On Tuesday (Nov. 30) afternoon, a 15-year-old sophomore who hasn’t been named yet by authorities opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan. His shooting spree ended up leaving three fellow students dead and eight others wounded. The three students who were killed were identified as: 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.
Among those wounded were seven students ranging in age from 14 to 17 who remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds as of late Tuesday night, according to a report by Associated Press. Those injured include a 14-year-old girl who was on a ventilator after surgery. A teacher is also said to have received a graze wound to the shoulder during the incident, and was discharged from the hospital.
CBS News said police responded to an active shooter at Oxford High School at 12:51 p.m. local time, according to Michael McCabe, the Oakland County undersheriff. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the shooting, according to the Associated Press article.
Oxford High School is in Oxford Township, a community of about 22,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Detroit. The handgun, allegedly a 9 mm Sig Sauer, authorities believe the 15-year-old used was purchased by the suspect’s father days ago. The suspect was taken into custody and was not injured.
Deputies arrested him within minutes of arriving at the school after he emerged from a bathroom with the gun, which supposedly still had seven rounds of ammunition left in it. Bouchard said the suspect had practiced shooting with the gun and “posted pictures of the target and the weapon.”
The suspect is not speaking with investigators and his family has hired an attorney, according to an NBC News report. “The person that’s got the most insight and the motive is not talking,” Bouchard said at a news conference, per Associated Press. When it comes to juvenile suspects, police are required to seek permission from parents or guardians to speak with them.
Bouchard said the suspect had no previous run-ins with his department and he wasn’t aware of any disciplinary history at school. However, media reports also speak of rumors doing the round before the incident. Bouchard said authorities were made aware of allegations circulating on social media that there had been threats of a shooting at the roughly 1,700-student school, but he said they didn’t know about it until after the attack.
Authorities said they were searching the suspect’s cellphone, school video footage and social media posts for any evidence of a possible motive.
He took the opportunity to stress, though, that it is crucial to send these kind of tips in to authorities, and cautioned against spreading social media rumors about the attack before a full investigation. Media reports also say there was an incident earlier at the school, early last month, where a deer head was thrown off the school roof. But Undersheriff Mike McCabe said that incident of vandalism was “absolutely unrelated” to the shooting and involved a different student.
The vandalism had, however, prompted school administrators to post two letters to parents on the school’s website saying they were responding to rumors of a threat against the school but had found none.
Oxford High School was placed on lockdown after the attack, with some children sheltering in locked classrooms while officers searched the premises, per Associated Press. They were later taken to a nearby Meijer grocery store to be picked up by their parents. The district said in a statement that all of its schools would be closed for the rest of the week.
Two separate, unrelated gun violence incidents also made headlines on Tuesday. In California, a security guard whose online posts talked about following a good and religious life remained jailed on suspicion of shooting to death his four children, including an infant, and their grandmother at their Southern California home.
In Atlanta, a man responsible for an accidental gun discharge at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport turned himself in to police. He set off the gun accidentally while grabbing for it during a bag search at the airport’s main checkpoint.
The U.S. is currently in the grip of what experts are calling a historic crime wave, with violent crime — and homicide rates particularly — reaching levels previously seen in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, over the last two and a half decades and until this year, crime rates have actually steadily declined in the U.S., though most experts cannot seem to agree why.
One interesting theory posited in the early 2010s chalked this phenomenon up to lead poisoning. In this piece, we take a look at that theory and what the scientific community thinks its merits are.
The lead–crime hypothesis is as follows: Lead was a commonplace ingredient in many consumer goods before the 1970s, particularly in paint and gasoline. The economic boom post World War II saw more houses built and more cars manufactured and bought, meaning that a whole generation of children was exposed to high quantities of lead. In the mid-1970s, cars began to use unleaded gasoline. In 1978, the federal government banned lead from being used in consumer goods. The gradual phasing out of lead and the lower levels of poisoning found in children from the 1970s on is what proponents of this theory say caused violent crime rates to halve over the 1990s and early 2000s.
But why does this matter? What makes lead so harmful?
According to experts, a child exposed to elevated levels of lead can suffer “lasting problems with growth and development.” The growth impairment can be both physiological and psychological, and can even affect hearing and the child’s behavior. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning and academic achievement.” Another effect of lead poisoning is that it can reduce children’s attention span. The neural damage caused by lead poisoning cannot be reversed, though some of the physical effects can be.
One study found that a prolonged or high exposure to lead in childhood could permanently damage that part of the brain that controls and regulates aggression, emotional responses, and impulse control, among other things, all of which generally culminate in bad decision-making. That, some theorists say, is pretty much “the profile of a violent young offender.”
Children can be particularly affected because their bodies tend to absorb lead at a higher rate and because brains develop quickly in early childhood. Lead poisoning need not occur only through prolonged exposure to the substance either. Sudden exposure to a large amount can also be detrimental. Lead can be found in many everyday substances, including paint, air, water, soil, food, and manufactured goods.
