Hundreds of thousands- to millions - of frauds, are permitted by the FBI every year (click here, click here), and U.S. banks allow the criminals to use our banks to commit crimes against us. Any frauds under $100,000 are not investigated at all by the FBI, and there are no regulations to demand that our banks stop the criminals from using our banks to commit these ongoing crimes.
I wrote a series of Op Eds about a a massive fraud scheme committed against my wife and me while we were in Europe, but more importantly my investigation determined that internet fraud is far more prevalent and despicable than anyone would have thought. I say despicable because the victims have little recourse to fight the criminals, since our laws and our law enforcement agencies support the criminals by default, or inaction.
SPECIFIC CRIMES THAT STARTED THIS INVESTIGATION
As a 71-year-old tourist, I did not succumb to a jail threat when I did not pay a $5,000 extortion payment while on vacation in France with my 73 year-old-wife. To document this thievery, I wrote "Visit France as a Tourist-Risk Fraud and False Imprisonment in Jail-Luxury Tours France and Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys". Spending hundreds of hours without compensation, I fought the Bank of America to retrieve tens of thousands of dollars from associated credit card frauds ("The Bank of America Steals our Money - The Bank of America's International Fraud against America").
In response to my complaints to the U.S. Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Bank of America gave back my stolen money ("The Bank of America Reacts to Freedom of the Press and the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau"). That is, illegal double charging by a French hotel was refunded, along with $23,559 in stolen credit card funds from Luxury Tours France. Although the FBI refused to act on these crimes, the CFPB acted to have my stolen money returned. My exercise of Freedom of the Press prompted the CFPB to act on my behalf to stand against these bank crimes.
These crimes were so blatant that those who defrauded me accused me of blackmail when I asked that my stolen money be returned. Their false statements can be read in the following two TripAdvisor complaints: "The Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys Defrauds Customers", click here, and "Defrauded and Stranded in France by Luxury Tours France (Riverloire - Loire Valley Day Tours)", click here. As noted, credit card frauds from both of these companies have recently been refunded by the Bank of America.
I invested significant efforts to date to retrieve stolen funds. If the cash amount had not been so large, and I had not been threatened with jail, perhaps I would not have pursued these crimes. Similarly, most people simply accept ongoing frauds, which may not be that large in each case. However, such frauds likely cost us tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
RECENT DOCUMENTATION OF THESE CRIMES
The following new complaints were submitted to TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor has blocked these reviews, which effectively covers up crimes by these companies.
Liars and Thieves at RiverLoire - Loire Valley Day Tours
I traveled with Luxury Tours France, which is part of this company (https://www.luxury-tours-france.com, www.riverloire.com), and I was threatened with jail and defrauded of tens of thousands of dollars. I have documented this fraud in a series of articles through OpEd News by Robert A. Leishear. My wife was horrified that I would be jailed for not giving in to extortion by Luxury Tours France. By filing a subsequent complaint with the U.S. Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau, more than $23,000 in stolen funds have been returned.
I am still pursuing more than $3000 in cash that was stolen from wife and I through a U.S. bank wire transfer by Luxury Tours France. Luxury Tours France has even falsely claimed that all of my requests to return my stolen money are a form of blackmail. I refuse to submit to these despicable criminal acts against my family. I filed a previous review complaint against this company, but these crimes against my family continue.
A Fraud Has Been Stopped by the Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys (click here: TripAdvisor removed this trip review from their website without explanation.)
The Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys illegally double-charged my wife and I for a hotel stay. When I asked them to pay back the stolen money, they falsely accused me of blackmail.
Hotel staff supported a criminal who committed fraud against my wife and me, where that criminal demanded a $5,000 extortion payment in the lobby of the Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys, and threatened to have me jailed if I did not pay immediately.
That criminal from Luxury Tours France subsequently attempted to defraud me of more than $20,000. This stolen money and the fraudulent payment to the hotel were returned after the U.S. Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau induced my credit card company to reimburse this stolen money.
