Imposter Fraud Is Blowing Up But I Found A Silver Bullet

The latest reports are in for 2016 and Imposter Fraud is blowing up.  Last year, Imposter Fraud was ranked as the most common type of fraud reported by consumers, outstripping Identity Theft of the title that it held for many years. There were 407,000 consumer complaints for imposter fraud in 2016, making it the largest type […]

The IRS Thinks Tax Return Fraud is Tiny. They’re Wrong.

The IRS thinks their issue with fraudulent tax returns is so small that they do not need to do anything differently than they do today to protect consumers. At least that is how they responded to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday in response THIS REPORT that urged them to take better care to prevent […]

Car Dealers Beware of Auto Loan Fraud

Auto Loan Fraud is a big problem here in the US and growing.  Annual estimates are that approximately $6 Billion in car sales are made and financed with a loan containing some fraud on the application. That is a big number.  And lenders are looking for any ways that they can reduce that fraud. Many […]

PinDrop Reports Big Increase in Phone Fraud

Social engineering is on the rise because fraudsters have found the weakest link in the security chain – the call center operator. According to the 2016 Call Center Fraud Report, fraudulent calls spiked 45%  in the last 3 years and now 1 in every 2000 calls into call centers is by a fraudster trying to […]

London Fraud – How Fraudsters Steal in London

London has always been a hot spot for pickpockets and clever con artist.  Watch this awesome Vice Video that takes you behind the scenes for a new generation of clever con artist that are making millions.

CEO Fraud 2.0 – It’s Like Fraud on Steroids

Imagine getting an email from the CEO of your company requesting that you email out a zip file containing last year’s W2 forms to a new accounting firm that is “helping your company with taxes”. Accounting and payroll departments all over the US are getting emails like this one each and every day.  And they’re […]

Fraud Alert : You Should Always Hang Up On This Call

If you get a call from a phone number that you do not recognize and the person asks, “Can you Hear Me?”, the best thing you can possibly do is hang up the phone immediately. Law Enforcement is warning consumers across the US of a new scam that is gaining momentum. It is happening in […]

How a Fraud Ring Created 7,000 New Synthetic Identities

Yesterday, a fugitive Habib Chaudhry was arrested after running from the law for four years.   He was one of 18 criminals that were charged by the US Justice Department for running the most sophisticated Synthetic Identity crime rings in history. Their crimes were so complex and extraordinary; you can barely believe that they managed […]

Online Banking Services Blocked as Hackers Hit Lloyds

Although not officially reported by Lloyds, sources are saying today that Millions of customers online banking services were disrupted as cyberhackers launched a massive DDOS attack on Lloyds about 2 weeks ago. Lloyds Banking Group would not confirm whether the outage occurred as a result a cyberattack. “There was an issue with our internet banking, […]

2017’s First Fraud Trend? Cardless ATM Fraud

That didn’t take long.  The fraudster’s found a loophole in yet another banking service which was designed to provide customers easier access to their money through ATM machines. The service works like this, you request a one-time pin number sent to your mobile phone.  You tap your phone and enter the PIN number on the ATM […]

Were Brute Force Attacks Key In Tesco Breach?

Gone in 6 seconds.  Is it possible that hackers can correctly guess a card number, expiration date, postal code and CVV out of thin air and then use it to purchase goods fraudulently online? Apparently, it is.  And this impressive video shows the hacking program created to do just that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwvjZGKwKvY Students at Newcastle University believe they […]

Fake Call Center in India Busted for Big IRS Tax Fraud

Tipster Colleen Edwards of PowerMark reported some good news to me today and that is that a major fraud ring out of India has been busted for a massive fraud against US consumers. The fake call centers out of India were auto dialing hundreds of thousands of phone numbers daily, leaving messages to US citizens from purported […]

How Rich Kids of Instagram Help Investigators

Yachts, champagne, cars, closets full of Gucci Bags  and excessive glamour.  If you haven’t checked out Rich Kids of Instagram you need to now.  Rich Kids of Instagram might make your blood boil as you browse through picture after picture of entitled teens shamelessly sharing their excessive worth.  They have more money than you will ever […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]