The degree to which lead exposure can explain crime rates varies, ranging from 0% to over 35%. One expert even says that the lead–crime theory can account for up to 90% of the trends noted in crime rates in the 20th century and across the world.
Of course, it is important to keep in mind that lead poisoning is not the sole determinant or cause of criminality. There are many other factors that can influence the crime rate. For some, the graph patterns across decades, cities, and countries are too similar to be coincidental.
However, across most Western countries, a BBC article says, “all the broad measures of key crimes have been falling” since the 1990s. It’s hard to track the common factor between all these nations — some increased their incarceration rates, others decreased it, but almost all saw a decline in violent crime. What they do have in common is — you guessed it — lead exposure levels.
After the theory initially began to make the rounds, proponents predicted that countries that up until that point had not banned lead use would see a reduction in crime rates roughly two decades after they did so. Sure enough, Britain banned leaded gasoline/petrol later than the U.S. and Canada did. Subsequently, the rate of violent crime in Britain dropped later than it did in North America.
According to the BBC, “Lead theorists say that data they’ve collated and calculated from each nation shows the same 20-year trend – the sooner lead is removed from the environment, the sooner crime will begin to fall.”
On the other side of the debate, detractors say that just because the graphs match up well, doesn’t mean that lead exposure and crime are related — after all, the age-old scientific tenet is that correlation does not equal causation.
In addition, there has long been a pattern of scientists trying to find a biological or physical cause for criminality, rather than accepting that the root cause may be structural, social, political, or — more likely — a mixture of numerous interconnected factors.
Of course, the lead–crime theory is difficult to really put to the test and prove. The kind of rigorous and repeated scientific study needed for that would require purposely poisoning thousands of children with lead, which is obviously unethical, inhumane, and illegal.
However, over recent months, both lead levels and violent crime have been quite prominent in the news, so it seems that a reconsideration of this theory is timely. The measured conclusion experts seem to reach is that lead exposure can and likely does affect criminal behavior, but it is still not (and may never be) clear how strong that link is and whether it is sufficient to explain broad-based crime rates.
In October, the CDC announced that it was revising its blood lead reference value (BLRV) for children between 1–5 years old, lowering the threshold to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter of blood from the previous 5. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra noted at the time that “no level of lead is safe” for children and that the effects of being exposed to lead are “toxic and irreversible.”
Lead exposure in children has trended downward since its peak a few decades ago, but it is still “a significant public health concern” according to the CDC, especially in poorer communities that tend to be populated by non-Hispanic Black people or African Americans.
A 2020 study found that around 1.23 million American children have lead poisoning according to the CDC’s older threshold. With the revision, however, that number is expected to double.
The multi-billion dollar casino industry, possibly much like several other sectors, has sometimes been a target of unscrupulous characters who try and use the cover of a legitimate business to surreptitiously carry out criminal activities. When it comes to the hotels and hospitality industry, one of the ways in which criminals try and take advantage of this ‘cover’ is by using a legitimate organization’s property as a ‘meeting place.’ In a previous piece, we examined how human traffickers are also known to follow a similar criminal strategy, and have used casinos and gaming properties as a place to meet potential “buyers.”
In our earlier piece, we also established that there have been instances where sex trafficking survivors reported that casinos were used as a meeting place for buyers, some of whom were solicited online, or as a venue to solicit prospective buyers, according to the Colorado-based not-for-profit Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT). But, on the other hand, casinos can also become a refuge for victims and offer them a secure location from where they can seek help or try and escape their situation. It’s this intersection of the two that uniquely positions casinos, like it does truckers, as another crucial aspect of the fight against human trafficking.
Globally, not just in the U.S., the travel industry is an unknowing conduit for human trafficking, says a training document for front-line staff published by MPI (Meeting Professionals International), a meeting and event thought-leader. Traffickers are known to exploit legitimate businesses to their advantage. When it comes to hotels and casinos, traffickers also tend to use them as venues since buyers most likely already have a room there.
In this piece, we explore some of the red flags that casinos can be on the lookout for when it comes to identifying trafficking, and what actions they can take in case they do come across such instances.
Indicators Of Human Trafficking
In this section, we attempt to create a comprehensive list of possible red flags mentioned by various organizations, including the non-profit organization Polaris Project, the American Bus Association, the Texas Attorney General website, MPI, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and TAT-Busing on the Lookout. Before we list them out, though, it’s crucial to understand that it is never simple or easy to identify a person who is being exploited. It takes instincts, the power of observation, questions, and, of course, it finally takes trained law enforcement officers and other experts to actually investigate cases.
