Elaborate Fraud Ring Used 12 Year Old’s SSN To Buy Cars
A man in Hamilton Ohio ran a sophisticated fraud ring using the social security number of a 12-year-old girl to purchase 15 cars. Austel Stokes, the alleged ringleader of the fraud ring, used the fake name Robert Degraff and used the girl’s social security number to create a brand new identity. He purchased 15 cars […]
Giving Out Your Deets For Quick Cash Is Bad News
Giving out your details (or deets) for quick cash on Snapchat, Instagram can land you in hot water. Gangs are always looking for new ways to launder their money, and in cities like London, Birmingham, and Manchester, using money mules has become one of their favorite methods. Young and vulnerable people are convinced by criminals, […]
Would This Zelle Scam Fool You? It Might, It’s That Good.
Maryann Miller, a global fraud fighter, shared this vicious new fraud scam that is very believable. The scam starts with a very realistic message from Bank of America, and then soon a social engineering is calling you from a spoofed BofA number and draining your bank account. Would you fall for this scam? Many people […]
100% of Argentina Had Their Data Breached
This just in. The Record reports that a hacker breached the Argentinian government’s IT network and stole ID card details for the country’s entire population. That data is now being sold online. The entire country has had its data breached in a single attack. The details are a literal gold mine of information for fraudsters […]
Is The Next Big Fraud For Hire Service BEC?
Palo Alto Networks research team – Unit 42 – is warning that BEC as a service is rising and that Business Email Compromise continues to be one of the biggest threats today. According to the report covered on ZDNET, the security team pored through hundreds of BEC cases, finding the average wire fraud attempted was […]
HSBC Raises the Bar on Fraud and Scam Education
Every so often a bank releases a really great video on fraud to educate their consumers on how not to become a victim. Well, this week HSBC did just that and released this brilliant fraud and scam education video titled “Fraud: Don’t Miss a Trick”. And they did it with humor and magic. Check it […]
Growth Over Safety -A History of Facebook Revealed
Facebook seems to have a pretty bad record of protecting consumers from fraud, deceit, disinformation, and scams. And that includes Facebook Marketplace, Instagram and even WhatsApp. And all of those companies have one thing in common – Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook generates over $5 billion in profit, has over 3 billion users worldwide, yet they can’t […]
Sole Proprietors Raided The EIDL Loan Program
The Paycheck Protection Loan Program (PPP) is shaping to be the most fraud-plagued government program in history. So it should come as no surprise that it is being rocked by more revelations of preposterous fraud. This week Hannibal Ware, the Inspector General of the SBA, released a report citing over $4.5 billion in potentially fraudulent […]
Lexis and ID.me Square Up In Unemployment Fraud Battle
Watching fraud vendors go to war with each other can be interesting. Fraud prevention firms Lexis Nexis and ID.me are squaring up in a battle to get states to invest in their aging unemployment benefit systems. And CEOs, Haywood Talcove of Lexis and Blake Hall of Id.me are not pulling punches when it comes to […]
Will You Fall for A Scam? 4 Things Can Predict It.
In 2017, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation) joined with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Institute for Marketplace to launch a two-year study of how people react to attempted financial scams. After 2 years of exhaustive research and interviews, researchers concluded that 4 factors played a major role in why victims become victims. The […]
Criminals Increasingly Turn Fraud Into a Violent Crime
In an article published recently by The Sun, armed criminal thugs are stopping victims in the street and forcing them to turn over their online banking credentials so they can commit fraud. Once the criminals gain access to the victim’s account, they quickly siphon and drain the funds, depositing them into “mule”. As fraud and […]
Fraud Magnets Will Make You Drown In Fraud
Have you heard the term “Fraud Magnet“? A fraud magnet has such incredibly weak fraud controls that it creates a strong pulling force attracting any fraudster looking for the fastest easiest way to steal money. A fraud magnet can be a product – like a new mobile payment service. A fraud magnet can be a […]
To Stop Rise in Scams, UK Bank Wants to Slow Down
Fraudsters in the UK are stealing record amounts of cash from customers. According to UK Finance, the organization that tracks Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud, scammers are stealing £4 million each and every day from bank customers in the UK. To curb the massive and rising fraud, one bank – Nationwide- wants to slow down […]
Nationwide Hunt for $1,000 Credit Card Fraudster?
A federal arrest warrant was issued this afternoon for Brian Laundrie for fraudulent use of a Capital One Debit Card. The arrest warrant which was issued by the FBI shows unauthorized charges worth more than $1,000 were made during the time his girlfriend was missing. Laundrie who has been labeled a “person of interest” in […]
The Activation of Hundreds of Thousands of Fraudsters
Joey Pizzoloto of Auto Finance interviewed me about the impact of unemployment fraud on Auto Finance. You can read the original article here – Unemployment Fraud Activates Hundreds and Thousands of Fraudsters Article by Joey Pizzoloto of Auto Finance News The same economic stimulus that kept consumers current on their auto payments is giving rise […]
SAR Filings Prove Fraud Continues To Hit Records
FinCEN updated their annual SAR filings this week and it is becoming increasingly clear that fraud is continuing to grow at a record pace. The data which includes SAR filings for fraud at depository institutions, finance companies, and mortgage lenders through the first 9 months of 2021, indicates that close to 4 million reports will […]
Billions of Tax Dollars Wasted in Australia
It appears PPP Fraud related to COVID wasn’t a problem unique to the US and the UK. Australia also has some controversy surrounding how the funds were disbursed to businesses. 60 Minutes Australia released coverage this weekend on what termed “Billions of Tax Dollars Wasted in Australia”. It was a massive cash grab from their […]
How The Biggest Banks Get Away With Fraud
This is an interesting video created by ColdFusion, an Australian-based online media company independently run by Dagogo Altraide. The video tackles the problem of bank fraud at major banks and illustrates the point by focusing on Wells Fargo’s Fake Account scandal involving over 3.5 million accounts. The video also includes an appearance by Rob Bezdjian, […]
Car Hacking Is Here Now, And It’s A Real Threat To You
Hackers can get into anything these days – even the car sitting in your driveway. A new cybersecurity report from Upstream Security highlights the growing problem of car hacking in their annual report. And they’re warning you to be prepared for increased threats. A lot more. According to the tech firm based in Israel, there […]
2 Astute Professors Detect Massive Fake Student Fraud
Two astute professors detected a massive student fraud at Delta College in California this week. Tara Cuslidge-Steiano and Adrianna Brogger, noticed something was off with the number of students enrolled in their journalism classes last week. As it turns out, they were on to something and they had inadvertently stumbled into a massive fraud scheme […]
A Fraudster Burnt His Tesla on Frozen Lake To Get Paid
In 2019, Fred Lambert reported on the mystery of a Tesla Model X that was found burning to almost nothing on a frozen lake in Vermont. According to Fred, a Tesla Model 3 owner GreenMtnM3 reported the strange story on Tesla Motor Club and it had a real “Fargo” feel to it. Well this week, […]