Marjorie Bloom, a retired civil servant, was the victim of a "tech support" scam in 2021. Criminals used cryptocurrency to carry out the fraud.

Bloom, now 77, lost her life savings: $661,000.

Her experience highlights the growing threat of fraud that targets older adults.

In the spring of 2021, Marjorie Bloom waited for a phone call that would never come.

Over the course of the previous month, the retiree had wired hundreds of thousands of dollars into cryptocurrency per the suggestion of someone she believed to be a trusted confidant. The man claimed to be a "fraud investigator" at PNC Bank, where she'd been a longtime customer.

At his behest, Bloom, a widow who is now 77, liquidated her nest egg — savings, stocks, an annuity — for a total of $661,000.

The action was supposedly preventative: The "investigator" persuaded Bloom that criminals, using stolen personal data, were in the process of pilfering her life savings. To protect her money, he said, she had to move it quickly — and covertly. Divulging the problem to anyone, even her three children, could compromise their efforts, he said.

Had she alerted her children, she might have avoided the scam: Bloom's daughter, Ester, is the deputy managing editor for CNBC Make It. (Ester Bloom put CNBC in touch with her mother but was not involved in the reporting or editing of this story.)

The "investigator," though very convincing, turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Bloom, a retired civil servant, was ensnared in a "tech support" scam.

This type of fraud is increasingly common and largely targets older adults, who lost $588 million to tech support scams in 2022, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Criminals persuade victims they have a serious computer issue such as a virus, then masquerade as computer technicians from well-known companies as a cover for theft. Often, they persuade victims to wire funds to fraudulent accounts.

So on that Friday morning in May 2021, Bloom eagerly awaited a call with instructions on how to access the life savings she had diligently taken steps to secure.

The hours ticked by. Growing nervous, she eventually called the "investigator." His number had been disconnected. She called PNC, but the bank didn't have a record of the employee.

"All of a sudden, this grayness lifted," said Bloom, who lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland. "I realized I had been defrauded of everything."

'The money is there. The scammers know that'

Bloom's experience reveals an unsettling reality at a time when technological advancement, little-understood investment options and a patchwork of protections in the U.S. financial system expose more older Americans to financial fraud.

Americans 60 and older lost $3.1 billion to cyber fraud in 2022, an 84% increase from 2021, according to the FBI. Losses have jumped ninefold in just five years, from $342 million in 2017, FBI data shows. Because fraud statistics are based only on reported incidents, its true scope may be far greater.

Older adults, many of whom have saved their entire careers for retirement, can have the most to lose. In addition to retirement savings, they might have other pots of income and wealth: home equity, Social Security payments, pension checks and, if widowed, maybe a life insurance payout.

"The money is there," said Rebecca Keithley, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Economic Crimes unit and the bureau's national program coordinator of the Department of Justice's Elder Justice Initiative. "The scammers know that."

Keithley — also the FBI's national program coordinator for frauds and swindles — is not involved in the investigation of Bloom's case.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is undergoing a massive demographic shift as an average of 10,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every day. This generation has shouldered more responsibility for their retirement preparations as employers began shifting away from pensions to 401(k)-type retirement plans decades ago.

Consumers ages 65 and older had an average of $232,710 in 401(k) plan savings in 2022, according to Vanguard Group, one of the nation's largest retirement-plan administrators. Further, 65- to 74-year-olds had a net worth of more than $1.2 million, on average, in 2019, according to the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances.

Fraud may deprive victims of funds for basic living expenses such as food and shelter, or for the travel and leisure they'd worked so hard to attain in their post-work life.

Beyond the immediate financial hit, fraud has several knock-on effects: Victims who raid their tax-preferred retirement funds may owe the IRS a hefty bill. Taking out a second mortgage or maxing out credit cards carry regular debt payments.

Older adults don't have the same ability as younger victims to earn in the workforce, and it's often challenging to recoup money from criminals or financial institutions.

"Most victims will say, 'I'm devastated financially, I'm ruined,'" said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programs at AARP, an advocacy group for older adults. "But emotionally it's as bad, if not worse."

How criminals 'hijack' the aging brain

Tech support scams like the one Bloom suffered are an acute threat for older adults.

They are a type of "call center" fraud, which "overwhelmingly target" older adults, the FBI said. About half of people victimized by illegal call centers are 60 or older, and they experience 69% of the total financial losses relative to other age groups.

Nearly 18,000 Americans ages 60 and over reported being a victim of tech support scams in 2022, the FBI said. That's more than any other type of elder fraud and almost doubled from 2020.

Victims 60 and older lost more to these scams than all other age groups combined, the FBI reported. The average person lost $33,000, though losses extended to over $1 million in some cases, the FBI said.

In Bloom's case, her computer froze suddenly on April 22, 2021. A popup window alerted her to call a customer support phone number listed on the screen, supposedly for Microsoft.

Bloom then made a key mistake: She called the number, an action that real tech companies won't ever ask of customers in a security pop-up warning.

During the call, a "Microsoft engineer" told her that foreign hackers had hijacked her computer and stolen sensitive personal data. Her financial accounts, he suggested, were also likely under threat.

When Bloom told him she banked with PNC, the engineer — who was really a con artist — transferred her to an accomplice posing as a PNC fraud investigator. The man convinced Bloom that there were pending transactions worth $29,000 tied to her bank account. Her money had to be moved without delay to a new account, the scammer urged.

None of it was true.