Nevertheless, there are some tell-tale signs. Per the websites and sources we mentioned above, indicators of human trafficking could include (but may not be limited to, and more than one red flag may be needed to be witnessed to establish enough premise):
Someone paying with cash only for a room and checking in for weeks. Or, the same person reserving multiple rooms (when combined with other red flags)
Someone who doesn’t have any ID, or their companion has their identification, could be a victim. Or, for instance, someone who appears to be under the control of another, or constantly defers to another person before giving out any information
Strange requests like asking for room with view of parking lot or far away from main entrance
Anxious or nervous behavior and avoiding contact with staff on the part of someone could indicate they are a victim, especially if combined with signs of visible bruising. A related red flag could be someone who seems overly fearful, submissive, tense, or paranoid
Possibly cases where the Do Not Disturb sign is consistently observed hung on the door (when combined with other red flags)
Individuals dress inappropriately for their age or have lower quality clothing compared to others in their party
Those under 21 could be an indicator (when combined with others). A child or children who can’t pass as 21 could be sold in “family-friendly” casinos where they’re more likely to blend in
How do you know if someone is scoping out your property for potential trafficking “buyers,” or even to learn about your casino’s security protocols? Such individuals may walk around the perimeter of the casino when they first arrive. They could commonly stop in the bar area, near the hotel elevators, or on corners where there is a lot of foot traffic. You may also see victims (or their pimps) looking for men who are winning big at the gaming tables, or are drunk, or for groups that look like they’re partying or alone. They may have been seen approaching men at the bar or on the casino floor whom they do not seem to know
You could also watch out to see if you spot people making recurring and frequent (less than an hour) trips between the casino floor and a hotel room
There are also signs that casino bus drivers can be on the watch for. Again, that includes coming across women, girls, or even boys and men (albeit rarer than the former), who either do not make eye contact with anyone else and/or have visible signs of physical abuse (bruising, malnutrition, branding, etc. It could also be people who are dressed odd or out of sync with their age or the weather. Children traveling with an adult they seem to be uncomfortable or uneasy being around are another red flag. Victims are also known to be transported on buses either in the nights or early mornings. They could also be traveling into gaming towns at night without booking a room or having any place to stay
Whether inside the casinos or in the buses, people who have been trafficked may only talk about lap dances or strip teases and will not likely set a dollar amount at that time
Then there are more easily identifiable signs, like when someone discloses that they were reluctant to engage in commercial sex but that they were pressured into it. This is not just applicable to casinos and gaming properties, of course
While there are visible signs like all the ones we’ve listed above, in many cases, it may be impossible to identify even a single red flag. There may, quite simply, be absolutely no signs visible on the outside. But there’s another way to help in the fight against trafficking: by paying attention to people you actually know or interact with too. For instance, your students, or teachers, or tenants, or children, or patients or co-workers. In these instances, it’s context and proximity to a person that can help identify when something doesn’t quite feel right
How To Deal With Potential Cases On Your Property
What can casinos do if they come across an individual whom they believe has been trafficked or exploited; or if they believe a pimp is using their gaming property to surreptitiously carry out illegal trafficking activities? At the very outset, all experts say the safety of the victim is a primary concern. Given that, the most important immediate advice is to not confront either the victim or the offender. Here are a few things that can be done, per the same websites and sources mentioned above:
Of course, if there is reason to believe someone may be in immediate danger or harm, call 911. TAT-Busing on the Lookout says: “If you believe someone in your establishment or on your bus is in danger (especially a child under 18), please call 911 for immediate response from local law enforcement”
Similarly, if you believe you have identified a missing child in the United States, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) toll-free Hotline at 1-800-843-5678
If you suspect human trafficking or exploitation may be happening in your establishment but do not think anyone is in immediate danger, call the human trafficking hotline. Both the United States and Canada have human trafficking hotlines that are multilingual, accessible nationwide and are staffed to answer calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. National Human Trafficking Hotline in the U.S.: 1-888-373-7888 Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-833-900-1010
Calls received by either hotline are always anonymous unless the caller chooses to provide the operator with his or her name and contact information and authorizes its use. This information is not given to law enforcement, other individuals or other agencies without prior consent
Finally, per the TAT-Busing on the Lookout toolkit, in all cases, casinos should have internal reporting protocols in place for when trafficking is suspected and always make sure their employees keep safety in mind as they act
U.S. prosecutors recently announced that they have filed sex trafficking charges against Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, the Philippine national who founded a church called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, as well as two U.S.-based administrators of that church. The superseding indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in early November.
The 74-page indictment says that Quiboloy, 71, and other church officials coerced young girls and women (some only 12 years old) to have sex by threatening them physically and by saying that if they did not, they would face “eternal damnation.” The victims were allegedly forced into some sort of servitude that mandated they prepare Quiboloy’s meals and clean for him, in addition to giving him massages and having sex with him. This scheme allegedly ran between 2002 and 2018.
According to reporting from CNN, three church administrators based in Los Angeles were last year alleged to have run a trafficking ring that brought church members to the U.S. using “fraudulently obtained visas.” The U.S. jurisdiction stems from the fact that the church has an American headquarters in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, and that the entire sex trafficking operation was “supported by funds solicited [from] U.S. donors.” These donations were also used to fund church leaders’ “lavish” lifestyles.
