WAVE Safety and Security News 03-11-16

Phone Scams Continue to be ble. Some simple tips can help protect titles and fake badge numbers to ap-
a Serious Threat, Remain on you." pear legitimate. They may use the vic-
tim’s name, address and other personal
IRS “Dirty Dozen” The Dirty Dozen is compiled annually information to make the call sound offi-
by the IRS and lists a variety of com- cial.
List of Tax Scams for the mon scams taxpayers may encounter Here are five things the scammers often
2016 Filing Season any time during the year. Many of these do but the IRS will not do. Any one of
con games peak during filing season as these five things is a tell-tale sign of a
WASHINGTON — Aggressive and people prepare their tax returns or hire scam.
threatening phone calls by criminals im- someone to do so.
personating IRS agents remain a major The IRS will never:
threat to taxpayers, headlining the This January, the Treasury In-
annual "Dirty Dozen" spector General for Tax Admin- 1. Call to demand immediate payment,
list of tax istration (TIGTA) announced nor will the agency call about taxes
owed without first having mailed you a
scams they have received reports of bill.
for the 2016 filing roughly 896,000 contacts
season, the Internal Revenue Service since October 2013 and have 2. Demand that you pay taxes without
announced today. giving you the opportunity to question or
become aware of over 5,000 appeal the amount they say you owe.
The IRS has seen a surge of these victims who have collec-
phone scams as scam artists threaten tively paid over $26.5 mil- 3. Require you to use a specific pay-
police arrest, deportation, license revo- ment method for your taxes, such as a
cation and other things. The IRS re- lion as a result of the scam. prepaid debit card.
minds taxpayers to guard against all "The IRS continues work-
sorts of con games that arise during any ing to warn taxpayers 4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers
filing season. over the phone.
about phone scams and
"Taxpayers across the nation face a del- other schemes," Koski- 5. Threaten to bring in local police or
uge of these aggressive phone scams. nen said. "We especially other law-enforcement groups to have
Don't be fooled by callers pretending to want to thank the law- you arrested for not paying.
be from the IRS in an attempt to steal enforcement community, tax pro-
your money," said IRS Commissioner fessionals, consumer advocates, the If you get a phone call from someone
John Koskinen. “We continue to say if states, other government agencies and claiming to be from the IRS and asking
you are surprised to be hearing from us, particularly the Treasury Inspector Gen- for money, here’s what you should do:
then you're not hearing from us.” eral for Tax Administration for helping us
in this battle against these persistent If you don’t owe taxes, or
"There are many variations. The caller phone scams." have no reason to think that
may threaten you with arrest or court
action to trick you into making a pay- Protect Yourself you do:
ment,” Koskinen added. “Some
schemes may say you're entitled to a Scammers make unsolicited calls 1. Do not give out any information.
huge refund. These all add up to trou- claiming to be IRS officials. They de- Hang up immediately.
mand that the victim pay a bogus tax
bill. They con the victim into sending 2. Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use
cash, usually through a prepaid debit their “IRS Impersonation Scam Report-
card or wire transfer. They may also ing” web page. You can also call 800-
leave “urgent” callback requests 366-4484.
through phone “robo-calls,” or via a
phishing email. 3. Report it to the Federal Trade Com-
mission. Use the “FTC Complaint Assis-
Many phone scams use threats to intim- tant” on FTC.gov. Please add "IRS
idate and bully a victim into paying. Telephone Scam" in the notes.
They may even threaten to arrest, de-
port or revoke the license of their victim
if they don’t get the money.

Scammers often alter caller ID numbers
to make it look like the IRS or another
agency is calling. The callers use IRS

Prank 911 call of
school shooting lands

2 teens in trouble

EMERGENCY DRILL FOR students or staff before you lock your March 2, 2016
door. Remember, remove the magnet Michigan Live
MARCH 2016 from the door!
DOWAGIAC, MI – A prank 911 call
All Long Branch Public Schools must Cover the glass on the door. Lights out reporting a school shooting landed
hold a Lockdown Drill during the third and move everyone away from line of two Dowagiac students in trouble
week of the month. sight. with police, authorities said.