"I fell for it," said Bloom, who retired in December 2017 after serving 42 years as a federal attorney, including stints at the Department of Energy and, most recently, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

"I didn't tell anybody," Bloom added.

The appearance of an immediate threat is an "age-old psychological technique" common in frauds that tends to be "more successful with the aging brain," said Keithley of the FBI.

In this technique, known as an "amygdala hijack" in reference to the brain's fear and threat response center, criminals trigger strong emotional reactions that overwhelm the rational part of our brains. We act rather than think, a classic fight-or-flight response — in this case induced by nefarious social engineers, often part of sophisticated organized crime networks.

Older adults tend to be home more often, use landline phones and be generally unsophisticated about technology and safe online behavior — all of which make them vulnerable and therefore frequent targets, Keithley said.

The Covid pandemic was a disproportionate threat to older adults, keeping Americans indoors and quickly pushing them online. The health emergency "ushered in a new wave of exploitative practices targeted at older Americans," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a 2022 report to Congress.

'Somebody should have asked'

Bloom, an avid traveler, is undeniably tough. In 2013, at 67 years old, she trekked to the base camp of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain; the base camp alone sits at an altitude of about 18,000 feet.

But the scam tested her resolve.

A year after the fraud, Bloom set out on a road trip to North Dakota. Five days in, she had a panic attack that seized the right side of her body in pain. She canceled everything and went home.

"In retrospect, I think the entire ordeal was a fearful reaction to spending money," Bloom said.

Before she realized she'd been scammed, Bloom had made five wire transfers within 28 days, amounting to $661,000, according to receipts of the transactions, which were reviewed by CNBC.

Much of those funds came from liquidating a stock portfolio — an inheritance from her parents — worth more than $400,000. She also liquidated the bulk of an annuity worth more than $200,000; if she'd kept it intact, it would have begun paying her a guaranteed income stream of about $2,700 a month for the next three decades, starting in 2023.

"This was my life savings," Bloom said. "It's what I was going to live on as a retiree."

When she discovered the loss, Bloom's immediate thought was of her three kids: a "profound disappointment" at squandering the reserves she'd intended to bequeath them. Bloom had wanted to offer the same financial assistance to her children as her parents had provided for her. Now, much of that money is gone, she said.

Her second concern was for her own financial security. Bloom still receives regular checks from a federal pension and Social Security, now her main sources of retirement income. It's enough to cover her mortgage, condo fee, car payment and other necessities — but the financial loss exposes Bloom to sacrifices nonetheless.

For one, she laments an inability to travel as frequently as she'd hoped in retirement. She is a member of the North Bethesda Camera Club and uses trips as an outlet for photography, a hobby that developed during her Everest expedition.

"I'm not starving," Bloom said. "But I could do a lot more [if I hadn't lost money]."

"I've lost a significant amount that I've worked for," she said.

Bloom sued PNC Bank — where she'd been a customer for over a decade — in May 2022 for full financial restitution and other damages, such as interest and attorney's fees.

In her lawsuit, Bloom argued that the fraud was ultimately successful because PNC ignored "obvious red flags" and "textbook evidence" of financial exploitation raised by her wire transfer requests, which were inconsistent with her typical pattern of banking.

According to the lawsuit, the bank didn't take steps to investigate or determine whether her money was at risk. The lawsuit claimed the bank acted negligently and breached its contractual duty of care.

"I'm retired ... [and] I look my age," Bloom said. "There's just no doubt about it."

"Somebody should have asked," she added.

In February, a federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed the negligence claim but allowed the claim for breach of contract to move forward in court. 

Bloom and the bank settled the lawsuit in September. Bloom declined to disclose terms of the agreement to CNBC. (Bloom's comments to CNBC for this story occurred in the spring, before the parties entered into settlement negotiations.)

A spokesperson for PNC Bank declined comment on the settlement.

Asked about the lawsuit in the spring, the bank said it acted within the scope of its legal duty.

"PNC maintains a comprehensive set of security controls to help protect our customers from increasingly sophisticated fraud threats and, when possible, we do our best to recover funds on behalf of impacted customers," a spokesperson told CNBC, when asked about Bloom's case and statements about the bank.

"While PNC regrets any losses incurred by a customer, we disagree with the allegations in this case and believe we acted appropriately with respect to these transactions," the spokesperson added.

'You're basically at the mercy of your bank'

Lawsuits such as Bloom's are rarely successful, legal experts said. Outcomes hinge on a complex web of federal and state rules that govern banking and elder financial fraud.

For instance, there's a distinction between "unauthorized" and "authorized" banking transactions.

Unauthorized transactions occur when criminals get hold of a customer's personal information — a debit card number, let's say — and buy something without approval. Customers are often reimbursed in such instances.

However, in Bloom's case, she made the wire transfers. Transactions initiated by a customer — even a victim duped by scammers — are generally considered "authorized," said Carla Sanchez-Adams, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. And such transactions carry weak customer protections, she said.

"You're basically at the mercy of your bank," Sanchez-Adams said.

Wire transfers also have weaker protections than other types of electronic fund transfers — such as debit card, ATM or peer-to-peer transactions, for example — because they're exempt from the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, a federal consumer protection law passed in 1978, she said.

Another federal law — the Bank Secrecy Act — sets standards for banks to ensure they have controls to prevent and detect crime such as money laundering and terrorist financing. While the law requires banks to file reports to regulators in certain cases to flag suspicious activity, it doesn't give individual consumers a legal remedy to recoup money lost due to criminal enterprise, Sanchez-Adams said.