This indictment adds Quiboloy and five others to that 2020 indictment. Of these six, however, only three were arrested by U.S. authorities. The others, including Quiboloy, are thought to be in the Philippines. As of now, the Justice Secretary of the Philippines says Quiboloy is not facing any action in his home country in relation to these latest charges filed in the U.S.
There is, however, an appeal underway in the Philippines on a separate rape charge filed against Quiboloy last year, though charges were dismissed. That case involved accusations of “child abuse, trafficking in persons through forced labor and trafficking in persons through sexual abuse.”
Media in the Philippines are reporting that there is a chance Quiboloy could be extradited to the U.S. to face these charges, under the RP-US Extradition Treaty, regardless of the status of that case pending before the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office. The process, however, is likely to be lengthy as it involves extensive litigation. If the U.S. does put in a request to have him extradited, authorities would have to decide first whether the treaty is applicable in this case. If it is, then a petition of extradition needs to be filed before a local court, and that process has to be completed before the prisoner can be formally handed over.
The Kingdom of Jesus Christ church was founded in 1985 and is alleged to have a presence in 200 countries, comprising around 6 million people. Quiboloy is considered to be close to Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, stoking fears that this move might stress the relationship between that country and the U.S.
Earlier this month, Congress officially passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (colloquially known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal”), which allocated over $1 trillion to physical infrastructure, as well as aspects like access to clean drinking water and broadband. According to the White House, the plan is expected to add around 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years.
Crucially, the deal also has provisions targeting cybersecurity and cybercrime. On a very basic level, the bill metes out $65 billion to bring more Americans into the digital fold. This money is set to improve access to the internet for rural areas, low-income families, and tribal communities.
Part of the funds in the bill are also going towards shoring up the country’s cybersecurity infrastructure — around $1.9 billion, in fact. Most of it will be allocated towards critical infrastructure companies like energy and gas suppliers, water systems, and healthcare systems, which have more and more become the targets of hackers based abroad.
Cyberattacks in general, and ransomware attacks in particular, have been growing more commonplace over the last two years. A series of high-profile hacks this year alone has amped up the pressure on the federal government to take the lead in combating this. In turn, President Joe Biden’s administration has named cybersecurity a key focus area for policy and has deemed cyberattacks a potential “national security threat.”
The new bill caters specifically to rural communities, which often lack the necessary resources to bulk up their cybersecurity. The $1 billion set aside for smaller communities will be handed out as follows: $200 million in 2022, $400 million in 2023, $300 million in 2024, and $100 million in 2025. Around $32 million has been earmarked specifically for Native American Tribes’ cybersecurity needs.
Local and smaller governments have been an attractive target for hackers for several years now — a situation that only worsened when the Covid-19 pandemic pushed more people and businesses online. Needs faced by such communities can be as basic as “implementing multi-factor authentication, switching over to more secure .gov domains, and hiring and maintaining a skilled cybersecurity workforce.”
Governments have to submit plans to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), who will then approve them and authorize the money handover. Experts are warning, however, that the four-year limit set on the program might not be sufficient, though it has been lauded as a welcome first step.
Another way the digital landscape has been folded into the infrastructure bill is through a number of revisions made to the way cryptocurrency is treated. This has also been slightly controversial in the financial and tech spaces.
Cryptocurrency has been taking the world by storm over the last several years. Its built-in anonymity and lack of regulation have made it convenient for good- and bad-faith actors alike. While risk-taking investors and some in the financial and law enforcement spheres favor it, so too do transnational criminals, money launderers, drug dealers, and — increasingly — hackers.
While the minutiae of the deal were still being debated, one proposed way to pay for the infrastructure contained in the bill was to impose “tax-reporting requirements for cryptocurrency brokers,” thereby regulating it in a way similar to the way stockbrokers report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). At the moment, those dealing in cryptocurrency don’t always report their transactions to the IRS, though it is classified as “property” and, thus, is subject to capital gains taxes.
Now, in the final version of the deal, some of this has been officially codified. The provisions will not come into effect until January 2024, but when they do, the bill says that cryptocurrency “brokers” will have to disclose to the IRS who their customers are, as well as their names and addresses, and any transaction worth over $10,000. Failure to adhere to the latter provisions can be considered a felony offense.
One of the problems with this is the fact that the term “broker” has not been officially defined in relation to cryptocurrency. It is understood to apply to crypto exchanges like CoinBase, but those are not the only ways to “mine” and trade cryptocurrencies.
According to estimates, the cryptocurrency tax will yield around $2.8 billion a year in revenues for the government. Some in the industry say that is not a large enough amount to justify possibly curbing the growth of a “burgeoning part of the economy.” The problem, they say, is that the vagueness of the law risks complicating an already obscure and unregulated industry like cryptocurrency trading. As such, all it might do is make cryptocurrency inaccessible and impractical for Americans or might just serve as a barrier to entry for smaller investors.
This, of course, is without even taking into account how the IRS can go about developing a tax framework for this still-nascent and evolving asset. One of the biggest hurdles, in particular, is that cryptocurrency’s allure is predicated on anonymity. This would make it difficult for the IRS to trace and track the identities of those trading in it.
