Two Ontario men lose $75,000 and $80,000 in psychic scams
Some people believe in the power of psychics and visit with them for palm readings and spiritual guidance. However, if a psychic makes unrealistic promises and asks for a lot of money that should be a red flag that something is not right.
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CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Alleged Canadian hacker unmasked after threatening cybersecurity researcher
When an alleged hacker known as 'Waifu' violently threatened her online, cybersecurity researcher Allison Nixon set out to unmask them. Now Connor Riley Moucka, a 25 year old from Kitchener, Ont., is being held in Canada as he awaits extradition to the U.S. to face multiple criminal charges. U.S. authorities accuse Moucka and his accomplices of hacking into at least 10 organizations and stealing troves of sensitive records like payroll and banking information. By holding stolen data for ransom, they allegedly extorted US$2.5 million in Bitcoin from three of their victims. 'I was not working on him until he started posting threats about me,' Nixon told from New York City. Nixon is the chief research officer and co-owner of Unit 221B, a U.S. cybersecurity firm named after Sherlock Holmes' apartment. Like the fictional detective, Nixon and her colleagues investigate cybercrimes and expose culprits. 'I've seen cybercriminals cause their own downfall,' Nixon, a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, said. 'But this is probably the most ridiculous instance of it.' 'He couldn't stop threatening people' In 2024, hiding behind pseudonyms like 'Waifu,' Moucka purportedly used Telegram group chats to boast of his alleged crimes and threaten Nixon and her company. Nixon believes Moucka was trying to get her attention to find out what Unit221B knew about him – which she admits wasn't much at the time. Those threats, however, quickly made him a target for Unit221B and would be a crucial misstep in his undoing. 'He was drawing attention to himself and causing more people to work on his case and causing his case to become the higher priority,' Nixon said. 'He couldn't stop threatening people that weren't initially working on his case.' Nixon adds that threatening investigators 'is a really great way to get prioritized.' Working with Unit221B colleagues and partners like Mandiant, a cybersecurity company and subsidiary for Google, it took several months of labour-intensive digital sleuthing to reveal Moucka's identity, which was passed on to law enforcement. Nixon would not disclose exactly how Moucka was identified. 'I know that these threat actors try to learn intel collection methods so that they can try to protect their anonymity, so they can continue doing crimes,' she said. 'So I don't want to publicly discuss the details, because I want to continue using the same techniques again against these guys.' 'One of the biggest cybersecurity breaches' Moucka was arrested at his grandfather's house in Kitchener in October 2024 following a request from U.S. authorities. In March, he agreed to be extradited to the U.S., where he faces 20 federal charges, including several counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, extortion and aggravated identity theft. According to a U.S. indictment, Moucka and accomplices accessed personal records belonging to millions of people, including financial information, passport details and social security numbers. The indictment alleged their goal was 'to enrich themselves by: (a) accessing computers without authorization; (b) stealing sensitive personal identifying, financial, and other valuable information from those computers; (c) threatening to leak the stolen data unless the victims paid ransoms; and (d) offering to sell the stolen data online to other criminals.' While specific companies are not mentioned in court documents, the details largely match the massive 'Snowflake' hack from 2024, which targeted users of a cloud-based storage platform. Companies that used Snowflake and were affected by the breach include AT&T, Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Advance Auto Parts and Pure Storage, many of which had Canadian customers. 'It is certainly one of the biggest cybersecurity breaches that we've had in history,' David Jao, a mathematics professor and member of the University of Waterloo's Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, told CTV News Kitchener last November. 'The case is not over, there are still other criminals that are out there that have not been caught yet.' Court documents also link Moucka to the case against Cameron John Wagenius, a U.S. Army soldier accused of selling hacked AT&T data, including call records allegedly belonging to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Wagenius reportedly plead guilty earlier this year. Nixon says Moucka knew he would eventually be arrested, so he prepared what she refers to as 'insurance policies.' 'He gave packages of money and files to various contacts of his,' she said. 'One of these involved a package of sensitive call details belonging to the former vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the current president, Donald Trump, and multiple members of the Trump family.' 'Money-making schemes and violence' Moucka, Wagenius and other alleged accomplices are reportedly members of 'The Com' hacking community, which is predominantly comprised of young men from English-speaking countries like the U.K., the U.S. and Canada. According to cyberthreat intelligence firm Intel471, individuals and groups within 'The Com' have engaged 'in cybercriminal activities such as subscriber identity module (SIM) swapping, cryptocurrency theft, commissioning real-life violence, swatting and corporate intrusions.' Nixon says 'The Com' shares many traits with 'pre-internet teenage street gangs.' 'Teenagers with nothing better to do, rough home life, they meet each other, they congregate, they form a critical mass and they perpetrate money-making schemes and violence, and they're a negative impact on their local communities, right?' she said. ''The Com' is the same phenomenon, but playing out on the internet.' As he awaits extradition, Moucka was reportedly being held at the Maplehurst Correctional Centre in Milton, Ont. According to Canada's Department of Justice, 'the matter has now proceeded to the Ministerial phase of the process.' The case is expected to be heard at a federal court in Seattle. Moucka's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. The charges against Moucka have not been proven in court. 'All this terrible stuff that I'm telling you about, I actually really enjoy investigating it,' Nixon said. 'It's like a puzzle every single time – and I love puzzles.' With files from Reuters and CTV News Kitchener's Krista Simpson
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Drug smugglers arrested after using commercial trucks to transport cocaine across U.S. border
Nearly 500 kilograms of cocaine was seized and nine people are in custody following a year-long probe into a group of alleged drug traffickers who police say used commercial trucks to smuggle cocaine across the U.S. border into Canada. CTV's John Musselman reports.