"Banks should have some skin in the game," Sanchez-Adams said. "If you don't make them hurt, they won't change their practices."

Some states have elder-protection laws that establish separate duties to protect older adults from financial fraud, but they vary broadly in scope, she said.

For example, under Maryland law, banks are required to report suspected elder fraud to local law enforcement and other parties. As Bloom argued in her lawsuit, that means employees have likely received training to identify such activity. Such "heightened procedures" to protect older adults are part of the bank's duty of care relative to older customers, the lawsuit said.

To sidestep internal protocols — which most banks have established, according to industry data — scammers will often coach victims on what to say to bank tellers or other representatives, experts said. Perhaps the money is for a loan, or for a home-improvement project, for example. Bloom didn't require coaching, she said; according to her lawsuit, PNC bank employees didn't perform more than a "perfunctory inquiry" necessary to complete the transfers.

And there's an additional tension: Banks and other financial institutions have to weigh issues such as consumer privacy when choosing to intervene, said Marve Ann Alaimo, a partner and elder law expert at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur.

If the bank reasonably does its best to protect a client and there's still financial damage, it isn't necessarily the bank's fault, she said.

"We live in a free-market economy. And when you own something, you have the ultimate right to dispose of it as you wish," Alaimo said, referring to money held in a financial account.

"There's only so much protection a third party can provide for you," she added. They "aren't the ultimate arbiter of free will."

Cryptocurrency gives thieves 'new advantages'

Meanwhile, Bloom's money apparently went on a global tour.

Scammers had her wire funds from her PNC bank account to an account at the now-defunct Signature Bank in New York. According to the lawsuit, from there, her money was transferred to an account on the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, which scammers created using Bloom's picture and personal data. The assets were then converted into cryptocurrency — a type of virtual asset — and, an investigation later showed, moved to offshore accounts on the Binance crypto trading platform in the Cayman Islands.

Thieves have successfully used crypto to steal increasing amounts of money across all types of internet scams, according to the FBI.

In this context, cryptocurrency — examples of which include bitcoin and ethereum — is like cash; it's just another way to move money from Point A to Point B. But crypto "offers up new advantages" for thieves who transfer and launder illicit proceeds, said Patrick Wyman, chief of the FBI's Virtual Asset Unit. Wyman is not involved in the investigation of Bloom's case.

For one, using crypto is an easy way to move large sums of money across borders very quickly without having to engage with the financial system, Wyman said.

Another benefit for scammers: Crypto offers them a level of anonymity. Criminals use the digital assets to obfuscate their real identity — which, by the nature of crypto transactions, is difficult if not impossible to ascertain.

However, unlike with traditional financial transactions, which are private, all crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger, or blockchain. So, while law enforcement officials may not be able to learn the identity of a perpetrator, they can generally trace the flow of money, Wyman said.

And that offers a silver lining for victims: "In some cases, we absolutely are able to recover those funds," Wyman said.

In April, the U.S. Department of Justice seized more than $112 million worth of virtual currency linked to crypto investment scams. The assets were seized from six accounts, one of which held $66.4 million, likely tied to wire fraud schemes, the DOJ said.

Wyman encourages victims to report fraud to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center as soon as possible. It generally gets harder to recoup money the longer victims wait, he said.

Bloom reported the theft to the FBI; her case remains open. She's not optimistic about her chances of recovering money via law enforcement efforts. Even if the authorities are successful, she expects it will take years.

"I oscillate," she said of her reflections on the theft.

"I go from being thoroughly upset and [asking] 'What in the world was I thinking?' to saying 'You just have to move forward. What's done is done.'"

 

CNBC

Anthony Joshua has won his third fight of 2023 with a TKO victory over Otto Wallin in the main event of the “Day of Reckoning” card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

After securing consecutive victories over Jermaine Franklin in April and Robert Helenius with a seventh-round knockout in August, Joshua cruised to a fifth-round technical knockout win over Wallin, who had been expected to be a formidable opponent, especially with his southpaw stance.

The only defeat on Wallin’s record before Joshua came in 2019 against Tyson Fury, in between the Gypsy King’s first and second meetings with Wilder. Fury won by unanimous decision but the Swedish heavyweight certainly made it a harder night than expected for the lineal champ.

Joshua now holds an impressive record of 27 victories and three losses, with 24 knockout wins.

Deontay Wilder lost to former WBO heavyweight world champion Joseph Parker by unanimous decision in the fight before Joshua’s.

Wallin’s coach, Joey Garnache, stopped the fight as he didn’t want his man to suffer any more punishment.

It was a tremendous performance from the two-time heavyweight champion, who told his former rival Andy Ruiz after the fight, “I’m back, I’m back.”

 

Punch

The Special Investigator probing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Jim Obazee, has discovered 593 bank accounts located in the United States, United Kingdom and China in which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under Godwin Emefiele, kept Nigerian funds without authorisation by the Board and Investment Committee of the bank.

The investigator also discovered how billions of naira were allegedly stolen by Mr Emefiele and other officials from the CBN’s accounts including a “fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million” – about N2.9 billion at the then official exchange rate of N461 to a dollar.

Obazee disclosed these in his report in which he recommended the prosecution of Emefiele and at least 13 other individuals, including his deputy governors, for alleged gross financial offences.

In the UK alone, the Special Investigator said his probe led him to 543.4 million Pounds kept by Emefiele in fixed deposit accounts. He also said Emefiele manipulated the Naira exchange rate and perpetrated fraud in the e-Naira project of the CBN.