All in all, however, experts believe that there will need to be more negotiating and clarifying done through additional legislation over the next two years to ensure that the tax is both a useful way to fund the infrastructure goals set forth in the bill, and a stimulant to the cryptocurrency market as a whole.
Around 2.31 million passengers passed through airport screenings last Wednesday, Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA). That’s over double when compared with the 1.07 million people who went through TSA checkpoints in 2020, and is reaching close to 2019’s pre-pandemic number of 2.62 million.
Wednesday was the TSA’s busiest day since travel plummeted to coronavirus lows in April 2020, NBC News said in a report on Friday, Nov. 26. “Thanksgiving has historically seen the biggest increase in the number of travelers coming through TSA security checkpoints during the year and this year is expected to see a continuation of that trend,” TSA said last week in a press release.
The Thanksgiving holiday period started on Friday, Nov. 19 and ran through Sunday, Nov. 28. TSA had already issued prior public announcements saying those who planned to travel during that period should “expect to see a very busy airport.” TSA officials had also advised travelers to wear a mask, get to the airport two hours before their scheduled flight, and be ready to go through the security screening process.
Per the TSA, the busiest travel days are typically the day before Thanksgiving and the Sunday afterward. The highest travel day in TSA’s history was the Sunday after Thanksgiving of 2019, when nearly 2.9 million individuals were screened at TSA security checkpoints nationwide. Even in its statement last week, TSA said it did not expect travel volume this year to reach pre-pandemic levels. Although, it did anticipate that it would be notably higher than what was seen in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.
The organization also cautioned travelers who haven’t been traveling in the recent past of certain changes to the checkpoint screening process, and airport security and safety in general.
For example, travelers, TSA personnel and other individuals who work in the airports are required to continue to wear a mask as prescribed by the federal mask mandate when they are in airports, bus and rail stations, as well as while on passenger aircraft, public transportation, passenger railroads, and over-the-road buses operating on scheduled fixed-routes. This means that all travelers must be wearing a mask at TSA airport screening checkpoints, throughout the airport and during their flights, it said.
When it comes to the screening process, it said that when approaching the travel document checking podium, passengers will see TSA officers wearing masks and gloves. “Most will be positioned behind acrylic barriers to reduce cross contamination with passengers. TSA officers will change their gloves between each pat down and they will use a fresh swab if they need to swab a traveler’s hands or their carry-on items,” it added. It also planned to ask travelers to scan their own boarding passes to reduce a touchpoint.
TSA employees will be conducting routine cleaning and disinfecting of frequently touched surfaces and security screening equipment at the checkpoints to further ensure public health and safety.
As the saying goes, where there’s a will there’s a way. A perverse version of this axiom is also applicable to fraudsters and criminals, who are always on the lookout for an opportunity to scam others. Whether that be through niche hobbies like coin collecting or, as we have written about in the past, through big life moves like moving or buying houses.
Within this latter category, another type of fraud that is quite common is rental fraud. A 2018 survey found that around 5.2 million renters said they had lost money to rental fraud, with one-third saying they had lost more than $1,000.
As to why rental frauds may seem like an attractive scam to a criminal, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says: “Scammers know that finding the right apartment or vacation rental can be hard work, and a seemingly good deal is hard to pass up.” In other words, they prey on everyday people’s insecurities and limitations. The goal here, the FTC adds, is “get your money before you find out.” To do this, they “try to lure you in with the promise of low rent, or great amenities.”
According to the FTC, there are two common types of rental fraud. The first is where scammers “hijack” a real rental property by taking the details and pictures of a legitimate ad, changing the contact information, and posting it on a different site. More sophisticated versions of this will see the scammer hack and use the email or user accounts of the actual property owner. On the other hand, scammers also just make up rentals. These “phantom” rentals can either be entirely fictitious or are existing places that aren’t actually for rent.
The people behind these scams will likely ask for an upfront payment, a fee to view the property, or a deposit to reserve the property. Then, they will make off with the money. Targets of this type of fraud are most commonly individuals looking to move from other cities or countries, who may not have time to view a property before signing a lease. During the height of the pandemic as well, reports emerged of vulnerable groups who were concerned about the eviction moratorium being targeted.
