5 Red Flags That Could Have Stopped $7 Million Fraud
In March of 2016, Michael Birley of the FBI came down hard against perpetrators of of the largest cases of Auto Lending Fraud in many years. In the criminal complaint he outlines the whole sordid scheme which involved over 20 straw borrowers and a whole host of collusive players. – Auto Fraud Auto Lending Fraud Prevention for the […]
Don’t Look Now. Breaches are Down 35% for 2016.
There have been 622 total breaches reported by the Identity Theft resource center in 2016. You can read the entire report here which is quite informative – Identity Theft Resource Center. This was a surprise to me. It seems far less than I have read about in recent years. So I decided to look at […]
Account Takeover Fraud Attempts Are Up Big in 2016
In 2012, LinkedIn reported that about 7 million password credentials were hacked and breached. Well as it turns out, that number was grossly underestimated and was closer to 167 million according to recent reports. To remedy the situation, LinkedIn forced password resets on all affected accounts that they could locate. Problem solved right? Wrong. The […]
The Dark Web is A Garage Sale With Your Information
The Dark Web. You can’t see it. Maybe you have no way to even access it but it is there lurking and impacting you in ways that you don’t even realize. If you’re an average everyday consumer you probably won’t be able to access the Dark Web but you need to know that it’s a […]
Auto Lending Is the Next Mortgage Crisis
Auto Lending Fraud is a billion dollar problem here in the US. An overwhelming majority of dealers are honest and give borrowers a good deal but a few unscrupulous dealers are creating big headaches for the auto lending industry.
Is It Still Too Early to Call Chip Card a Disaster?
I just got back from CVS. I used my credit card there. It was brutal. I have to tell you. It has never been more confusing, inconvenient and downright difficult to pay at the cashier these days. Truth. Using my credit used to be simple and fast. I would go the cashier. They would finish […]
Fraudsters Break EMV With Mag Strip Weakness
This just in. Fraudsters have broken the Chip Card. They have figured out a way to break the once though infallible technology with something remarkably simple. Instead of focusing on the Chip itself, fraudsters focus instead of the magnetic stripe. That’s right. To break the Chip, just change the magnetic stripe. Confused yet? Well I […]
Is LifeLock Really Worth the Price You Pay For It?
Is LifeLock Really Worth It? This is one of the questions I am most frequently asked by people when I tell them I am in Fraud Management. So, if you don’t want to read any further. Here is my short answer – Yes! But, not absolutely always. The real answer is, it depends. If you […]
5 Reasons Fraud is Worse Now Than Any Point in History
Fraud is an epidemic. It is a scourge of the information age. It is a cancer that spreads and then spreads more rapidly as it grows. I took a long hard look at fraud trends across the world, and I determined it isn’t very good. In fact it’s bad and only projected to get worse. Everyone, everywhere […]
Spoofing A Phone Number is So Easy for Fraudsters.
Matching ANI number (when the customer’s phone number they called in from matched the phone number they listed on their account) used to be the Holy Grail of customer authentication for banks. In retrospect that may sound a little naive but I mean if you called in from the same phone number that you opened […]
Wire Fraud is a $30 to $50 Billion Annual Fraud Problem
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear about wire fraud. Wire Fraud is the latest fraud trend that is impacting banks from across the world. But not only is it impacting banks, but small businesses and consumers as well. Wire Fraud is an epidemic that is reaching historic levels here in the […]
Fighting Fraud with Frank Was Not a Dumb Name
About 10 years ago, I started a blog and called it Fighting Fraud with Frank. I didn’t come up with that name. Someone else did-Colleen Edwards. Colleen is a smart accomplished marketer. She even has her own company that has helped some of the biggest brands in the world – PowerMark. but I thought that is […]
I Was Almost Scammed by the IRS
It happens millions of times a year. And it happened to me. While working, I started to rapidly receive calls from many different area codes. I was puzzled so I answered the phone. I decided to record the conversation because it was so interesting. As it turns out, this scam occurs to hundreds of thousands […]
Jaime Dimon is Ringing The Warning Bell on Auto Lending
For two years, I have been watching Auto Lending go through one of biggest growth spurts in history. And it certainly looks like it is peaking. This last quarter outstanding Auto Loans increased to over 1 Trillion and marked one of the best quarters in history. Everything is good right? Not quite. And definitely […]