In his report, which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu on 9 December, a copy of which was seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Obazee identified several “chargeable offences” for which the former CBN governor may be asked to defend himself before a court.

Tinubu had on 28 July appointed Obazee as a Special Investigator to investigate the CBN and related entities, charging him to set up a suitably experienced and competent team and to work with relevant security and anti-corruption agencies for the assignment.

Tinubu said the appointment relied on the fundamental objective outlined in Section 15(5) of the Nigerian constitution and was in furtherance of the country’s anti-corruption fight.

The president had also directed Obazee, who was the chief executive officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) between 2011 and 2017, to take immediate steps to ensure the strengthening and probity of key Government Business Entities (GBEs) and block leakages in the CBN and related GBEs.

He also directed him to provide a comprehensive report on public wealth currently in the hands of corrupt individuals and establishments (whether private or public).

Naira redesign “fraud”

According to the report of the Special Investigator, the highly controversial redesign of the Naira in October 2022 “was neither recommended by the Board of the CBN nor approved by the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, contrary to the provisions of Section 19 (1) of the CBN Act, 2007,

“It was a conspiracy against the Nigerian people and specifically the political class by the then CBN Governor (Emefiele) and one of the erstwhile CBN Deputy Governor (Folashodun Shonubi). The idea was that of Shonubi (claiming interwoven challenges) and Emefiele designed and approved the currency on 19th October 2022.

“It was indeed meant to frustrate the political class and make their election agenda very difficult. It turned out to be a huge punishment to Nigerians and the Nigerian Economy coincidentally.”

Obazee said the CBN printed the new N200, N500 and N1000 notes at a total cost of N61.5 billion, out of which it has paid N31.8 billion to the contractor, even though the total value of the new notes in circulation as of August was only N769,562 billion.

“N1,727,500,000 was also spent on questionable legal fees on 19 cases that are directly traceable to the Naira Redesign and reconfiguration agenda,” Obazee said in the report.

Stating the timeline of how the decision to redesign the naira was conceived and executed, Obazee said the immediate past Director of Currency in the CBN, Ahmed Umar, who was under the supervision of Folashodun, wrote a memorandum on 25 August 2022, to the committee of Governors (CBN), advising the redesign of the currency.

The next month, Emefiele claimed that a presidential aide, Tunde Sabiu, told him during a visit to the Presidential Villa to consider redesigning the naira, and on 6 October, the CBN governor wrote Buhari seeking approval for the exercise.

“Emefiele did not consult with the management of the CBN nor seek any recommendation from the Board of the CBN as required by Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007,” the report said.

However, on the same 6th October 2022, Buhari approved the request but directed that the notes be printed locally. However, after the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc said it would be time-consuming to redesign and reconfigure the notes because of the new features contained in the design – positioning of watermark, presence of QR codes, different numbering style and other complex security features – Emefiele took the job to the UK firm, which varied the colours of the old notes and got paid 205,000 British Pounds for the “redesign effort.”

Other “chargeable offences”

The Special Investigator also identified other offences, including fraudulent use of Ways and Means to the tune of N26.627 trillion; fraudulent intervention programmes, fraudulent expenditures on Covid-19, and misrepresentation of presidential approval on the NESI Stabilisation Strategy Ltd.

On the “fraudulent use of “Ways and Means”, he reported:

“Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007 allows the CBN to grant temporary advances to the Federal Government in respect of temporary deficiency of budget revenue at an interest. This is what is commonly referred to as “Ways and Means”. The said Section also provides that such advance is to be repaid by the end of the Federal Government financial year in which they are granted, otherwise the CBN shall be stopped from granting such advances in subsequent years. The advance is never to be repaid by way of Promissory note, Securitisation nor issuance of Treasury Bills; etc.

“It was a surprise, Mr President, that under the last administration, the noble outlet became a huge source of fraudulent drain pipe for the then Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the erstwhile CBN Governor, all the four deputy CBN Governors (under the guise of COG), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation and even the then Chief of Staff, In an instance, they padded what the former President Muhammadu Buhari approved with N198,963,162,187 (approximating an approval of N801,036,937,813 to N1 trillion).

“There are instances where no approvals are received from the former President Muhammadu Buhari and yet, N500 billion is taken and debited to Ways and Means.

“There are more shocking instances when the erstwhile CBN Governor and his four deputy Governors connived to steal outrightly in order to balance the books of the CBN. This was by violently taken (sic) money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account and then charged it to “Ways and Means,” They even created the narration as Presidential subsidy and expanded the “Ways and Means” portfolio to accommodate the crime.

“The CBN officers and even the then Acting CBN Governor could not produce the Presidential Approval of most of the expenses described as “Ways and Means”. When confronted to provide the breakdown of the supposed N22,719,703,774,306.90 that was presented to the 9th National Assembly to illegally securitise the “Ways and Means” financing, they were only able to partially explain a total of N9,063,286,720,318.92 or N9,258,040,720,318.92 (depending on which official you are considering his submission) and an unreasonable attribution of non-negotiated/unadvised interest element of N6,678,874,321,541,97. This shows that this was the point where the officers of the immediate past administration as well as the erstwhile CBN Governor and his four Deputy Governors connived, defrauded and stole from the commonwealth of the country with the aid of civil servants.

“The true position of the “Ways and Means” as documented from the reconciliation between the CBN and the Ministry of Finance at the time, is N4,449,149,411,584.54.”