What is a Lockdown? Don’t put all students in one area, split Dowagiac police and Cass County
them into groups. sheriff's deputies began investigat-
Long Branch Public Schools call for a ing the incident at about 10 a.m.
lockdown when there is a threat or haz- Keep everyone and everything (cell Tuesday after dispatchers received
ard inside the school building. phones) silent. a 911 call from a cellphone from a
person who reported "a shooting in
Announcement Check your phone for Remind 101 mes- the school" three times and laughed,
sages from your administrator. according to a news release issued
“Attention, we have a 9-1-1 situation by the Dowagiac Police Depart-
occurring, please remain in a secure Take roll of all your students and advise ment.
location or more to a secure area im- the administration if you are missing
mediately and lockdown.” anyone or if you have anyone who is Investigators said the caller "ap-
not part of your regular class. peared to be younger in age" and
Remember before you conduct your "did not appear excited or under
drill call the Long Branch Police Depart- If this was an actual emergency, wait for stress," according to the news re-
ment (732) 222-1000 and advise them first responders to unlock your door or lease.
of the school and drill. Call them back if you receive a message over Remind
at the conclusion of the drill. 101. Police said they weren't able to ob-
tain caller identification information
What do you do? “In skating over from the 911 call but were able to
thin ice our safety determine that the call was sent
Students; move them away from line of is in our speed.” from a cellphone tower in Dowagiac.
sight from doorway and away from win- That prompted Dowagiac police to
dows. Have all the students maintain si- Ralph Waldo Emerson send officers to Dowagiac Union
lence. High School, Dowagiac Middle
School, Justus Gage School and
Teachers: Make sure you check the Patrick Hamilton School.
hallway outside your classroom for any
The sheriff's office also sent a
deputy to Kincheloe School, accord-
ing to the news release.

At each school, investigators said DDoS attacks are Like so much else these days, these
officers spoke with administrators soaring, says new report sites are subscription-based; Akamai
"and immediately determined notes that they usually limit attack
that nothing suspicious or out of March 2, 2016 length, unlike old-fashioned DDoS at-
the ordinary was happening at Naked Security tacks that lasted until “the attack was
each location." Officers also con- mitigated, the malicious actor gave up,
ducted security checks at each The number of DDoS attacks is soaring, or the botnet was taken down.” Yet an-
building and officers "maintained according to Akamai’s latest State of the other example of how the cloud makes
a security presence at each Internet report. But attack characteris- things easy: why build and operate your
building as a precaution," accord- tics have shifted, as attackers have own botnet if you can just hire someone
ing to the news release. moved to quick strikes based on rented else’s for long enough to cause havoc?
botnets, and are relying more heavily
Police said parents of students at on reflection attacks that exploit com- Who’s getting attacked? Akamai says
Dowagiac Union Schools were promised internet services. online gaming companies are the ones
notified of the incident with a that get hammered the hardest, fol-
recorded automated call.
Akamai reports that attacks were up a lowed by software and tech firms, then
On Wednesday, police said a whopping 149% compared to this time finance, internet firms and telecoms
school resource officer at Dowa- last year – though it’s worth noting that (who usually show up as victims be-
giac Middle School identified two the data reflects Akamai’s changing cause they’re hosting the sites the at-
suspects in the prank call inci- customer base, not all DDoS attacks tackers have decided to target).
dent. Officers spoke to the two everywhere.
boys, ages 13 and 15, as well as Assaults against infrastructure, rather
witnesses to the alleged prank Last quarter, the average DDoS attack than applications, now account for 97%
call. against an Akamai customer clocked in of all DDoS activity.
at just under 15 hours, barely half the
The two teens told investigators average length from a year before. And, Attackers go after the same victims re-
"they made the call as part of a measured by data volume, there were peatedly: among Akamai customers
conversation they were having fewer mega-attacks: only five exceed- who suffered DDoS attacks last quarter,
during school and the call was a ing 100 Gbit/sec, compared with nine a the average victim was hit 24 times.
prank," according to the news re- year before. Three unfortunate organizations were
lease. hit over 100 times; one of them, 188.
Drilling down, Akamai found that the
Police said they plan to submit vast majority of DDoS attacks are now A majority of attacks are now multiple-
their investigation for review to launched from stresser/booter-based vector, making them even harder to de-
the Cass County Prosecutor's Of- botnets (such as the one run by Lizard fend. Akamai cited one 17-hour DDoS
fice to determine if any charges Squad) that bounce traffic off servers attack with eight vectors, each needing
will be authorized. Dowagiac that run compromised versions of cer- separate mitigation.
Public Safety Director Steven tain services. These botnets aim to
Grinnewald reiterated Wednes- maximize attack bandwidth and inten- Where are attacks coming from?
day that the investigation by po- sity, so they deliver larger (but fewer) China’s #1, with 27.6%. Turkey soared
lice found "there was never any packets faster. past the US and UK to 22% last quarter,
type of plan to carry out violence thanks to a single massive event.
at any school" and the 911 call
was a prank.