By supporting the thefts by Luxury Tours France, this hotel is guilty of theft as well. These comments are documented in a series of Op Eds through Op Ed News.
I also sent the following feedback to the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau.
CFPB Fraud Complaint (230715-11535286)
The Bank of America refunded the money stolen by Luxury Tours France. Bank of America would not have done so without the assistance of the CFPB, where they previously refused to pay back the stolen money on multiple occasions.
At first, Bank of America only refunded the stolen money from Luxury Tours France and the Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys, but this bank later responded to a subsequent complaint that I filed to return the stolen money from Anontech. [I provided proof that a falsified document was provided by Stripe on behalf of Anontech to the Bank of America.] Interestingly, the Bank of America claimed that they provided excellent service in this matter, where I fought them for months to obtain this stolen money as documented in a series of Op Eds ("The Bank of America Reacts to Freedom of the Press and the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau", click here).
Even so, Luxury Tours France has still absconded with money stolen through a wire transfer fraud, which is outside the jurisdiction of the CFPB. There is an in-process Op Ed to discuss this criminal matter that affects many people in the U.S. ("U.S. Banks and the FBI Harbor Criminal Fraud Enterprises").
Thanks for your assistance with this criminal matter.
Additionally, I continue to correspond by email with Luxury Tours France. One such recent letter follows.
A Letter to Luxury Tours France and the Hotel Le Pavillon Des Lys - Thieves and Liars
Through the the Bank of America, I filed a formal complaint to request that your fraudulent wire transfer of thousands of dollars be refunded to my wife and me. If this effort fails, I plan to file criminal and civil complaints against [a specific company representative] if he is still in the U.S. I cannot access you thieves in France through U.S. courts, where only part of the wire transfer funds was used for services rendered. The rest of those funds were stolen by Luxury Tours France.
THE U.S. BANK COVER-UP
According to Bank of America staff, other banks follow the same policies that the Bank of America uses in day-to-day business. 'Credit card frauds' are called 'billing disputes', and 'wire transfer frauds' are called 'scam acknowledgments'. By falsifying the names of these frauds, U.S. banks vastly minimize the number of criminal frauds on their records. Furthermore, U.S. banks allow criminals to freely operate, using bank accounts for criminal purposes.
Such dishonesty constitutes a massive cover-up of criminal activities, which are thereby sanctioned by those banks who falsify their records. As noted in earlier Op Eds, any frauds under $100,000 are ignored by the FBI, and banks support the criminals. That is, if a criminal tells the bank that stolen money is a legitimate charge against a customer, the criminal is always right, and the customer is always wrong. In other words, criminals who commit frauds operate with impunity in the U.S.
Additionally, illegal wire transfer frauds are condoned through policies by the FBI and U.S. banks. For example, as part of this massive fraud against my wife and by Luxury Tours France, several thousand dollars were stolen through a wire transfer from one bank to another. The money was sent, received, and withdrawn by the thieves.
Cornerstone Community Federal Credit Union refused to return the money and allows the criminals to maintain their bank account, which in turn allows the criminals to commit similar crimes using the same bank account. The FBI informed me that no actions can be taken to investigate such a crime, since there are inadequate laws to prevent criminals from using banks to commit crimes. Specifically, there are no laws to hold banks accountable when their services are used to commit crimes.
Banks should be held accountable if they allow criminals to freely perform their crimes through bank accounts!
ADDENDUM: MUCH COMPUTER HACKING IS ACCEPTED BY THE FBI
To accent the extent of computer fraud, the FBI does not even bother to investigate most computer hacking incidents. As an example, my computer was hacked several years ago. The hacker sent emails to friends and family asking for money. The hacker further claimed that my wife had been badly beaten, that she was hospitalized, and that we were both stranded in Europe due to a robbery. Fortunately, I advised friends and family that this attempted crime was hoax.
An FBI computer responded that nobody would investigate this crime, since there are too many crimes to investigate. In short, there are too many crimes, so the FBI will not investigate most fraud crimes at all.
(Article changed on Oct 23, 2023 at 11:33 AM EDT)