$6.23 million foreign election observation missions

The Special Investigator also reported his discovery of the theft of $6.23 million from the vault of the CBN between 7 and 8 February this year, about two weeks before the presidential and National Assembly polls, under a purported approval of the president for the release of money to pay foreign election observers.

The removal of the money from the vault of the Foreign Payment Office, Abuja Branch, of the CBN, which was captured on CCTV footage, followed a trail of letters which began with one dated 23 January 2023 with the caption “Presidential Directive on Foreign Election Observer Misions” (sic). The heist was completed when an official in the office, Uzero Oghenefego, “took steps, procured the dollar cash, and released same to persons yet to be fully identified.”

“As at date, Abdulwaheed Muhammed has admitted in a written statement that he acted in collaboration with one Bashirdeen Mohammed Maisanu, an assistant director in the Banking Supervision Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria and some persons he is yet to identify, to conceive and carry out the act of stealing the sum of $6.23 million out of the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“A fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million perpetrated since February 8th 2023, was not discovered nor taken seriously till the 4th of December when a Request for Information was issued by the Office of the Special Investigator. There is therefore an appearance of concealment by officers …”, the report stated.

President Tinubu was said to have requested the Special Investigator to submit the report by the first week of December so as not to delay his plans for the reform of the CBN and related agencies. When PREMIUM TIMES contacted his media aides on Thursday, they confirmed that Obazee had turned in his report but that the president had yet to communicate his decisions on it to his officials or the CBN.

Emefiele and the other individuals, whose names appeared in the report, could not be reached Thursday night and Friday morning to comment for this story.

 

PT

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued operational guidelines on virtual assets service providers (VASPs) to all banks and other financial institutions (OFIs).

Released on Friday, the guidelines are contained in a circular dated December 22, 2023, and signed by Haruna Mustapha, CBN’s director of the financial policy and regulation department.

According to the CBN, VASPs means any entity that  conducts exchange between virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) and fiat currencies, and transfers of virtual assets.

The development signals a shift from CBN’s initial position which restricts crypto transactions.

In February 2021, CBN issued a circular to deposit money banks (DMBs), non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), and OFIs to close accounts of persons or entities involved in cryptocurrency transactions within their systems.

The regulator further warned local financial institutions against dealing in crypto assets or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.

The apex bank cited concerns over money laundering (ML), terrorism financing (TF), cybercrime, and the volatility of cryptocurrencies as reasons for the ban.

In its latest circular, however, the CBN directed all banks and OFIs to carry out cryptocurrency services.

The regulator said commercial banks must fully comply with the provisions of the guidelines on VASP.

“Current trends globally have shown that there is a need to regulate the activities of virtual assets service providers (VASPs) which include cryptocurrencies and crypto assets,” the CBN said.

“Following this development, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2018 also updated its Recommendation 15 to require VASPs to be regulated to prevent misuse of virtual assets for ML/TF/proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (PF).

“Furthermore, Section 30 of the money laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 recognizes VASPs as part of the definition of a financial institution.

”In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May 2022 issued rules on Issuance, offering, and custody of digital assets and VASPs to provide a regulatory framework for their operations in Nigeria.

“In view of the foregoing, the CBN hereby issues this guidelines to guide to financial institutions under its regulatory purview in respect of their banking relationship with VASPs in Nigeria.

“The guidelines supersedes the CBN’s circulars referenced FPR/DIR/GEN/CIR/06/010 of January 12, 2017, and BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/014/001 of February 5, 2021, on the subject.

“However, banks and other financial institutions are still prohibited from holding, trading, and/or transacting in virtual currencies on their account.”

On May 28, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the finance bill into law.

The law introduced a 10 percent tax on gains on the disposal of digital assets including cryptocurrency.

 

CBN

The state capitals and communities of Borno and Yobe have been thrown into darkness after suspected Boko Haram insurgents destroyed an electricity tower supplying power to the states.

The latest setback comes barely a year after the insurgents destroyed towers that cut off Maiduguri from the national grid for several months.

The incident took place around 11:40pm on Thursday in Katsaita village in Yobe State,

Residents in the Katsaita village revealed that they heard a thunderous sound of explosion from the tower side when the incident happened.

Confirming the incident, General Manager, Public Affairs of Transmission Company of Nigeria, Ndidi Mba, said its T372 tower was vandalised, “bringing down the 330Kva transmission tower, which pulled down tower T373 along the same transmission line route.”

He said the TCN had mobilised to get one of its contractors to commence reconstruction of the destroyed towers.

“TCN strongly condemns the incident and regrets the inconvenience caused to the government and people of Borno and Yobe states and pledged to do all that is possible to quickly re-erect the towers to restore power supply to the affected areas,” he said.

He also appealed to the host communities to cooperate with the TNC in the fight against vandalism and the necessary preservation of power infrastructure nationwide, “which is our collective assets”.

 

Daily Trust

Federal government has declared December 25, 26 and January 1, 2024, as public holidays.

The ministry of interior announced the holidays on Friday in a statement signed by Peter Egbodo, a director at the ministry.

The public holidays are to mark Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day celebrations, respectively.

According to the statement, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior, enjoined Christians to “emulate the life of Jesus Christ in His practice and teachings of humility, service, compassion, patience, peace and righteousness that His birth signifies”.

The minister said peace and security are two critical conditions for economic development and prosperity.

He said the federal government has put in place measures to secure lives and property and urged Nigerians to support security agencies by providing useful information.

He also asked Nigerians to be security conscious and advised them to report suspicious activities to security agencies.