s“thaAfetegtthyoeaanlesndadsreeoJcfosudtihmri ieRtpyedl.le”la;y, — showed his interest in school attacks What should others do, if they’re ever in
had grown in the preceding weeks, the same situation as the boy’s friends?
Police: Bellingham High Vander Yacht said.
student made threats of Tell someone, Vander Yacht said.
Police got a warrant to search the boy’s
school shooting home but found no weapons. Vander “Do what happened here,” he said.
Yacht noted, however, that “in light of
March 2, 2016 recent school and workplace violence Arizona School
The Bellingham Herald incidents it is critical that all situations of Shooting: Suicide Notes
this nature be swiftly and fully investi-
A Bellingham High School student was gated.” On Friday, authorities released the sui-
arrested this week after he told peers cide notes apparently left behind by a
he planned to shoot up the school, ac- “This is not a joke,” Vander Yacht said. student who shot another student and
cording to police. “There’s nothing funny about this.” then took her own life earlier this month,
during a February 12 Arizona school
Officers arrested the boy late Monday shooting.
and booked him into Whatcom County
Juvenile Detention on suspicion of ha-
rassment.

Police did not identify him by name, and
The Bellingham Herald does not gener-
ally name minors accused of crimes.
Formal charges had not been filed as of
Wednesday.

The boy hadn’t been in trouble with po-
lice before, Vander Yacht said.

The boy, 15, told about nine friends on A Bellingham School District spokes- New York Daily News reports Dorothy
Monday afternoon, Feb. 29, they woman, Jacqueline Brawley, said she Dutiel, 15, wrote a suicide note about
shouldn’t come to school Tuesday be- could not comment on any past disci- her relationship with May Kieu, also 15,
cause he was going to “shoot the place pline through the school. For the al- stemming from a murder-suicide at In-
up,” said Bellingham Police Lt. Bob leged threats the teen has been placed dependence High School in Glendale.
Vander Yacht. on emergency expulsion. After fatally shooting May Kieu, Dutiel
shot herself. Both girls were found dead
Word of the threat reached Principal Police credited the students and staff in an isolated area, close to the high
Jeff Vaughn Monday afternoon. He for taking the warnings seriously. school’s cafeteria.
called Bellingham police around 4:30
p.m. “This is a guy who’s been acting myste-
riously,” Vander Yacht said. “When the
Officers detained the boy and inter- students heard that, it meant some-
viewed his family and witnesses. Those thing. It wasn’t an idle threat.”
interviews — and a review of the teen’s
recent Internet and social media history

In the first of a series of emotional sui- Dutiel also addressed her parents in an- Bomb, mass shooting
cide notes, Dutiel asked for family and other note, and admitted she could threats against N.J.
friends to forgive her, but to also forget have handled the situation better, but
about her. She admitted she was happy that she simply didn’t know what else to schools also targeted at
at home, but struggled with depression. do. Some of the notes were found in least 6 other states
In another note, addressed to authori- Duriel’s family home, while others were
ties, Dutiel named the student she got found scattered around the crime Star Ledger
the weapon from, but wrote that the stu- scene.
dent was no way involved in her ac- Prior to the shooting, Dutiel took to Twit- Menacing phone calls and threatening
tions, and that she lied to get the gun. ter, where she simply said “Goodbye.” emails have been leveled at dozens of
In a prior tweet, Dutiel indicated she felt schools in New Jersey and several
“I would like to clarify that him and “rejected,” but didn’t elaborate. other states, triggering investigations
his family arein no way affiliated across the United States, according to
with my actions.” The school shooting incident quickly multiple reports.
gained national attention. As news re-
After reading the suicide notes, Nicole porters filed in to see what happened, In New Jersey, the affected schools
Roberts, associate professor of psy- concerned parents waited outside of the were located in Leonia, Tenafly, Tea-
chology at Arizona State University school to pick up their children, still un- neck, Garfield, Fair Lawn, Hackensack,
(ASU) who didn’t know either girl, stated sure of who was killed and if the stu- Englewood and Bergenfield, officials
that Duriel may have thought she dents were safe. said.
needed a weapon to protect herself, al-
though the student ended up turning the Fortunately, no other students were In many cases, the threats prompted
weapon on herself. physically harmed in the incident. Coun- evacuations of the schools and
selors and psychologists were on hand searches by law enforcement with
at school following the shootings, to bomb-sniffing dogs.
offer emotional help to any student
needing it. The parents of the suspect The calls were made in a robotic voice
and the victim of the Arizona school that may have been computer-gener-
shooting told authorities that they do not ated. The phone numbers were traced
want to press charges against the boy to Bakersfield, Calif., officials said.
who originally had the weapon that
Duriel used in the shootings.

