Free Republic

On the surface, the town of Jamtara appeared no different from neighbouring districts. But, if you knew where to look, there were startling differences. In the middle of spartan villages were houses of imposing size and unusual opulence. Millions of Indians knew why this was. They knew, to their cost, where Jamtara was. To them, it was no longer a place; it was a verb. You lived in fear of being “Jamtara-ed”. Over the past 15 years, parts of this sleepy district in the eastern state of Jharkhand had grown fabulously wealthy. This extraordinary feat of rural development was powered...

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Oct. 15 that the agency is cracking down on espionage by foreign adversaries, with an increase in arrests as high as 50 percent. “We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran,” he said at a press conference. “In China alone, we’ve had over a 50 percent increase in espionage arrests alone, and prosecutions,” Patel said. “In Iran, we have had a 50 percent increase, again, in espionage cases. And in Russia, we had a 33 percent increase in espionage cases alone.” State Department employee Ashley Tellis, arrested...

The U.S. is awash with scam text messages. Officials say it has become a billion-dollar, highly sophisticated business benefiting criminals in China. Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations. The texts are ploys to get unsuspecting victims to fork over their credit-card details. The gangs behind the scams take advantage of this information to buy iPhones, gift cards, clothing and cosmetics. Criminal organizations operating out of China, which investigators blame for the toll...

Publishers Clearing House – the bankrupt sweepstakes company that told its past prize winners they would no longer receive their ‘forever’ payments – has a new CEO, who has a plan to protect the company’s prize winners. Future winners. Past winners are still out of luck. ARB Interactive, a mobile gaming company that now owns PCH, announced Tuesday that Owen O’Donoghue will lead a “revitalization” of the 70-year-old brand that ensures “all future sweepstakes payouts are fully secure,” according to a statement. O’Donoghue, the new PCH CEO, also plans to make PCH a “mobile-first digital entertainment platform.” The change comes...

“Tribute to Charlie Kirk, Rest in Peace” is a soul-stirring gospel-inspired ballad in Adele’s iconic style. Blending spoken word, heartfelt gospel lyrics, and Adele’s emotional storytelling, this piece is both a song of remembrance and a spiritual prayer. This moving tribute explores grief, hope, faith, and eternal love, reminding us that death is not the end but a doorway to forever. With Adele’s signature powerful vocals, emotional pre-chorus, and soaring chorus, this gospel song resonates with anyone who has lost a loved one yet holds on to faith in God’s eternal promise. The song carries a spiritual weight, drawing listeners...

1/ Meet Gaurav Trivedi, an Indian scammer who impersonates Microsoft support and then rips off innocent vulnerable people. He tried to scam me......but instead of paying him money, I hacked into his laptop and turned on his live webcam feed. 2/ Gaurav runs a classic Microsoft tech support scam out of his apartment complex in Raebareli, India. It starts with a fake popup that locks your screen, blares a loud warning sound, and tells you to call “Microsoft” immediately or risk losing all your data.

An illegal immigrant and mother was arrested for staging a fake “kidnapping” — where bounty hunters took her at gunpoint and tried forcing her to self-deport at a fast-food restaurant — to scam people and “smear federal law enforcement.” Yuriana Julia “Juli” Pelaez Calderon, 41, was charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers over the elaborate scheme on Thursday, according to the Department of Justice. “Dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are ‘kidnapping’ illegal immigrants is being recklessly peddled by politicians and echoed in the media to inflame the public and discredit our courageous federal agents,” US Attorney...

WILLIAMSPORT - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that eight Chinese nationals who obtained student visas to attend college in the United States were indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Those indicated include: Yankun Jiang, 24, of State College, PA, Hanlin Yang, 24, of State College; Chenhao Chen, 25, of California; Xiaoqing Tu, 24, of California; Dongjie Lu, 35, of California; Lei Bao, 22, of New York; Kuo Zhang, 31, of New Jersey; and Jiacheng Zhang, 25, of Florida.According to Acting United States Attorney John Gurganus, the indictment...

Conversations with the Master Forecaster This book is unlike anything you’ve read before. It’s not another theory — it’s a documented track record of how Martin saw what no one else did: ✅ Sovereign debt implosions ✅ War cycles and geopolitical shifts ✅ The coming collapse of trust in governments ✅ The timeline to 2032 — and what it means for you Written by longtime interviewer Kerry Lutz, this book is based on over a decade of never-before-published insights, straight from Martin’s most powerful moments on air. Whether you’re an investor, thinker, or someone simply seeking truth in an age...