Tunji-Ojo admonished all citizens to “remain focused, noting that the “year 2024 will be a better year with the Renewed Hope agenda of the President”.

 

The Cable

UN approves watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza without call for suspension of hostilities

The U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediately speeding aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza but without the original plea for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.

The long-delayed vote in the 15-member council was 13-0 with the United States and Russia abstaining. The U.S. abstention avoided a third American veto of a Gaza resolution following Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel. Russia wanted the stronger language restored; the U.S. did not.

Still, “It was the Christmas miracle we were all hoping for,” said United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, who sponsored the resolution. She said it would send a signal to the people in Gaza that the Security Council was working to alleviate their suffering.

The resolution culminated a week and a half of high-level diplomacy by the United States, the UAE on behalf of Arab nations and others. The vote, initially scheduled for Monday, was pushed back each day until Friday.

A relieved U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council, “This was tough, but we got there.”

She said the vote bolsters efforts “to alleviate this humanitarian crisis, to get life-saving assistance into Gaza and to get hostages out of Gaza, to push for the protection of innocent civilians and humanitarian workers, and to work towards a lasting peace.”

“It is hard to overstate how urgent this is,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “This resolution speaks to the severity of this crisis, and it calls on us all to do more.”

The vote came immediately after the United States vetoed a Russian amendment that would have restored the call to immediately suspend hostilities. That vote was 10 countries in favor, the U.S. against and four abstentions,

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the resolution “entirely toothless” and accused the United States of “shameful, cynical and irresponsible conduct” and resorting to tactics “of gross pressure, blackmail and twisting arms.”

He said the resolution “would essentially be giving the Israeli armed forces complete freedom of movement for the clearing of the Gaza Strip.” Russia would have vetoed it, he said, if it hadn’t been supported by a number of Arab countries.

Thus the resolution was stripped of its key provision with teeth — the call for “the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

Instead, it calls “for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” The steps are not defined, but diplomats said it was the council’s first reference to stopping fighting.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. envoy, said it took the Security Council 75 days “to finally utter the words ‘cessation of hostilities,‘” stressing that the Palestinians and Arab nations supported the Russian amendment.

“This resolution is a step in the right direction” because of its important humanitarian provisions, Mansour said. “It must be implemented and must be accompanied by massive pressure for an immediate cease-fire.”

Hamas called the resolution “an insufficient step” that “doesn’t meet the requirements of the catastrophic state caused by the terrorist military machine in Gaza.” The militant group accused the United States of defying the international community and blocking the council from demanding a halt to the war in the statement on its website.

Israel’s U.N. deputy ambassador Brett Jonathan Miller criticized the Security Council for not condemning Hamas for its Oct. 7 attacks in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 taken hostage.

The resolution more generally “deplores all attacks against civilians and civilian objects as well as all violence and hostilities against civilians, and all acts of terrorism.” It also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

On a key sticking point concerning aid deliveries, the resolution eliminated a previous request for the U.N. “to exclusively monitor all humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza provided through land, sea and air routes” by outside parties to confirm their humanitarian nature.

It substituted a request to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to quickly appoint a coordinator to monitor relief deliveries to Gaza that are not from the parties to the conflict — Israel and Hamas — to verify that they are humanitarian goods. It asks the coordinator to establish a “mechanism” to speed aid deliveries and demands that Israel and Hamas cooperate with the coordinator.

Miller said “humanitarian aid is pouring into Gaza every single day” and Israel is willing to increase the number of aid trucks entering the territory and the only roadblock is “the U.N.’s ability to accept them.” He stressed that “any enhancement of U.N. aid monitoring cannot be done at the expense of Israel’s security inspections.”

Guterres countered at a press conference that it’s a mistake to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza by the number of trucks.

“The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” the U.N. chief said. He said the four elements of an effective aid operation don’t exist — security, staff that can work in safety, logistical capacity especially trucks, and the resumption of commercial activity in the territory.

The secretary-general reiterated his longstanding call for a humanitarian cease-fire. He expressed hope that Friday’s resolution may help this happen but said “much more is needed immediately” to end the ongoing “nightmare” for the people in Gaza.

Guterres has said Gaza faces “a humanitarian catastrophe” and warned that a total collapse of the humanitarian support system would lead to “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt.”

According to a report released Thursday by 23 U.N. and humanitarian agencies, Gaza’s entire 2.2 million population is in a food crisis or worse and 576,600 are at the “catastrophic” starvation level. With supplies to Gaza cut off except for a small trickle, the U.N. World Food Program has said 90% of the population is regularly going without food for a full day — and Guterres said Friday that “four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza.”

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and its Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Thousands more Palestinians lie buried under the rubble of Gaza, the U.N. estimates.

The resolution reiterates the Security Council’s “unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,.” That stresses “the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

Security Council resolutions are important because they are legally binding, but in practice many parties choose to ignore the council’s requests for action. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they are a significant barometer of world opinion.

In its first unified action following the Hamas attacks, the Security Council adopted a resolution on Nov. 15 with the U.S. abstaining calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in the fighting, unhindered aid deliveries to civilians and the unconditional release of all hostages.

The U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution on Oct. 18 to condemn all violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and to urge humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. On Dec. 8, the U.S. vetoed a second council resolution backed by almost all other council members and dozens of other nations, demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The 193-member General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution on Dec. 12 by a vote of 153-10, with 23 abstentions.

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine claims to down three Russian fighter-bomber jets

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military officials said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war.

The Russian military made no mention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

"Today at noon in the southern sector -- minus three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers!" Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat described it on national television as a "brilliantly planned operation."