In another note, Dutiel wrote that the
victim, whom she identified as Kieu,
was her girlfriend and someone she
grew up with. Apparently, Kieu told her
she didn’t love her anymore, and Duriel
admitted that she was “not okay” after
that. Portions of the note were censored
by authorities.

“The victim is my girlfriend, whom I
grew up with…. She hasn’t loved
me like that for a long time…….
That she’s been iffy about us for
years. This week has been the
worst in my life.”

The Latest: Family of detention after denying the charges Investigation Into Pas-
school shooting suspect through an attorney Tuesday. saic HS Bomb Threats
3:50 p.m.
'devastated' Continues
Teachers and staff greeted students as
March 2, 2016 they arrived and uniformed police stood March 2, 2016
San Francisco Chronicle by as classes resumed in a southwest NJTV News
Ohio district, two days after authorities
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) — The Lat- say a 14-year-old boy shot two fellow What did the notes say? “There’s
est on the school shooting at a school students in a cafeteria. a bomb in this building — find it.”

near Middletown, Ohio, on Monday Madison Local Schools officials say Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco calls
staff members joined children on their it an epidemic — five bomb
4:45 p.m. bus rides and had a first-day-of-school threats in February at Passaic
style welcome for the district's approxi- High School. Each time, police
The family of the 14-year-old boy mately 1,600 students. Police were on evacuated the buildings, kids
charged in a southwest Ohio school hand along with crisis counselors, while stood around in the street.
shooting has issued a statement saying teachers and other staff lunched with
it is "devastated" by his actions and is students in the cafeteria where the Blanco says the first threat came
praying for the recovery of the injured shooting took place. in a phone call but that staff
students. found subsequent threats scrib-
The superintendent says attendance bled and scrawled in high school
The statement emailed Wednesday to Wednesday at the campus just west of bathrooms.
news organizations by an aunt of Middletown was at about 90 percent, "a
James Austin Hancock says the family little lower" than usual. “Students were taking advantage
is also praying for "Austin, whom we still of the privacy of the bathrooms to
deeply love." It says the family never The 14-year-old shooting suspect re- write notes, either on the wall or
expected such an event in their Madi- mained in juvenile detention after deny- leave it on the floor,” he said.
son Local Schools community, and cer- ing charges including attempted murder
tainly not that "one of our family Tuesday. Authorities said two students So educators started monitoring
members would be involved." It also ex- were shot, two others were hurt, and all bathrooms, requiring students to
pressed gratitude for the support shown were recovering. sign in. Complaints hit Facebook,
for the family and community. where one unhappy student
claimed, “It specially makes me
feel uncomfortable when I’m
locked inside the bathroom. All I
really need is just a couple of
minutes to myself to do my busi-
ness, but because of a single stu-
dent I loose [sic] that privilege.”
But the final straw — the final
bomb threat — happened on a
cold, rainy day.

A defense attorney for Hancock con-
firms the statement came from his fam-
ily. The youth remains in juvenile

“So the kids were outside, In 2015, New Jersey’s De- “Yeah we definitely are and
getting wet — I’m pretty partment of Homeland Se- I think social media may
sure a lot of them got sick curity logged more than 200 play a part in that, as you
from it — and they said, threats — primarily at know, it’s avalible to pretty
‘You know what? We’re not schools, malls, retail estab- much all of the students
going to tolerate this any lishments and hospitals. It’s everyobody today has a cell
more.’ So whenever they a crime called, “swatting” — phone. What’s happening
hear something, they report anonymous phone calls to ,not only on these bomb
it to the administration,” elicit police response. calls but swatting inci-
Blanco said. dences as well, is that these
“Here in New Jersey alone threats are displayed on so-
He says a tip led to an arrest we had 26 schools in one cial media,” said Passaic
— one high school student, day that received telephonic County Sheriff Richard
part of what the mayor calls threats. So, this problem Berdnik, he also said that it
a “mini-conspiracy” that definitely is not going leads to copycating.
also allegedly had planned away,” said Paige Schilling
to make similar threats at an intelligence analyst at the New Jersey’s new anti-swat-
Lincoln Middle School. New Jersey Office of Home- ting law took effect this
land Security and Prepared- week. Those convicted face
“This was going to be a se- ness. up to 10 years in prison and
rious situation. This is a must pay for law enforce-
copycat epidemic, a little ment costs for each swat-
system they were going to ting response.
create,” Blanco said.
“It’s costing the school, the
taxpayers over $20,000 per
incident, and the education
time children are losing,”
Blanco said.

In Passaic, the mayor says,
staff will continue to moni-
tor the high school bath-
rooms, and the
investigation into the so-
called “bomb threat con-
spiracy” remains ongoing.