As Zelle Grows, Fraud and Scams Exposure Is Up Too
Zelle reports that payment volumes soared in 2023. Consumers and small businesses sent 2.9 billion transactions totaling $806 billion in 2023, Thats up 28% over last year. That’s good news for what I think is probably the safest P2P service available. It’s safer than Venmo and light years better than CashApp in stopping scams. But […]
Lone Wolf Fraud Fighters, You Are Not Alone
Janice is the fraud manager, but she doesn’t manage anyone. She manages fraud. That’s what her job description says. Day in and day out, she fights fraud. She’s all alone. There is no team. She’s a department of one. It’s just her and a growing work queue: calls from victims, referrals and questions from other […]
Scam Interdiction. Banks Battle Scams With Tough Love
It’s happening worldwide, and now it may be coming to the US. It’s not scam reimbursement, its something better and more effective. International Fraud Fighters have found the secret weapon in the war against scams, and they are taking cues from what credit card issuers did back in 1991 when fraud losses soared globally. The […]
AI Video Sora Will Give Scammers Unlimited Power
Another monumental moment in technology just happened – OpenAI released Sora. The powerful AI can create 60-second hyperrealistic videos and imaginative scenes with as little as a text prompt or even a sample image. But fraud experts believe this could give ⚡Scammers Unlimited Power⚡ to fortify their scams and mint them billions in profits. A […]
I Found Old Photos. I Think My Dad Was In The Mafia
I was browsing through some of Dad’s old photo albums from the 1970s, and I found something that had me scratching my head. One of the photo albums was entitled “Knights of Columbus 1978” (allegedly a group my father had belonged to for many years). Purportedly, this group does all sorts of good deeds for […]
He Claimed Fraud Co Was Shady, Then They Vanished
Refend.AI, the Refunding Fraud Solutions company that burst on the scene only weeks ago, has just as quickly disappeared. The website is down. Their LinkedIn page is down. And there is little evidence that they ever existed. And one man – Brett Johnson – the original internet godfather might have been the catalyst for their […]
It Was Internal Fraud. Bank CEO Sinks His Bank
In July last year, the FDIC abruptly shut down Heartland Tri-State Bank. It was unclear what happened then, but it came on the heels of the Silicon Valley Meltdown, so many suspected it was a liquidity issue. It was not. It was intentional fraud by the bank’s CEO, Shan Hanes. It was all laid out […]
No, Jessica Alba Is Not A CyberSecurity Enthusiast
It popped up on my LinkedIn newsfeed last week, giving me a little jolt. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was not seeing things. ? Could it be true? Did Jessica Alba, the mega-pint superstar, want to add little old me to her network? That was my instant thought as I […]
11 Frauds and Scams That Will Be SuperCharged With AI ⚡
AI will create new and better versions of existing frauds and scams, but it will also result in some shocking new ones that we never thought might happen. I created this handy infographic of 11 frauds and scams that AI will supercharge⚡. Some of these are already happening, while others may begin occurring soon or […]
ByteDance Instant AI Voice Clone Sparks Fraud Concerns
Researchers have finally cracked the code on voice cloning in real-time. It has arrived. Deepfake conversations will now become a reality. ByteDance has created powerful new software that will allow its users to instantly change their voice into another person’s using generative AI technology. ByteDance is the parent company of TikTok. The tool called StreamVoice […]
How Banks Solved The Check Fraud Boom Of The 1970s
You know how they say that fraud history repeats itself? Well, maybe no one says it. But I do. And I came across a prime example this weekend while investigating check fraud over the years. Hard Times In Fraud During The Seventies The 1970s were hard times in fraud. The US was going through an […]
The Digital Doppelganger Will Change Scams Forever
One of our predictions for 2024 was the arrival of Digital Doppelgangers. Digital Doppelgangers are Artificial Intelligence clones that do not exist in the real world. I decided to test one of the AI services – HeyGen, to see if I could create one for myself. The following video is not me. It’s 100% deepfake. […]
It’s Fraud At Full Throttle – Our Predictions for 2024
Fraud. It is omnipresent and everchanging. Rising to an unstoppable force, we can only slow it, not eliminate it. “It cannot get worse”, we say. And yet it does. Becoming more elusive. Invading every facet of our lives. And mutating faster and faster. Welcome to 2024, folks – The Year of “Fraud At Full Throttle“ […]
The Drunken Sailor Aftermath – Founder Fraud
The early 2020s will be remembered as a wild time in Fintech growth. Investors threw money at shaky startups like drunken sailors throwing back grog. Seemingly, every startup was a unicorn. Valuations soared. Investors threw in even more money, and valuations increased again. The party was amazing. We wondered if it would ever end. The […]
This Remote-Created Check Fraud Cover-Up Was A Scam
Check fraud losses are sky-high for banks this year as emboldened thieves have raided mailboxes pilfering checks and then selling them online. But, there is another method that is driving up check fraud too, and not many people know about it. It’s called- remotely created check fraud. It’s not something that is highly publicized. That […]
Fake Document Company Banned From Creating Fakes
PropDoks has been banned from creating fake documents thanks to a lawsuit. The company will no longer provide verification or credit “reset” services, or market any of those services, thanks to a legal injunction won by the Office of Attorney General Phil Weiser. The company was originally temporarily shut down by court order but has […]
The Fraud Protection Co They Say Was Just A Sham
CBSurety touted itself as a Chargeback Fraud Protection Company, but they were anything but that. The Justice Department accuses them of running a sham of an operation, processing payments for high-risk merchants, and then burying the evidence of that fraud with thousands of tiny legitimate transactions. They filed a civil case against the company to […]
Amazon Launches Legal Blitz On Pro Refunder Ring
Has Amazon reached a breaking point with professional refunders? It appears so. And now that they have taken a stand, other retailers may strike back as well, taking their lead. This week, they launched a legal blitz against the prolific refunding group – REKK- which they say caused millions in losses to the company through […]
Navy Fed Shuts Down 50,000 Fraud Exploiter Accounts
Something big is happening at the most popular credit union in the country. They are cracking down on members who sold membership access codes to scammers who used it to infiltrate their portfolio. Credit gurus like King Shaun say that Navy Fed has closed over 50,000 credit card accounts. Scammers have targeted Navy Fed Navy […]
“I’m Real Honey”. This Basic DeepFake Actually Worked
Staff Sgt Sherri Vlastuin isn’t a scammer, but her photos are used by scammers all over the world to bilk innocent people in low-level romance scams. Most of the scammers are based in Nigeria and seek out elderly men in North America, Europe and other regions to induce them in crypto scams and other schemes. […]
New Jersey Anchor Benefits Are A Buzzy Fraud Target
It’s a race against time to get free government money from New Jersey’s Anchor Benefit Program and no one is hustling harder than fraudsters. The program gives people who rented or owned a home in New Jersey during the pandemic up to $2,500. And fraudsters love the program, which appears to have, let’s just say, […]