"There haven't been Su-34s for some time in our positive statistics," he said, citing the model as one of Russia's most modern aircraft for bombing and other assaults.

Zelenskiy in his nightly video address praised the Odesa region anti-aircraft unit for downing the planes in Kherson region.

The region was occupied in the first days of Moscow's February 2022 invasion. Ukrainian forces have sought to regain territory and in November established positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.

Eurasia Daily, a Russia-based journal, said the Ukrainian account was plausible. Kyiv could have launched Patriot missiles, which have a range of up to 160 km (100 miles) against high-altitude targets, from the western side of the Dnipro River, it said.

Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko told Ukrainian NV Radio he believed Patriot missiles most likely downed the Russian jets.

"This was a situation there the Russians were...dropping up to 100 bombs in the south. Three were flying together and got caught. They didn't quite take into account that the Patriot has a range of 160 km for aerodynamic targets," Romanenko said.

Ukrainian successes have become less frequent since its forces made lightning gains a year ago in retaking Russian-held territory in the northeast and in the south.

A counteroffensive launched in the east and south in June has had limited progress. Zelenskiy acknowledges that gains have been slower than hoped but has dismissed assertions by the military commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, that the war has entered a phase of "attrition" requiring a change in tactics.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian officials privately admit they’re losing – BILD editor

While the Ukrainian government paints a rosy picture of the conflict at press conferences, senior officials admit in private that the situation is grim, Paul Ronzheimer, a deputy editor-in-chief at the German outlet BILD, said on Friday.

Ronzheimer had just spent three days in Ukraine, meeting with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and other senior government and military officials, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“Their statements match less and less the picture that is officially painted in press conferences and interviews, most recently by [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky,” he wrote.

Those who spoke to him in private identified “very clearly” several major problems for Kiev and at this time “see little chance for Ukrainian offensive efforts,” Ronzheimer wrote.

Tempering his criticism with the claim that Russia has lost “tens of thousands of soldiers and many tanks,” the German journalist noted that everyone he spoke with said that time was on Moscow’s side and that “stories from the front are almost unbearable.”

Ukrainian officials should say these things in public because “nothing else will help,” said Ronzheimer, while arguing that Europe and especially Germany will have to do more in 2024, not less.

The German journalist’s revelations match the tone of several Ukrainian MPs who spoke to The Times of London. In an article published on Friday, Roman Kostenko – a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s committee for national security, defense and intelligence – said a victory on the battlefield was “extremely unlikely” and expressed doubt that any Western weapons could turn the tide.

Another MP, Svyatoslav Yurash, described the fighting as “painful” and said the Ukrainians should “hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” The only thing to hope for right now was for the Russians to rebel and topple their government, he added.

Kiev launched a major offensive in early June, aiming to reach Crimea within 60 to 90 days but failing to advance past the first Russian defense lines. Russian troops have since taken the initiative and are moving forward on almost every section of the frontline.

Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry made public its estimate that Ukraine has lost almost 400,000 troops since the hostilities escalated in February 2022, including those killed, wounded, captured or listed as missing. A prominent German military analyst has estimated Kiev’s losses at 800 troops a day.

 

Reuters/RT

Many users consider Android as an operating system for mobile devices that offers numerous features and extensive customization options. In a sense, this is indeed true; however, it's worth noting that despite its rich functionality, Android, as before, lacks some capabilities available in iOS.

RBC-Ukraine has compiled 10 iPhone features that should definitely appear on Android, making the use of the operating system much more convenient.

Face ID

Face ID is facial recognition technology created by Apple for its devices. To unlock the iPhone, you simply need to look at its screen.

Face ID sensors use infrared rays for precise facial scanning, reducing the possibility of false recognition. The collected data is stored in a secure chip inside the iPhone and never leaves the device.

While many Android devices also provide facial unlock features, their capabilities are far from Face ID. These gadgets lack infrared front cameras, making Face Unlock inefficient in the dark and less reliable in person recognition.

Moreover, locking on an Android device can be tricked, for example, with a clear photograph, whereas Face ID maintains a high level of security. Even with glasses and a mask, the iPhone continues to reliably recognize its owner.

Shake to Undo

Printing on iOS or Android devices is undoubtedly not as convenient as on a computer. This is not only due to the absence of a full-sized keyboard that can be used blindly with all ten fingers but also the lack of the familiar Ctrl+Z key combination, which allows undoing an action in case of an input mistake or accidental deletion of an important text fragment.

However, on the iPhone, there is a similar function known as "Shake to Undo." If you make a mistake, simply shake the phone, and it will undo the last action. This is genuinely convenient.

In contrast, Android devices lack a similar feature. Although undoing actions is available in most text editors, it is absent in messengers and similar apps, where it would be particularly useful.

Drag and drop of objects

On iPhone and iPad devices, there is the ability to drag various objects within apps, similar to how you do it on a computer with a mouse. You simply hold your finger on an image, text fragment, or attachment, move it to the bottom of the screen on the iPhone or in Split View mode on the iPad, and easily paste it into another program. This is truly convenient.

Unfortunately, such a feature is not present on Android, even on tablets.

Universal communication apps

iMessage and FaceTime on the iPhone stand out from other messengers and video calls. They not only have a user-friendly interface and diverse features but also stand out for their universality. Apple users can easily communicate with each other, regardless of whether they use a Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

In contrast, Android lacks such a universal means of communication. While the standard Messages and Google Meet are decent, they cannot compare with the functionality and ease of use of Apple's counterparts.