Here are some tips experts suggest on how to protect yourself from rental fraud. Keep in mind that none of these are effective in isolation. Try to cover as many of these as possible to be thorough in your background check of who you are doing business with:
Make sure you are communicating with the property owner or a legitimate real-estate corporation, not a series of middlemen
Do not trust anyone who asks for a deposit just to view a property
Be wary of someone who starts talking about money right away, rather than focusing first on the property and features
Through online research, vet the person or organization brokering the rental deal. Look up license and certification proof where applicable
If possible, try to avoid handing over any money without visiting the property first
Conversely, be wary of any owners or middlemen who repeatedly claim to be out of town and therefore unavailable to meet, even if they say they are in the military or work abroad with the government
It may go without saying, but listings with few or no pictures are likely fake. Similarly, pictures that have a watermark (a faint/translucent logo superimposed on the image) are likely not original and have been copied from other websites
If a scammer communicates with you outside typical business hours, this may be an indication of a scam based outside the U.S. Keeping an eye on this isn’t 100% accurate, but can be a good baseline indicator to double-check for your own safety
Where possible, check the rental agency’s website to verify their authenticity. Also, for apartment complexes or realtors, check the internet for any reviews of the property or agency
If possible, contact actual customers to get a referral, rather than going off what may be on the company or agent’s own website
It may sound counterintuitive, but if the property owner/advertiser does not ask you for any background (not sensitive) information, like whether you work or your current landlord’s referral, it may be an indication they don’t care because it is a scam
Some landlords or rental companies might ask for a thorough background check, but if they ask for “exorbitant” fees to conduct one, then it might be a sign of a scam
Avoid conducting transactions or email or phone, especially those that might require you to disclose financial or personal information
Keep in mind that wire transfers are difficult to recover once they go through, and that legitimate transactions will rarely (if at all) be conducted via cryptocurrency, which facilitates fraud as it is unregulated and untraceable. Also do not pay in cash, as that can be difficult to recover due to a lack of a paper trail
Try and compare the prices of other rental properties in the same area. While it’s not necessarily true that all the prices in one area or even in one building will be the same, doing this can give you some clue as to whether you are being bilked or whether a deal really is too good to be true
Be suspicious if someone says that rent must be paid in cash, without a receipt, or that they will not sign a lease. That is a major red flag
And most obviously: read over any lease or rental agreement carefully to be aware of what you are signing before you hand over any money or personal information.
If you suspect you have been the victim of a scam, call local law enforcement as well as your bank to halt any money transfer.
You should also report the incident to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) here and to the FTC here.
Millions are set to travel across the nation, and the world, on board commercial aircrafts this holiday season. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is concerned that it could also bring about a rise in criminal behavior occurring on flights that endangers the safety of everyone from the passengers to flight crews and flight attendants.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland directed U.S. Attorneys to prioritize prosecution of federal crimes occurring on commercial aircraft. Federal law prohibits assaults, intimidation and threats of violence that interfere with flight crews and flight attendants, as well as other enumerated criminal acts that occur during flight.
“Passengers who assault, intimidate or threaten violence against flight crews and flight attendants do more than harm those employees; they prevent the performance of critical duties that help ensure safe air travel. Similarly, when passengers commit violent acts against other passengers in the close confines of a commercial aircraft, the conduct endangers everyone aboard,” Garland said.
To help ensure that the DOJ is notified about criminal conduct occurring on commercial aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department have created an information-sharing protocol. This protocol has already resulted in the referral of dozens of incidents by the FAA to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“The Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FAA, as well as state, local, Tribal, and territorial prosecutorial authorities and law enforcement agencies, all have roles to play in protecting passengers, flight crews, and flight attendants,” the Attorney General added.
Just earlier this week, the FAA proposed $161,823 in civil penalties against eight airline passengers for alleged unruly behavior involving alcohol. Since Jan. 1, 2021, the FAA has received nearly 300 reports of passenger disturbances due to alcohol and intoxication, it said in a statement then.
Federal law prohibits passengers from consuming alcohol aboard a flight that is not served by a flight attendant. In August, the FAA administrator sent a letter to airports requesting that they work to prevent passengers from bringing “to-go” cups of alcohol aboard the aircraft.
Similarly, on Nov. 10, the FAA proposed $225,287 in civil penalties against 10 airline passengers for alleged unruly behavior involving physical assault. Since Jan. 1, 2021, the FAA has received more than 100 reports of passenger disturbances involving physical assault, it said in a statement on Nov. 10. Federal law prohibits passengers from assaulting fellow passengers or crew aboard a flight.
On Jan. 13, 2021, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson signed an order directing a stricter legal enforcement policy against unruly airline passengers in the wake of a spike in troubling incidents. In August, unruly passenger-related civil penalties proposed by the FAA crossed $1 million in total. The rate of unruly passenger incidents hit record highs in early 2021. It has dropped about 50% since then, but still remains too high per the FAA.
The death toll in the Wisconsin case of a man driving an SUV into a festive parade rose to six on Tuesday, Nov. 23, when an 8-year-old boy died of his injuries. The number of injuries resulting from the attack stands at 62 currently per the criminal complaint that was filed, with many of those being children. Various GoFundMe pages have been set up by the victims’ families, who are bracing for a “brutal” holiday season.
Darrell Brooks Jr., 39, has been charged with five counts of murder in the first degree, and will mandatorily receive a life sentence if he is convicted. A preliminary hearing will take place on Jan. 14. It has also emerged that Brooks had an extensive criminal background, having been charged over a dozen crimes in the last two decades in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Nevada.
Separately, after a trial that lasted almost a month, a jury in Virginia has ordered that the 17 white nationalist leaders and organizations that organized the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, which resulted in mass violence, pay over $26 million in damages to the nine people who filed the lawsuit due to physical and/or emotional injuries they sustained during the two days of protests and anti-protests.
