Watch This Couples Credit Card Fraud Go Horribly Wrong
This couple tried to use a stolen credit card in a convenience store but got caught. Watch what happens when the police were called. Things escalate quickly.
Watch This Fraud Analyst Use Math to Detect Fraud
This is a great video explaining how Fraud Analysts examines patterns of fraud to detect data breaches. This was a fairly large data breach at Ticketmaster that this computer scientist detected well before it was announced. This young analyst looks about 17 years old but so knowledgeable in fraud patterns!
Conversations With Fred – A Cupcake Fraudster
I got an interesting text out of the blue from a fella named Fred. Fred wanted a cupcake. How he got my number or why he thought I sell cupcakes, I will never know but it became clear in the end what he really wanted. Be careful out there folks. The cupcake fraudster is still […]
Proliferation of Fake Pay Stub Sites Show How Easy Fraud Is
Everybody wants to pretend they are rich when they apply for a loan. But everybody wants to pretend they’re poor when they have to pay it back. Most people are honest, but there are quite a few that are willing to pretend they’re rich and even lie about how much they make. And a plethora of fake paystub […]
America’s First Card Fraudster Was an Elegant Swindler
The year was 1960. American Express had just launched their first plastic charge card one year earlier and Diners Club was gaining widespread popularity with cardboard credit cards that they launched in 1950. Not many people knew what credit cards were at the time. There were probably less than 1 million total credit cards in […]
Watch How Ghana Created A Fraud Religion
With the advent of high-speed internet in Ghana, a new religion was created by JuJu priest called Sakawa. The religion leverages witchcraft and very expensive religious rituals that help fraudsters become irresistible to greedy Americans. Sakawa is a Ghanaian term for illegal practices which combine modern Internet-based fraud with African traditionalist rituals. The term or word Sakawa […]
Hidden Fraud is a Ghost That Will Scare You
When I was a kid, I always used to say – “I don’t want to say I don’t believe in Ghost because then they will try to scare me”. What I think I meant was that just because you don’t believe in ghosts doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The same holds true for fraud. Over […]
Why Is Straw Borrower Fraud So Dangerous?
To a crow, a straw man in a corn field might look like a real man. It has a head, arms, a body and even legs. But inside it is just full of straw. It has all the parts of a man but it isn’t real at all. It’s there to look like […]
6 Tips for Fraudsters to Fake Their Own Deaths
Sometimes when things are really bad, you just want to disappear. For most of us that just might be just a fleeting thought but for others like fraudsters, crooks and murderers it is a reality. Lots of famous people have tried to fake their own death – John Darwin, Ken Kesey (author of One Flew […]
40 Tourist Frauds and Scams to Avoid
A helpful infographic for you road warriors out there.
The Most Common Fraud Scams, Scamsters Do
There are lots of ways to get ripped off out there. And now more than ever, it’s important to be vigilant of all the clever ways fraudsters can steal your money. I have been scammed a dozen times in my life (probably more) and that is because I was confused at the time and wanted […]
Charitable Stealing – Why Fraudsters Target Charities
Why would fraudsters spend hundreds of millions a year donating to charities? Fraudsters are the business of stealing money, not giving it away. But they do. On the face of it, they appear to be very generous. Every year, stolen credit card numbers, checks and even bank routing numbers are used to make hundreds of […]
Don’t Get Hit with ShotGunning Fraud
Don’t cue up the old western music. I’m not talking about actual shotguns here. And I’m not suggesting you buy a gun to protect yourself. What I am talking about is a very specific type of fraud scam that some in the industry like to refer as “Shotgunning or ShotGun Fraud”. Actually it’s not a […]
These 10 Phishing Emails Fooled The Most People
If you get any email with these in the subject line – beware! These are the top 10 phishing emails that fooled the most people last year. Emails that contain this subject lines are more likely top result in clicks than any other subjects. #1 Phishing Email – “Subject: A Delivery Attempt Was Made” 21% […]
Forter Report – $24 Billion A Year in Refund Fraud
Professional Refunders are now exploiting the generous return policies of online merchants like never before and one company is trying to do something about it. Forter, a company that specializes in online fraud detection, has published a study and found that $24 Billion a year is lost to refunding fraud and abuse. I recently wrote […]
Man Defrauds Poor Girl Scout Selling Cookies
Every year, tens and thousands of young girls go out and learn about the value of hard work by selling girl scout cookies to raise funds for their troop. But this year, one girl learned a completely different lesson while selling cookies – you can’t always trust someone – even when they are paying cash. […]
Hackers Are Using Fraud Scores to Sell Your Data
Your yahoo account credentials from 1999 may sell for 10 cents on the dark web, but your Netflix username and password could fetch $2 or more. Access to your router, however, could run as high as $15 if it’s considered low risk by hackers. It’s all because hackers are using the same types of fraud […]
Got Fraud? The Thief Could Be Someone You Know
For many years I was a fraud investigator, researching cases of fraud after the fact. My job was to find out who committed the fraud so we could report them to the police, or try to get the money back for the bank. It was an interesting job. And it opened my eyes. I spoke […]
$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 […]
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 […]