Confessions of an Nespresso Money Mule: Free Stuff & Triangulation Fraud

The speaker shares their experience of uncovering a fraudulent scheme involving the purchase and resale of Nespresso products on eBay. They highlight the vulnerability of elderly victims and the ease of being complicit in such schemes. The speaker emphasizes the need for better protection for vulnerable populations and the importance of ethical behavior.

• Uncovering a fraudulent scheme involving the purchase and resale of Nespresso products on eBay
• Elderly victims are vulnerable and recovery from identity theft is difficult for them
• The ease of being complicit in fraudulent schemes
• The need for better protection for vulnerable populations
• The importance of ethical behavior

The speaker shares their experience of purchasing Nespresso products on eBay and discovering a fraudulent scheme. They also share a story of a polite fraudster who refunded their money due to a family emergency. The speaker sent all the collected data to the FBI and eBay to try and stop the fraudulent activity.

In 2018 I somewhat innocently bought very expensive coffee (Nespresso capsules) online from Ebay. What followed was a series of unexpected additional packages from the manufacturer Nespresso and a lurking suspicion that something had gone terribly--if not criminally--wrong as a result of my purchase. This talk chronicles the obnoxious amounts of obsessive research and tracking that became my new hobby--stalking Nespresso fraudsters and my decidedly non-technical attempts at developing a generic search profile and reporting the fraudsters to anyone who would listen, to include : the persons whose identities had been stolen, Nespresso, Ebay, and the FBI. Ultimately I just ended up with a LOT of coffee; a lingering sense that I had committed several crimes; and no faith left in humanity.