Two of the six claims in the civil lawsuit returned deadlocked verdicts from the jury, though the plaintiffs’ attorney said they will refile on those counts so a fresh jury can issue a ruling. On the other hand, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer said he would appeal the verdict on the other four counts, saying the “entire theory of that verdict is fundamentally flawed.”
The Associated Press said the verdict is “a rebuke to the white nationalist movement” while the attorney for the plaintiffs said the sum of damages is “eye opening” and that it “sends a loud message.”
The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has subpoenaed multiple white supremacist and violent organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers to determine their role in planning and carrying out the unprecedented attack. So far the Committee has already spoken to over 150 people.
A federal jury said Tuesday, Nov. 23, that pharmacy retailers CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart “recklessly distributed” outsized amounts of prescription opioids in Ohio’s Lake and Trumbull counties, resulting in “hundreds of overdose deaths” and losses of about $1 billion each. A judge will decide at a later date how much the pharmacies will pay in damages. All three companies have said they will appeal the decision, which is significant enough to set precedent if it is upheld.
Elizabeth Holmes completed a third day of testifying in her criminal trial for the fraud enacted by her medical company Theranos while she was CEO. She expressed “some remorse,” but denied trying to conceal that her company’s blood-testing methods weren’t working as she had promised. She did, however, admit that she had fraudulently added the logos of pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Schering-Plough to lab reports that she sent to Walgreens in her quest to get the latter to stock Theranos’ products in their stores.
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged right-hand woman and erstwhile girlfriend of convicted and deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is set to begin next week. Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was a minor at Epstein’s behest, will likely not be a witness at the trial, nor have any charges in connection with her been brought by prosecutors. As a result, Prince Andrew’s alleged activities will likely be excluded entirely from the high-profile proceedings.
Rudy Guede, the only person that was convicted for the 2007 murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, has been released from prison after he served most of his 16-year sentence. The case rose to prominence after American citizen Amanda Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Solecito were accused, arrested, convicted, and jailed for the murder, only for the country’s supreme court to reverse that verdict in 2015.
Meanwhile, Mark D’Amico, the man allegedly behind the infamous 2017 GoFundMe scam that preyed on people’s goodwill, has pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing.
The plot was allegedly masterminded by D’Amico and his then-girlfriend Katelyn McClure, who claimed that a homeless man named Johnny Bobbitt Jr. had given McClure his last $20 to help her after her car ran out of gas one night. The couple then launched a crowdfunding campaign to help Bobbitt for his kind act, which resulted in a kitty of over $400,000 in just a month after the story went viral.
After giving Bobbitt a cut, the couple spent most of the money on luxury items and casino trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Eventually, Bobbitt sued them and the whole story came out.
April 3, 2021 marked 25 years since the capture of the notorious domestic terror actor, Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Kaczynski was active for nearly two decades, but managed to evade arrest because he was meticulous about leaving no evidence behind. The Unabomber’s aspiration was to be the “perfect, anonymous killer.” He built untraceable bombs and delivered them to random targets. He was also infamous for leaving false clues to throw off authorities, and lived like a recluse in a cabin in the mountains of Montana. Most of us will remember that when authorities finally caught him, it was due to a rather uncommon trail: his idiosyncratic writing style.
The UNABOM Task Force (code-named for the UNiversity and Airline BOMbing targets involved) was led by Terry Turchie, who recalled one of his creative writing teachers saying “No two people write alike.” That proved to be spot on in solving the Unabomber case. When the Unabomber’s manifesto was published in the Washington Post in the hope that a reader could identify the author, David Kaczynski came forward and suggested that it could be his troubled brother, Ted. He provided the investigators with letters and documents written by his brother. And then the FBI’s linguistic analysts determined that the authors were almost certainly the same.
Every crime, and every crime scene, is unique. Clues and evidence can be found in the most unassuming of places, and every inch of a crime scene needs to be properly combed and the evidence collected and documented. Although the initial trail that led to the capture of the Unabomber started elsewhere, his cabin in Montana contained a trove of evidence that helped prosecutors build a case against him. It’s this kind of evidence collection work that the FBI’s Evidence Response Teams (ERTs) are in charge of, and its a critical link in the criminal justice system. As the FBI says on its website: “The skill, knowledge, care, and precision of an evidence team can make or break a case.”
In this piece, the second in our mini series on crime scene evidence collection, we delve further into the working of the FBI’s ERTs by examining what the Bureau looks for in potential candidates.
In our previous piece in this mini series, we established that ERTs are, effectively, a link between the crime scene and the investigating laboratory. They’re the “eyes and ears” of a case, according to Supervisory Special Agent Heather Thew according to an episode of the Bureau’s Inside the FBI podcast series. We also saw why ERTs are necessary: The FBI Laboratory — with facilities in Huntsville, Alabama, and Quantico, Virginia — employs some of the world’s foremost forensic science experts, per the Bureau. But it’s logically impossible to send them to every single crime scene the Bureau investigates. And that’s where ERTs come in.