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
Los Angeles leaders impose curfew as protests against Trump's immigration crackdown continue
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an address on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Office of California Governor via AP) LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles leaders set a downtown curfew Tuesday on the fifth day of protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown as his use of the National Guard escalated and the governor accused him of drawing a 'military dragnet' across the nation's second largest city. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents, with some guardsmen now standing in protection around agents as they carried out arrests. He said it would only heighten tensions and promote civil unrest. The judge chose not to rule immediately, giving the administration several days to continue those activities before a hearing Thursday. The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as Trump has promised as part of the administration's immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement. Trump has activated more than 4,000 U.S. National Guard members and 700 Marines over the objections of city and state leaders, though the Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters. As the curfew approached, several groups gathered downtown, with some saying they planned to ignore it and others chanting calls for the gathering to remain peaceful. Officials said the curfew was necessary to stop vandalism and theft by agitators looking to cause trouble. Newsom said Trump's immigration crackdown has gone well beyond arresting criminals and that 'dishwashers, gardeners, day labourers and seamstresses' are among those being detained. He said Trump's decision to deploy the California National Guard without his support should be a warning to other states. 'California may be first — but it clearly won't end here,' Newsom said. Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith said Tuesday that the Marines had not yet been called to respond to the protests and were there only to protect federal officials and property. The Marines were trained for crowd control but have no arrest authority, Smith told a budget hearing on Capitol Hill. L.A. mayor puts curfew in place Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday to stop vandalism and looting as protests over U.S. President Donald Trump's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws continued in the city. She said in a news conference that she had declared a local emergency and that the curfew will run from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday. 'We reached a tipping point' after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said. The curfew will be in place in a one square mile (2.59 square kilometre) section of downtown that includes the area where protests have occurred since Friday. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (2,295 square kilometres). The curfew doesn't apply to residents who live in the designated area, people who are homeless, credentialed media or public safety and emergency officials, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. McDonnell said 'unlawful and dangerous behavior' had been escalating since Saturday. 'The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city,' McDonnell said. Trump says he's open to using Insurrection Act Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the U.S. to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It's one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a U.S. president. 'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see,' he said from the Oval Office. Later the president called protesters 'animals' and 'a foreign enemy' in a speech at Fort Bragg ostensibly to recognize the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of four million. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids. On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters gathered peacefully in front of the federal complex, which was quickly declared an unlawful assembly. Police issued a dispersal order and corralled the protesters, telling members of the media to stay out to avoid getting hurt. Officers with zip ties then started making arrests. McDonnell said that police had made 197 arrests on Tuesday, including 67 who were taken into custody for unlawfully occupying part of the 101 freeway. Several businesses were broken into Monday, though authorities didn't say if the looting was tied to the protests. The vast majority of arrests have been for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting, vandalism and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail. Seven police officers were reportedly injured, and at least two were taken to a hospital and released. Demonstrations have spread to other cities in the state and nationwide, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York City, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested Tuesday that the use of troops inside the U.S. will continue to expand. LA response takes stage on Capitol Hill The Pentagon said deploying the National Guard and Marines costs $134 million. Meanwhile, Democratic members of California's congressional delegation on Tuesday accused the president of creating a 'manufactured crisis.' On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the deployment. Trump said the city would have been 'completely obliterated' if he had not deployed the Guard. The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. Baldor and Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and Greg Bull in Seal Beach, California, contributed to this report. Jake Offenhartz, Christopher Weber, Lolita C. Baldor And Tara Copp, The Associated Press
