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 […]
BioCatch Launches First-Ever Mule Detection Solution
BioCatch, the global leader in behavioral biometrics, announced today that it has launched Mule Account Detection, the first ever best-in-class solution that delivers comprehensive protection against money mules, people who, at someone else’s direction, receive and move money obtained by criminal means. A Critical Link in the Fraud Supply Chain Mule accounts are a critical link […]
Moo! How Crazy Cows Shifted Thieves to Auto Fraud
What do crazy cows have to do with fraud? A lot actually. But you have to go back over 30 years to find the link between the two. An associate of mine sent me an article that appeared in the New York Times in 1982 and it talks about the tremendous demand for stolen luxury […]
Socure Soars to $4.5 Billion Valuation In Latest Round
High-flying Socure has reached a valuation that many would have considered unheard of just a year ago. The company raised $450 million in funding for its Series E round led by Accel and T. Rowe Price. Socure is now valued at over $4.5 billion dollars, up dramatically from their last valuation of $1.6 billion in […]
Aussies Scammed Out Of $33 Billion. They’re Fighting Back
Australians are being scammed out of $33 Billion a year and the Labor Government is vowing to launch major initiatives to crack back on scammers. A report by the Daily Mail, indicates that Australia’s Cyber Security Centre has revealed scams more than doubled in 2020 before doubling again this year. Things are getting bad down […]
Are Fake ID Theft Claims Inflating ID Theft Losses?
Identity theft claims are sky high; Javelin reported over $56 billion in identity theft losses for 2020 alone. That’s a 300% increase over 2019 and the highest ever reported by the company. And they are not the only ones. The FTC also shows a doubling of fraud over 2020. What’s happening here? Why is identity […]
3 Reasons Synthetic Identity Fraud Keeps Growing So Fast
Everyone is concerned with Synthetic Identity Fraud. Everywhere you look, a new article or new study points out the growth in this type insidious type of fraud. But surprisingly, Synthetic Identity Fraud continues to climb each year with companies like Accenture claiming that up to 20% of banks bad debt losses could be attributable to […]
At 81 She Became a Multi-Million Dollar Money Mule
She was an octogenarian, and not one that you would ever consider would be involved in a multi-million dollar fraud case. She was 81 and had led a relatively clean lifestyle. Then she met a bad man that she fell madly in love with who ruined her life. This week the Justice Department announced that […]
7 Tell Tale Signs That You’re A True Fraud Fighter
In this world, there is an army of fraud fighters that have the true calling. They eat, sleep and breathe fraud prevention. It might sound strange, but their drive to fight fraud is so pervasive that it becomes a passion and not just a job. When they clock into work each day time flies […]
The Fraud Fighter Podcast Is A Great Resource For You
I am always looking for great resources to boost my fraud knowledge and I found a great resource recently. Hosted by a former white-collar federal criminal investigator Robert Nordlander, the Fraud Fighter Podcast helps fraud professionals find the best tools, practices, opportunities, and people to answer your questions about fraud and forensic accounting. He’s a […]
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, […]
5 Outlandish Claims Fraud Vendor Sales Guys Tell You
You’ve heard the phrase, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”? So when you’re listening to a sales guy trying to pitch you the latest greatest fraud tool you might want to be on the alert for anything that sounds a little too rosy. You probably know what I’m talking about […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]