Moreover, not every Android smartphone has these apps by default. As a result, many manufacturers create their own messaging and calling apps.

Before contacting someone on Android, you have to find out whether the conversation partner uses Telegram, WhatsApp, or Viber, install the respective app, and go through the registration process. If Google had a universal communication app for all Android devices, it would make life much simpler.

App Offloading

iPhone has a convenient feature capable of saving space on the smartphone's memory. It's called "App Offloading."

By enabling it in storage settings, you allow iOS to automatically free up space occupied by infrequently used apps. During this process, neither the app icon, nor the data, nor the documents are deleted, and you only need to tap on it to restore.

Unfortunately, this convenient feature is absent on Android. In case of insufficient space, you have to completely uninstall apps along with all settings. Upon reinstalling the apps, you'll have to restore all memory settings, which is also an inconvenient process.

Quick Switching Between Devices

The "Universal Clipboard" feature on iPhone allows copying text and images and transferring them between the iPhone and the nearest Mac without the need for cables or additional software. Thanks to the Handoff option, you can start working on a note, document, or email on an iPhone and continue on a Mac.

In contrast, Android phones are less integrated with Windows devices, despite Microsoft's efforts to address this situation. While there are various apps that allow phone calls from a computer, copying text, and transferring photos, they don't work as seamlessly as Apple's solutions.

The official Windows companion app for Android is unfortunately not the most stable solution, often losing connection with the computer and draining the battery.

AirPlay and AirDrop

AirPlay is Apple's wireless technology for transmitting audio, video, photos, and other data between iOS devices like iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac computers. It is also compatible with other devices, such as TVs or audio systems that support this feature.

AirDrop, on the other hand, is a tool for instant wireless file and document transfer between Apple devices via Wi-Fi.

In contrast, Android lacks such an advanced tool for data exchange between devices. Although there is the Nearby Share feature positioned as an alternative to AirDrop and some apps on Google Play can wirelessly transfer audio and video content from Android devices, none of them can currently match the built-in AirPlay feature on iOS devices.

AirDrop and other functions on iPhone (photo: Unsplash)

Separated notifications and settings

If you swipe down from the central or left upper part of the iPhone screen, you open the "Notification Center." Swiping down from the right upper part takes you to the "Control Center," where you can easily adjust system settings, sound, brightness, enable focus mode, and much more. This is convenient and logical.

In Android, notifications and settings are not separated. When you open the "shade," if you need to change some parameters that are not immediately visible, you'll have to swipe down again. This might seem like a minor detail, but it eventually takes time.

Universal updates

Currently, there are slightly fewer than one and a half billion iPhone users worldwide. When it comes to updates for these smartphones, almost all of these people, at least those connected to the internet, receive updates and security patches practically simultaneously.

Moreover, iPhones are supported for a long time. The system continues to receive updates for a minimum of five years after the release of the device on which it was installed.

Android updates don't paint as rosy a picture. In most cases, manufacturers release one, two, or three major updates, after which they stop supporting their devices. If you need a new system version, it may mean having to purchase a new phone.

Camera continuity

The feature known as "Camera Continuity" allows scanning documents and capturing photos that instantly appear on a Mac computer. If you need to insert, for example, text from a paper in front of you, you can simply choose the "Import from iPhone or iPad" option in the Mac editor, press "Take Photo," and the "Camera" app on your smartphone will automatically open.

Android lacks a similar function. While apps like DroidCam or Camo allow streaming video from a smartphone to a PC, they are not as convenient as "Camera Continuity." Additionally, they require extra time for installation and setup, sometimes suggesting purchasing a Pro version to unlock high-quality image transmission.

It's worth noting that Android users will receive a feature that iPhone owners can only dream of.

We also wrote about 10 tips that can help extend the battery life of your Android smartphone.

 

RBC Ukraine

An artificial intelligence model developed by an international team of researchers has demonstrated the ability to predict future events in people’s lives, including the time of their death.

Life2vec, a so-called transformer model trained on a massive volume of data to predict various aspects of a person’s life, was created by scientists in Denmark and the United States. After being fed data from Danish health and demographic records for six million people, like time of birth, schooling, education, salary, housing, and health, the AI model was trained to predict what would come next. According to its creators, Life2vec demonstrated an eerie ability to predict when people would die based on data analysis. For example, when tested on a group of people between the ages of 35 and 65, half of whom died between 2016 and 2020, it was able to predict who would die and who would live, with 78% accuracy.

The research team led by Sune Lehmann Jørgensen at the Technical University of Denmark pointed out that Life2vec was trained exclusively on data from Denmark, so the results may not be quite the same for people in other countries. However, Jørgensen also stressed that models like this one should not fall into the hands of corporations, although they are probably using such technology on us.

“Clearly, our model should not be used by an insurance company, because the whole idea of insurance is that, by sharing the lack of knowledge of who is going to be the unlucky person struck by some incident, or death, or losing your backpack, we can kind of share this burden,” Jørgensen said.

Life2vec is currently not available for use by the public, but its creators suspect that similar models have already been developed and are being used by big tech companies with massive amounts of data to train them on.

Despite the ethical implications of using an AI model capable of estimating how much you have to live with startling accuracy, there is one undeniable upside – such a prediction can help you prevent your untimely death.

“Our framework allows researchers to discover potential mechanisms that impact life outcomes as well as the associated possibilities for personalized interventions, the team behind Life2vec wrote.

 

Oddity Central