Mortgage Fraud Risk Falls to Historic Low
First American today released the First American Loan Application Defect Index for January 2020, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. The index, which is released each quarter, shows that mortgage fraud risk has dropped to its lowest level in the last 9 years in large part […]
$7 Million Fraud Involved 31,000 Cars, 31 Car Dealers
Curbstoning is the act of selling used vehicles under the false pretense of being the car’s owner in order to evade city or state regulations imposed on authorized automotive dealers. But it can also involve individuals that try to skirt state dealer licensing laws by “borrowing” legitimate dealers licenses to sell cars. It’s big business and […]
Synthetic Identity Contagion Spreads to Apartment Rentals
Don wasn’t a very good credit risk. In fact, he defaulted on just about every credit card and loan he ever had. He had been evicted from just about every apartment he had ever rented, couldn’t hold down a job and spent his day partying and causing havoc. He was about as lousy as paying […]
Online Fraud Will Cause $200 Billion in Losses in 4 Years
Juniper Research found that businesses in eCommerce, airline ticketing, money transfer, and banking services, will cumulatively lose over $200 billion to online payment fraud between 2020 and 2024, driven by the increased sophistication of fraud attempts and the rising number of fraud types. In research published this week, Juniper advises that the payments industry is […]
The $3 Billion Fraud Ghost Account Nightmare Ends
It looks like Wells Fargo may finally be closing the chapter on some of the darkest days in their long history. The fraud began over 18 years ago, and yesterday Wells began to close the chapter by admitting their wrongdoing and agreeing to pay a massive fine. Yesterday the DOJ announced that Wells agreed to […]
Fifth Third Bank Gets Hit By Internal Employee Fraud Ring
It appears that Fifth Third Bank has been stung by an employee fraud ring that stole customer information. Fifth Third reported that customer information was stolen by a group of employees who sold the information to people outside of the company. Thos people than used the stolen customer information to set up fraudulent credit accounts […]
FBI Reports Internet Fraud Climbs 32% in 2019
The internet is connecting everyone in the world together and drawing us closer together. And while that is a good thing in many cases, it also is providing a ripe hunting ground from fraudsters and scammers that are trying to steal your money. This week the FBI, reports that fraud on the internet rose to […]
Fannie Mae Warns Lenders of Fake Employers Used in Fraud
Fannie Mae has a program to alert lenders to employers that Mortgage Brokers use to facilitate their fraud schemes. In 2018, they reported a list of over 30 employers that were involved in known fraud schemes and warned lenders to watch out for these employers on incoming applications. Fannie Mae warned that if one of […]
How Long Will It Take To Hack Your Password?
As an authentication method, passwords obviously suck. But we’re stuck with them and have to make the most of them. The reason passwords suck is because data breaches have rendered them nearly useless. Over 5 billion records were breached last year and many of those records contained your passwords and sign-on credentials to sites you […]
Using CPN’s Are Landing People in Jail
A recent expose on CPN use by NBC’s Scott Friedman shows how the seedy element of the credit repair business is landing some consumers of their services in jail. The investigation focuses on one consumer – Swatisha Keith. All that she wanted was a better life with better credit to help buy things she needed […]
Check Fraud Climbs to $15.8 Billion as Check Use Declines
If you think the only people that write checks are kindly old ladies at the supermarket checkout line, think again. Fraudsters and scammers are writing more bad checks than ever. So why is check fraud in the US is spiking to historical highs, even as check use has declined to it’s lowest levels? Attempted Check […]
Confession of A Nespresso Fraud Money Mule
Here is a fascinating video where Nina Kollars inadvertently found herself dealing with a complex scheme involving Nespresso Coffee Pods. In Nina’s own words – 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 […]
Get Ready for Gas Station Fraud Armageddon in 2020
Gas stations around the US are rushing to upgrade their fuel pumps in order to accept Chip Cards by the October 2020 deadline. Even though they were given extraordinary leeway and an extra 3 years to upgrade their pumps, many chose to wait until the last minute to comply. A new report by Conexxus, a […]
Personal Data Can Prevent Fraud – Here’s How.
Millions of Californians now have more rights than ever before when it comes to their personal online data. That includes the right to find out what’s been collected and ensure it is not sold. That new legislation is called California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and many other states are following suit. Most consumers think that […]
Loan Fraud is Shooting Up and Up and Up in India
Not a day goes by that I don’t read an article about the problem of loan fraud in India. It started a couple of years ago with the massive $1.8 Billion Dollar loan fraud at Punjab National Bank and it has only gotten worse. That case which involved 3 bank insiders working with billionaire Nirav […]
Are Liar Loans Pushing Fraud Too Far in Auto Lending?
The Auto Lending Industry could be in for rough waters. Ben Eisen, a Wall Street Journalist investigated the issue of Liar Loans and remarks in this video how eerily similar the problem seems to be compared to the Mortgage Crisis of 2007. 1 in 4 loans have inflated income. And that’s just what we know […]
5 Things Banks Should Do To Stop Synthetic Identity Fraud
The Federal Reserve calls synthetic identity fraud the fastest growing financial crime in the US. It boggles the mind that something so ridiculously simple as using a stolen Social Security Number and combining it with a different name and address could lead to such a rampant crime. I mean, shouldn’t we be able to stop […]
Social Security Number Fraud Hits Auto Loans Hard
PointPredictive press released a widespread scheme involving the structuring of social security numbers used to create synthetic identities for potentially fraudulent auto loans. The scheme involves applicants, or in some cases bad actors at car dealerships, using valid Social Security Number prefixes (the first 5 digits of a valid SSN) and systematically changing the suffixes […]
4 Ways Fraudsters Shifted Their Takeover Patterns
Fraud is ever changing. Fraudsters are continually evolving their craft to bypass bank fraud controls. As banks deploy AI and Machine Learning, fraudsters are employing their own machine learning to identify new and better ways to skirt controls. And nowhere are patterns changing faster than in online account takeover. A new study released this month […]
950 Accounts Impacted in $2.4 Million Bust Out Scheme
A San Bernardino County man faces federal criminal charges that he masterminded a bank account “bust-out” scheme that defrauded Wells Fargo out of $2.4 million and compromised more than 950 of its accounts. Steven Michael Banks Hubbard Jr., a.k.a. “Marcus” and “Man,” 36, of Rialto, was charged in an 11-count federal grand jury indictment returned […]
House of Cards – 1 In 5 Auto Loans Contain Income Fraud
An article in the Wall Street Journal was published which indicated that 1 in 5 borrower applications have inflated incomes. The article written by Ben Eisen exposes some dealers that lie about the income to get loans approved and put the borrowers in cars that they could not otherwise afford. The article also indicated that, […]