The job of the ERTs, in a nutshell, is to collect evidence and get it to the Lab in the best condition possible. That sounds simple enough, but in reality, it is by no means an easy job. Technically, any FBI employee can apply to be a part of an ERT. It takes more than a strong resume to get picked, though.
“We’re not looking for a particular person. Normally, it’s a person that’s gonna gravitate toward long hours, getting called on a Friday at 5:00 for a crime scene that they need to drop everything and go handle it, or the weekends or whatever. Someone who’s willing to do that and has a passion,” Supervisory Special Agent Tom Duffy, a U.S. Army veteran who has led training efforts at the Evidence Response Team Unit said on the FBI podcast.
Some of the intangible requirements of the job include tenacity, passion, and attention to detail, the Bureau says. The job, like many other law enforcement jobs, also requires immense mental strength.
The Unabomber’s cabin, for instance, was described by Turchie as a dark, gloomy place with only one window that let in but a few rays of sunlight. Shelves of the cabin were filled with bottles and jars, and cartons that mostly contained compounds used to make bombs. Agents who were part of the search and evidence collection had to make an urgent and sudden pause 24 hours after the process began, though. They discovered a bomb wrapped under a bed.
“Scenes are awful. They’re long and they’re tiring and they’re sometimes the most horrific things you can see. These scenes of violence against other people and the scenes against children—those are the worst. So, you want somebody who is willing to put that aside and work hard,” Supervisory Special Agent Gene Lanzillo said on the podcast. What do agents do when they encounter scenes that are horrific? Justyna Sliwinski, a forensic accountant with the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office and member of its Evidence Response Team says compartmentalizing is key to getting the job done. She adds that the workaround would be to just think about the process and your training and not the actual scene.
It’s also why the Evidence Response Team Unit’s (ERTU) basic course includes resiliency training to teach students how to avoid physical, mental, and emotional burnout; dispel the stigma surrounding asking for help; and ensure they know about the support resources available to them. Still, at the end of the day, the ERT may not be ideal for everyone. That’s why many field offices allow interested employees to shadow their ERT on a response or two. That way the ERT can decide if potential candidates are a good fit or not, while the latter can see they have the fortitude for it.
For example, when ERT applicants are trained on forensics, they go through days of training at what employees of the Bureau call the Body Farm. That’s as macabre as it sounds, and yet it’s another crucial aspect of ERT training. The Body Farm is the Bureau’s Forensic Anthropology Center in Knoxville, Tennessee where ERT members are provided training each year on human remains recovery. It trains ERTs how to recognize graves, excavate graves and surface remains, and make sure that they get all of the evidence and document all of the evidence.
In March 2019, the Bureau published a video marking 20 years of training at the Body Farm. “These are what we call challenge crime scenes, because you might not be able to recognize all of the evidence as bone. Some of it looks like rock. Until you know bone very well, which is what they learn here, it might not be really recognizable. And so the risk is that they might miss something that’s really important,” Dawnie Steadman, director, Forensic Anthropology Center says in that video.
As part of the basic course, the ERTU teaches its members to adopt a 12-step process while approaching any crime scene. ERT members need to learn skills that regular agents may not require. For example, as part of the course, they learn how to use photography combined with sketches to document every aspect of a crime scene. Piecing together everything they’ve discovered has been described by some members as an odd sort of treasure hunt. In other instances, ERT members may need to tap into their imagination to try and deduce what part of the crime scene needs more attention.
Finally, it’s a job that comes with the added “big picture” challenge that anything done in the process of collecting evidence, rather anything that’s mishandled or left out, could have a significant impact on justice being served. “Rush into a crime scene and you may destroy the tread marks the suspect left in the dirt. Handle a glass carelessly and you can mar the fingerprints left on it,” the Bureau says in a post about how it trains its ERTs. “If you mishandle a piece of evidence, it’s someone’s life. It is justice served or not served,” Kari Shorr, an instructional systems design specialist for the ERT training unit says in the post.
Despite all the challenges, it’s a job that can bring immense satisfaction to those who are dedicated to the cause. It’s the satisfaction of knowing that your job helped bring justice to, say, a case of a child who was abandoned and found dead. The ERT can be a place where people whose “desire to serve outweighs the heaviness of the assignment” find that everything clicks. According to the Bureau, the beauty of the ERT, though, lies in its diversity.
As Lanzillo puts it on the podcast: “So, we’ve got the creative, you’ve got the detailed oriented, we’ve got the former scientists. We’ve got the former police. We’ve got people that don’t fit any of those categories that get there and say, “You know what? This is pretty cool.” And I think you will find if you go to any field office and you ask the executive management about the type of people that are ERT, they’re going to tell you, it’s their best agents, it’s their best employees.”
This is the second part of our mini series on crime scene evidence collection. Biometrica plans to explore other aspects of this in future pieces, including the FBI’s underwater ERTs and hazardous material ERTs.