On May 27, 2025, President Donald Trump announced he would pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the reality TV show Chrisley Knows Best. Known for their Southern charm, witty banter, and tight-knit family, the Chrisleys captured the hearts of millions. As outspoken conservatives and Trump supporters—a rarity in entertainment—they faced federal charges in 2022 for bank fraud and tax evasion, accused of defrauding Atlanta-area banks out of over $30 million and evading taxes. Todd received a 12-year sentence, and Julie was sentenced to seven years, with a combined $17.8 million in restitution. Their daughter, Savannah, has tirelessly advocated for...

A gang of wealthy 'crypto bros' have been arrested for luring their former business partner to a stunning New York City mansion before torturing him for weeks. The group are accused of kidnapping the 28-year-old Italian man before committing sickening acts on him in the $75,000-per-month rented brownstone in Soho. They alleged to have Tazed him, pistol-whipped him and threatened to carve him up with a chainsaw if he did not give up the millions of dollars in his crypto account. But their plot was foiled when the victim - who has not been named - escaped and flagged down...

I’m not gonna say “I told you so” because that’s tacky…But I do take my reporting very seriously and I love to see when our reporting is backed up by big sources.I’ve been shouting from the rooftops that the banking failures of April/May are not over.That was just the start.I’ve been saying we almost certainly see a period of time where the banks “shut down” and you can’t get your money. Now I being you this clip from Patrick Bet-David’s podcast with Col. Douglas MacGregor who basically confirmed all of that is true. But worse than I even expected.I expected...

Abdala Rada Ramel has close ties to Salman Raouf Salman, who has been also accused of an important role in the AMIA bombing attack The "clans" consist of groups of Lebanese origin who exert control over given territories in South America - and enable Hezbollah All three clans are strategically positioned close to the most important ports of Venezuela, from which they doubtless oversee the trade and handling of goods that in turn allows Hezbollah to profit Assad Ahmad Barakat is accused of having been involved in the AMIA bomb attack and operating call centers and shell companies on behalf...

Authorities in Mexico have confirmed the remains found in 45 plastic bags near Guadalajara belong to as many as eight call center employees, who were reported missing in May, according to CBS. Six men and two women were reported missing by their families between May 20 and May 22. While their families believed their loved ones worked at a typical call center, the facility was reportedly one of 19 in Mexico under investigation by the United States Department of the Treasury for possible links to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). “CJNG’s deep involvement in timeshare fraud in the Puerto...

It may be setting the stage to eliminate voter fraud by illegals and scammers. Use this as a basis for voting and it can only improve the troubled and fraud-filled voter databases that fill BLUE state voter rolls. I have a natural aversion to this sort of seemingly intrusive verification of names and federalization of data. But so much scamming has been going on in the state systems that they are untrustworthy in many places. Maybe this is the base move for creating a national voting ID to end fraud in elections.

For years, scammers have targeted community colleges across the state, posing as students in order to steal money from scholarships or government financial aid. Recent state reports suggest the problem is getting worse, and college leaders say they’re worried that the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Department of Education could hamper fraud prevention and investigations. In 2021, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office reported that about 20% of college applicants were likely fake. In January 2024, the state said it was up to about 25%. Now it’s around 34%, according to the most recent data from the last calendar...

Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crew have revealed that 40%—nearly half—of the phone calls the Social Security Administration receives are from “fraudsters” who are changing beneficiaries’ bank information to steal benefits. “When you want to change your bank account, you can call Social Security. We learned 40% of the phone calls that they get are from fraudsters,” one of Musk’s prodigies stated. President Trump’s DOGE head, Elon Musk, and members of his team sat for an interview with Bret Baier, which aired on Thursday evening, to discuss the waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending that...

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for abandoning transgender athletes earlier this week in an interview with conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Newsom launched a podcast last year, and recently revamped it, saying that he wanted to interview people in the MAGA movement. (Newsom’s office has repeatedly refused requests for interviews with, or of, Breitbart News.) The publicity stunt is apparent meant to burnish Newsom’s bipartisan credentials ahead of a possible run for the presidency in 2028. But it backfired badly after Newsom, who built his career on LGBTQ causes, backtracked. As Breitbart...

Twenty-five Canadians have been charged with swindling hundreds of American seniors out of more than $21 million through what's known as a "grandparent scam," federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont said in a statement that the alleged perpetrators were indicted by a federal grand jury in late February. They range in age from their late-20s to mid-40s and all but one are based in Quebec province, which is home to Montreal. The announcement lists their names as well as the aliases they used, including Muscles, Elvis, Blondie, Happy, Honda and...

An illegal immigrant is facing deportation after he was caught allegedly scamming an elderly woman in Hermon with an aggressive scheme involving numerous escalating demands and multiple visits to her house. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department received a report on February 3 that scammers repeatedly called an elderly Hermon woman, claiming that her bank account was compromised and demanding that she withdraw the funds. According to the department’s report, the alleged scammers initially attempted to sound professional before resorting to more aggressive demands. The alleged scammers successfully coerced the woman into handing over a large, undisclosed amount of money in...