deepfake

The United Kingdom is experiencing an unprecedented surge in fraud crime, with 2.09 million confirmed cases reported in the first six months of 2025. The crisis reveals vulnerabilities in digital banking systems that extend far beyond British shores, prompting international law enforcement to reassess fraud prevention strategies.

Danish true crime podcast Mørkeland has released episode 296, in which hosts Camilla and Kristine dig into a case involving a heavily pregnant woman in Copenhagen and a Danish hammer murder committed in Portugal.

Deep Cover is a Pushkin Industries true-crime podcast exploring double lives, now in its 2026 season — Deep Cover: The Family Man — following Keith Giamanco. Available on Apple Podcasts and Pushkin.fm.

Ruja Ignatova, a German woman accused of running a billion-dollar cryptocurrency fraud, boarded a Ryanair flight to Athens on October 25, 2017, and was never seen again. Once called the world's most wanted woman, her disappearance remains one of crime's most haunting mysteries.

On February 16, 2003, Italian master thief Leonardo Notarbartolo and his associates broke into the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium and stole over $100 million in loose diamonds, gold, and jewelry. Five days later, a half-eaten sandwich would help police solve the crime.

In March 1997, Canadian mining company Bre-X Minerals collapsed after its massive Indonesian gold discovery was exposed as an elaborate fraud. The scandal wiped out $6 billion in market value and left unanswered questions about the death of the geologist at the center of the scheme.

Alexander Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on December 3, 2024, in New York after pleading guilty to commodities and securities fraud. The sentencing concludes a major prosecution of the crypto lending platform that collapsed in 2022, wiping out billions in customer savings.

In June 2021, a hacker using the username TomLiner posted personal data from approximately 700 million LinkedIn users—roughly 93% of the platform's membership—for sale on the dark web forum RaidForums. LinkedIn disputed the characterization as a breach, arguing the data came from public profiles and external sources rather than a direct hack of its systems.

Rédoine Faïd, born 1972, blasted his way out of a French prison in 2013 and escaped another by helicopter in 2018. He has since been sentenced to a combined term that keeps him behind bars until at least 2060.

Richard Lee McNair, a former U.S. Air Force sergeant convicted of murder, escaped from custody three times between 1988 and 2006 using increasingly sophisticated methods—from lip balm to an ingeniously constructed escape pod—evading recapture for months each time.

On March 18, 1990, two men posing as Boston police officers walked into one of America's most prestigious museums and walked out with 13 masterpieces worth over $500 million. Three decades later, the perpetrators remain at large and not a single painting has been recovered.

A Vincent van Gogh painting worth an estimated $50–55 million vanished from Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum on August 21, 2010, cut from its frame in broad daylight. It was the second time the work had been stolen from the institution—and this time, it has never been recovered.

On February 9, 1864, Colonel Thomas E. Rose of the 77th Pennsylvania Infantry led one of the Civil War's most audacious prison escapes from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Working in secret for 17 days, Rose and fellow officers dug a narrow 50-60 foot tunnel from the dungeon-like basement to freedom—an feat so remarkable that 109 men followed them out.

The United Bamboo Gang, also known as Bamboo Union, has operated as Taiwan's largest criminal triad since its founding in 1956–1957, commanding approximately 20,000 members across 13 divisions and 68 branches. What began as a local protection racket has transformed into a sophisticated international criminal enterprise involved in drug trafficking, human smuggling, cyber fraud, and money laundering—with operations spanning California, Las Vegas, and mainland China.

On May 12, 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack struck more than 300,000 computers across 150 countries, but its impact on Britain's National Health Service proved particularly devastating. The attack infected at least 80 NHS trusts and over 600 primary care organizations, forcing hospitals to cancel thousands of procedures and revert to pen-and-paper record-keeping.

On July 10, 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III was abducted from Rome's Piazza Farnese by members of the 'Ndrangheta, a Calabrian crime syndicate targeting one of the world's wealthiest families. What followed was a five-month ordeal marked by torture, disfigurement, and a negotiated ransom that would shake the Getty family.