include cases in Italy, where mafia affiliates used fake charities to deliver packages to those in need. Mexican cartels supplied bundles containing food and sanitizers to states and cities under their influence. Yakuza groups in Japan handed out free masks, toilet paper, and tissues to pharmacies and kindergartens. Even the Taliban got involved by posting health teams to remote areas of Afghanistan to help tackle the virus. Militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham distributed health information to the public in the Syrian province of Idlib. In South Africa, there are reports that gangs in Cape Town called a temporary truce to hand out food parcels.

What’s more, while carrying out some of these activities, OCGs made sure communities and wider populations in the geographies they operate in knew exactly who was supplying the aid. Publicity stunts were staged to drive the message home. For example, one Mexican cartel posted videos of armed individuals handing out bags of groceries from the back of a pickup truck, and other cartels stamped their logos on the packages they delivered, the UNODC says.

These activities do not just strengthen the hold of OCGs in their respective communities. They also serve as a way to highlight the failures of governments and diminish the legitimacy of official agencies. And, as a result, OCGs may find it easier to continue with their activities in the future in those communities and may even find it less tough to recruit new members.

The organized crime threat, especially in relation to vaccines, combined with international terrorism and cybercrime, has created an unprecedented dynamic criminal situation, requiring a global response, INTERPOL said in January. Being aware of this is necessary to combat the latest threats posed by OCGs. As INTERPOL reminds us all on its Covid-19 safety guidelines page: “Criminals don’t take breaks. Even as everything around us is being put on hold, they are looking for new ways to generate profits.”

2021 Set To Be Record Year For Gun Violence; Spate Of Shootings Marks Weekend

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

This year may have been the year of struggling to move past Covid-19, but it is also on track to the deadliest year for gun violence in the United States in decades. According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of Sept. 15, 14,516 people have died in the U. S. so far in 2021 as a result of gun violence, CNN reported. This is a 9% increase over the same period in 2020, amounting to about 1,300 more fatalities.

Mass shootings — events in which four or more people are killed or injured (excluding the gunman) — are also on the rise, with 498 such incidents recorded in the period until Sept. 15, which brings the average mass shootings per day in 2021 to 1.92. This is a significant rise from 2020, which saw 611 mass shootings in the entire year, an average of 1.67 per day.

Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at University of Missouri – St. Louis, said there were many factors that could be affecting the gun violence rates. “Immediately after George Floyd was murdered and widespread protests broke out across the country,” Rosenfeld said, “that’s what we saw in a number of cities — a very, very large uptick” in homicides.

“What we’re seeing now is exactly what we saw (seven years) after the Ferguson incident and protests emerged across the country,” Rosenfeld added. “We saw a sizable uptick in homicide in the big cities, and that uptick persisted — depending upon the city — for a year, sometimes a little more than a year.”

As has become upsettingly commonplace, there were several incidents reported in various news outlets across the country over the most recent weekend as well.

In Pennsylvania three people were shot at a baby shower after a fight broke out over gifts, NBC News reported. The incident, which occurred in Lower Burrell, a small city 30 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh, resulted in a suspect being taken into custody and a 23-year-old man, a 19-year-old woman, and a 16-year-old boy being shot.

Separately, in North Philadelphia, six people were killed in different incidents. Two of the events happened on one street, only hours apart from each other, while two more men were gunned down inside a deli and one was killed on a porch elsewhere. In addition to the six killed, several others were injured, some seriously, and were receiving treatment in hospitals, Fox 29 reported.

The weekend was a bloody one in Chicago too, with six killed among 43 shot. City police said that they had responded to at least 35 separate incidents over the weekend, ABC News reported. 

In one mass shooting incident, some men drove up in the Austin neighbourhood of Chicago and opened fire on a group of people gathered, with five individuals ranging in age from 18 to 47 being wounded. The gunmen got back in the car and fled, and no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.

In North Carolina as well, two men were killed at Central University, not far from where a college football game was being played. While it was unclear what caused the incident, police were looking for a black Nissan Altima with tinted windows, WRAL-TV reported.

In the Golden Nugget Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, a man named Randy Johnson was fatally shot by Jereme Lamond Jones, who was quickly apprehended and charged with first degree murder, according to Casino.org. While Jones left the casino after the incident, he was tracked down and arrested near Biloxi Bay Bridge, about a mile from the casino.

Just over Labor Day weekend, we wrote about how holidays have come to be marred with extreme gun violence. The spike in gun violence this year has been attributed to many factors, including destabilization caused by evictions being allowed to resume after a brief moratorium, as well as the stress and uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Meanwhile, various local, state, Tribal, and federal governments are working to curb this gun violence epidemic.

