NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Cybercrimes on the rise due to sophisticated scams
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
PORTLAND — On Dec.
14, 2018, Aaron Cole was
about to buy a new house
and received an email that
he thought was from his title
company, directing him to
make a $123,000 deposit.
Cole complied, not realiz-
ing that a sophisticated hacker
network had likely been spy-
ing on his communications
with the title company and
that although the email looked
like others he had received
from the title company, this
time, the email address was
slightly different.
A week later, the title com-
pany called, advising him it
was time to send money. The
Oregon man suddenly real-
ized he had given away his
family’s life savings to crimi-
nals. The money was from the
sale of their former house.
“It was the worst feeling,”
Cole said Friday. “And then
having to go home and tell my
wife that I just gave away all
the money. She could tell right
when I walked in the house
and just sat down, and I just
couldn’t come up with the
words to tell her.”
In 2015, $220 million was
lost to wire fraud in the United
States. In 2019, losses will
surpass $1.5 billion, according
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge George Chamberlin, left, speaks in Portland to reporters about the rise of cybercrime
in Oregon. He was joined by Gabriel Gundersen, an FBI supervisory special agent with the Oregon Cyber Task Force, center,
and Loren Cannon, FBI special agent in charge of the Portland Division.
to WFG National Title Insur-
ance Company.
In the past, attempts
to trick people were often
clumsy, FBI agents told jour-
nalists on Friday. Now they
can be sophisticated. If people
are asked via email to transfer
money under a deadline, they
should not rush and instead
call a known number of the
person the email is purport-
edly from and confirm the
request, the agents said.
“The emails have got-
ten well-crafted and quite
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detailed. They’re highly tai-
lored to that particular vic-
tim,” said Gabriel Gundersen,
an FBI supervisory special
agent with the Oregon Cyber
Task Force. “It’s a social engi-
neering piece, where they’re
coercing a victim to do some-
thing based on an artifi-
cial agenda or an artificial
timeline.”
In one of the largest cases
of its kind in U.S. history, fed-
eral authorities in Los Ange-
les announced an indictment
in August charging 80 people,
Senators introduce Owyhee bill
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Partly sunny
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PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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OREGON FORECAST
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SUN AND MOON
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63/32
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
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most of them Nigerians, with
stealing $6 million in an email
scam and money laundering
network. George Chamber-
lin, assistant special FBI agent
in charge of the Portland divi-
sion, said such cases can take
years to develop.
Partnerships between vic-
tims, local law enforcement,
the FBI and its field offices
overseas, and law enforce-
ment in other countries is crit-
ical to combatting this trans-
national crime, said Loren
Cannon, the FBI’s special
agent in charge of the Port-
land office.
In Oregon, losses sur-
passed $24 million from com-
puter-related crimes from Jan.
1 through Sept. 30 of this year.
For all of last year, $23.5 mil-
lion was stolen, the FBI said.
Most of the money has
been lost in so-called busi-
ness email compromise
scams, in which organized
crime groups trick victims
into making wire transfers to
bank accounts controlled by
the criminals.
Cole, from the Portland
suburb of Oregon City, was
lucky. His title firm, WFG
National Title Insurance
Company, hired him — for
the same amount of money
he lost — to be a spokes-
man to warn others about
cyber scams.
ONTARIO — U.S. Sens.
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley,
both D-Ore., on Nov. 7 intro-
duced legislation that would
designate more than 1.1 mil-
lion acres of the Owyhee
River Canyonlands in Mal-
heur County as wilderness.
The area is important to
the local economy because
it includes significant graz-
ing land, recreation destina-
tions and other assets. Recent
research there has focused on
preserving sage grouse and
other wildlife habitat, and
native grasses.
The Malheur County
Community
Empower-
ment for the Owyhee Act
— largely a result of collab-
oration among ranchers, con-
servation groups, university
researchers and others —
aims to maintain and improve
rangeland, preserve grazing,
and protect areas important to
wildlife and recreation.
The legislation supports
science-based adaptive man-
agement of federal lands “to
make efficient ranching a
continued conservation tool
and ensure real-time manage-
ment responses to threats on
the ecological integrity of the
lands,” the senators said in a
joint statement.
Adaptive
management
aims to encourage flexibility
by allowing for adjustments
based on current or recent
results. To help ensure man-
agement actions produce eco-
logical improvements, the
legislation calls for creating a
monitoring network of ranch-
ers, businesses, environmen-
tal groups and land managers.
Grazing would be allowed
to continue, including in
newly designated wilderness
areas. The legislation would
provide funding for research,
active-management activi-
ties and monitoring as well
as enforcement of anticipated
uses. It would also maintain
existing roads, and estab-
lish “loop roads” to encour-
age tourism while improving
access for firefighting.
The legislation would not
create a national monument,
amend the Taylor Grazing
Act, impede current proj-
ects, impact water rights or
irrigation districts, or affect
management of Owyhee
Reservoir.
It would give wilderness
protection to parts of the
Trout Creek Mountains, Cas-
tle Rock, Leslie Gulch, Hon-
eycombs, Three Forks and
Jordan Craters. Wild and
Scenic River management
would be used on 14.7 miles
of the Owyhee River below
Owyhee Reservoir.
The legislation “ensures
the safeguarded protections
of desert wildlife habitat,
native and rare plants, and
vast wild places for future
generations to enjoy” while
also making sure ecological
health drives management,
Friends of the Owyhee said in
an online newsletter.
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in San Bernardino, Calif. Low -16° in Cotton, Minn.
BRIEFLY
GOP mailer mimics Census form
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
PORTLAND — The Republican National
Committee is sending mailers to some Ore-
gon voters that mimic the look of a U.S. Cen-
sus form and solicit donations for President
Trump’s re-election.
KGW-TV reported Tuesday the mailers are
labeled “2019 Congressional District Census”
but are not from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The survey asks the person’s age, politi-
cal preference and whether they plan on sup-
porting Donald Trump in the 2020 Presiden-
tial election. The mailer also includes questions
about domestic issues, national defense and
immigration.
Officials in Montana last month issued a
warning about the mailers.
Legitimate census survey documents are
postmarked from the U.S. Department of
Commerce and U.S. Census Bureau.
In an email to KGW, a Republican National
Committee says the mailers are clearly marked
as being from the GOP.
Police: Woman passenger in
truck that ran her over
PORTLAND — Authorities say a woman
killed in a hit-and-run was a passenger in the
same truck that ran her over. The woman was
found dead about 2:20 a.m. Monday in Portland.
After investigating, authorities believe the
woman was a passenger in a white pickup but,
for some reason, fell out onto the road. The
truck then ran the woman over before fleeing
the scene.
The woman’s identity has not yet been
determined.
— Associated Press
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