By Steve Neavling

People looking for love online are targeted for Internet fraud more than anyone else, the FBI revealed in its annual online fraud report.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, said romance confidence scams cost victims an average of $14,214.

Although men are slightly more likely to be victimized by Internet crime, the report  found that women were disproportionately victimized by romance cons, accounting for 70% of the cases, NBC reports. 

“Criminals search dating websites, chat rooms, and social media websites for personally identifiable information, and use well-rehearsed scripts to attract potential victims,” it said. “Victims of these scams believe they are in a relationship with someone who is honest and trustworthy without meeting them in person.”

IC3 offered the following tip to avoid being scammed:

• Don’t respond to any unsolicited email, phone call or mail requesting your personal information.
• Don’t fill out forms in email messages asking for personal information.
• Don’t click on email links. Instead, go to the official website of the business or group and start from there,
• Maintain at least two email addresses — one for people you know and one for all other purposes.
• Frequently check your bank statements to avoid unauthorized charges and monitor for fraud.
• Never give your credit card number over the phone unless you made the call.
• Don’t do business with people or companies operate only from a post office box address.
• Don’t accept packages which you didn’t order.
• If someone you’ve never met tells you he or she loves you but needs money to visit you, don’t buy it.

By Steve Neavling

President Obama’s decision to join Twitter unleashed a torrent of hateful, even threatening tweets that have already caught the attention of the Secret Service.

Not only that, the White House is archiving every response to @POTUS, the Washington Post reports. 

So the newspaper kindly reminds readers to be wise when tweeting to the president of the United States.

“Just seconds after posting something online it has likely been disseminated to dozens of people and definitely been archived by an unknowable number of automated systems,” the programmer Pehr Hovey wrote in his master’s thesis on deleted tweets in 2010. “Though a delete button may provide solace to those having second thoughts, in reality it is a façade.”

By Steve Neavling

The ATF is not equipped to handle gun violence and should be merged with the FBI to reduce firearms crime, according to a liberal think tank with strong ties to President Obama, the Washington Post reports. 

The Center of American Progress provided a 182-page report that argued the ATF is hamstrung by inadequate resources, poor management and burdensome restrictions.

“We do not make the core recommendation of this report lightly and recognize that . . . this type of agency restructuring would be challenging and time-consuming,” said Arkadi Gerney, one of the report’s co-authors. “But the problem of gun violence in the United States warrants this kind of large-scale rethinking. With 33 people murdered with guns in the United States every day, it is time to think big about how best to fulfill the ATF’s mission to enforce gun laws and regulate the gun industry.”

The group argues the ATF should be folded into the FBI, an idea promoted by Republicans in years past.

A Justice Department spokesman’s said the agency  “supports ATF in its current form and believes Congress should fully fund the president’s budget request that will enhance ATF’s ability to carry out their important mission.”

The NRA blamed the Obama administration on problems in the ATF.

“The Obama administration has only contributed to ATF’s dysfunction by politicizing the agency to implement its gun-control agenda,” said NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker. “Regardless of where ATF is located, the reality is that nothing will change until we have a president who respects the Second Amendment.”

By Steve Neavling

A Border Patrol agent was justified when he fatally shot a 20-year-old Canadian who crossed the border illegally in March and sprayed the agent with bear spray, the Associated Press reports. 

Whatcom County Prosecutor Dave McEachran said the agent did everything he could to avoid a fatal encounter with Jamison Edward Childress, retreating and warning the man that he would be shot if he deployed the beer spray.

Canadian police were looking for the man from Prince George, British Columbia, because he was wanted on murder charges.

When confronted at a border near Sumas, Washington, he reportedly screamed, “Kill me!” at officers.

A responding agent retreated but had run out of places to go, according to the report.

“The officer was sprayed before he fired,” McEachran said. “The officers could see this huge cloud sprayed. It was coming right at his face, he shot his gun at that point, then was overcome by the spray.”

Two shots were fired. One bullet was recovered in the autopsy.

By Steve Neavling

The bust was so big that federal authorities are already calling it the largest seizure of heroin in New York City history.

The DEA helped nab a pair of suspected Bronx drug traffickers in what turned out to be the largest seizure of heroin in the city’s history, NBC New York reports.

Agents seized more than 150 pounds of heroin that is worth at least $50 million. An additional $2 million in cash.

Investigators believe the traffickers routinely received similar-size shipments every month from Mexico and supplied the deadly, addictive drug to users in New York, Pennsylvania and New England.

“To put it in perspective, this load was so large it carried the potential of supplying a dose of heroin to every man, woman and child in New York City,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said in a statement. “While this important seizure stopped a huge amount of heroin from flooding our city, it also highlights the critical need to intercept heroin before it ever reaches our region.”

Other Stories of Interest

• Homeland Security Agents Shoot Suspect in West Palm Beach
• FBI Helps Windsor Investigate Death of Bicyclist Along Rural Stetch
• Mafia Associated in Ohio Accused of Murder-for-Hire Plot
• Chinese Professors Among 6 Charged with Economic Espionage
• Former Homeland Security Chief on Threats of Cyberwar