Staged Accident Scams: An Introduction

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Between 2015 and 2017, two ringleaders of a gang in New Orleans allegedly staged at least 100 accidents in a scam that was targeted at defrauding trucking and insurance companies. As part of a federal investigation into intentional collisions with trucks, seven people were charged for staging two accidents with tractor-trailers in New Orleans, bringing the number of indictments under the investigation to 40, Transport Topics reported on Sept. 15, Wednesday. That’s but one example of these types of scams that appear to be on the rise. The Covid-19 pandemic has also resulted in an increasing number of fraudulent claims targeting the trucking industry, according to an Automotive Fleet blog.

Staged crashes first emerged in the United States in the 1990s, per that blog. Since then, it has grown significantly and, today, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) calls such schemes a “big business,” and warns the public to watch out for telltale signs in order to prevent becoming a victim. The challenge for the layman, unfortunately, is that automobile accidents are all too common in the country, so it can be hard to differentiate genuine ones from those that are not. Accidents are a daily occurrence on the streets and cost the insurance industry billions of dollars in paid accident claims each year.

But fraudulent automobile accidents also occur more frequently that we may realize, especially in the urban areas that scammers tend to target more, under the presumption that wealthier communities will have better insurance. Criminals are also said to target new, rental, or commercial vehicles more than any others because, once again, they are typically well-insured. As with other scams, they also tend to target women or senior drivers who are driving alone more than any other group, as they consider them to be less confrontational.

In today’s piece, we take a look at some common modi operandi of staged accident scammers, and what you can do to prevent yourself from falling prey to such frauds.

Common Scams

According to the NICB, there are some common staged accident scams that you can look out for. Here’s a quick look at them:

Left Turn Drive Down —
Under this scam, say you are driving down a four-lane road preparing to make a left hand turn. As you stop to make the turn, a driver heading the other way slows to a stop, and waves to you to go on ahead and turn. But as you move ahead to complete the turn, the driver who waved you through suddenly moves forward blocking your entrance to the parking lot. To avoid an accident, you stop.
However, another car coming down the road slams into the side of your car. The car blocking the entrance leaves the scene making it appear as though you are at fault for pulling into oncoming traffic. The driver and passengers of the car that crashed into you will all claim you pulled into traffic when it wasn’t clear, and they will all claim injuries. As a result, a claim is filed against your insurance company to pay the criminals and unless someone suspects fraud and investigates further, the criminals cash in.

Right Turn Drive Down —
In this scenario, imagine you pull up to an intersection preparing to make a right-hand turn. You start to make the turn when suddenly another vehicle runs into the back-left side of your car. The driver and passengers of the car that crashed into you will all state you pulled into traffic when it wasn’t clear and they will all claim injuries. Seemingly at fault, a claim is filed against your insurance company to pay the criminals and, unless someone suspects fraud and investigates further, the criminals cash in.

Curb Drive Down —
Let’s say you were parked and are attempting to pull away from a curb and merge into traffic. Suddenly, a car crosses from the left lane and deliberately crashes into you. The driver and passengers of the car that crashed into you will all claim you pulled into traffic when it wasn’t clear and they will all claim injuries. As a result, a claim is filed against your insurance company to pay the criminals and unless someone suspects fraud and investigates further, the criminals cash in.

Swoop-And-Squat —
On an ordinary city street, this typically involves three vehicles, two driven by criminals and the third by an innocent victim. The driver of the “squat” vehicle pulls in front of the victim’s car. The driver of the “swoop” vehicle pulls in front of the squat vehicle, causing the driver of the squat vehicle to hit his brakes. The victim cannot react in time and rear-ends the squat vehicle. The swoop vehicle races off and is not seen again. The victim then typically is responsible for any vehicle damage and personal injury to passengers in the squat vehicle.
On a freeway or expressway, similar to the case above, four vehicles are typically involved, with three belonging to criminals. In this variation, the third criminal boxes in the victim so he cannot change lanes when the swoop vehicle cuts off the squat vehicle. Following the crash, the swoop and box-in cars speed off, again forcing the victim’s insurer to pay the claim.

Some other kinds of modi operandi, per Automotive Fleet, include phony injuries and jump-ins. Phony injury scams typically happen when you may find yourself on the hook for injuries you didn’t cause. The criminal and accomplice passengers may collaborate with an unscrupulous physician or chiropractor and file personal injury claims for non-existent injuries. Some criminals visit legitimate doctors and claim whiplash or other difficult-to-detect soft tissue injuries. Jump-ins, like the name suggests, occur when people suddenly appear and jump into the scammer’s car claiming they were passengers. You should also be suspicious if the other driver and passengers report injuries where there is only minor damage to the vehicles.

This is the first of a mini-series Biometrica plans to do on staged accident scams.