Tax Fraud Was Spiking This Year Even Before Stimulus
The IRS appears to be ground zero for identity theft in 2020 and it’s all being driven by fraudulent tax returns. The Treasury Department recently posted that $135 million in fraudulent refunds were identified for the first two months of 2020, compared to $15 million in the same period for 2019. That’s a whopping increase of 760% over 2019. […]
Landlords Resort to Fraud on To Snatch Stimulus Funds
People are posting horrifying stories on social media of how their landlords are using the IRS site GetMyPayment to find out if they have received their stimulus checks. The site allows consumers to type in their social security number and other identifying information to find out if their stimulus checks or payments have been sent. […]
You Can Learn A lot from This Dynamic Fraud Duo
I had a chance to listen to a great episode on the Online Fraudcast this weekend. The episode called “Coronavirus – Phishing for Victims” shines the spotlights on a host of scams and risk consumers are facing right now. Your stimulus checks are at risk of being hijacked if you have not received them by […]
Name Checking Dramatically Cuts Fraud at Lloyds
Last year, banks announced a new initiative to cut push payment fraud by re-validating the name on the account customers are transferring to before the transaction is completed. This year, Lloyds, the largest bank in the UK, was the first bank to implement name verification prior to sending payments. And the results worked beautifully. They […]
Car Dealers Using COVID-19 “Stimulus Checks” to Sell Cars
Some car dealers give the auto industry a bad name. And some dealers are doing just that in the midst one of the worst pandemics of our time. Car dealers have been using fake COVID-19 Stimulus checks and official-looking government envelopes to trick consumers into coming down to the dealerships. The envelopes and the checks, […]
$200 Billion Will Be Lost To Fraud With Stimulus
Fraud is always a problem when it comes to big government spending, but what about the $2 trillion coronavirus emergency relief plan? In this video, NBC news discusses how much could be lost with Neil Barofsky who was the Special Inspector General of TARP in 2008. He projects that upwards of $200 Billion will be […]
Fraudsters Set Their Sights on Small Business Loans
The $2 Trillion Dollar stimulus package has a treat for small businesses. It offers extraordinary loans for up to $10 million that will be forgiven as long as they promise not to lay employees off. It’s designed to protect millions of Americans that work for small businesses and to keep them employed for at least […]
Are The New Stimulus Checks A Fraudsters Delight?
Stimulus Checks. Everyone is anxiously awaiting them. And, if you are among the 264 million American’s that will receive one you might want to be on alert. Fraud experts are predicting that those $1,200 checks are a fraudsters delight – flooding bank accounts with potentially billions in dollars to steal. And with the IRS opening […]
Income Verification Alarming Lenders During Shutdown
The global Covid 19 pandemic is creating significant issues for mortgage, auto, and personal lenders. At least 160 million people nationwide have been ordered to stay home. With 1 in 5 American’s under quarantine, business and government offices all over the country have shuttered and will continue to be closed for weeks. Unemployment is Spiking […]
Social Security Numbers Only Cost $4 On The Dark Web
Your Social Security Number and personal information may not be worth as much as you think. Atlas Investigation recently completed a 2-year study of market prices for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on the Dark Web and found that the average price for your most protected information sells for an average of just $4 And it […]
A Perfect Storm is Brewing for Fraud and Scams
A perfect storm happens when a rare combination of events happens at the same time and aggravates the situation. The results are a disaster. And March 2020 appears to be that perfect storm for fraud. That perfect storm has 3 factors converging on the world at once 1) unprecedented global fear and panic, 2) a […]
Fake Check Scams Cost Consumers $1.2 Billion Yearly
Check fraud is on the rise. A new survey by the American Bankers Association (ABA) reports that attempted check fraud ballooned to $15.8 Billion in 2018 as reported by banks. But this number does not include fake check scams that impact consumers who deposit those checks into their bank accounts. Since banks hold customers responsible for counterfeit […]
5 Unexpected Benefits of Fighting Fraud From Home
I’m home. I’m working. I’m working at home. Such is our new way of life fraud fighters. And there are few if any exceptions. Much of the world is on lockdown as we humans collectively fight off this virus together. And we can fight fraud together too. We know that fraudsters love chaos and they […]
Western Union Refunds $143 Million to Fraud Victims
It’s payback time! Western Union set up a fund to pay back victims of wire fraud that used their service to pay scammers. 109,000 wire fraud victims were collectively paid $143 Million dollars yesterday. That’s an average check size of $1,311 which is a pretty nice size. According to the US Department of Justice, victims […]
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. […]
The Worst Fraud Project I Had In The History of Ever
In 2007, I was assigned to a 1 week project in Southern California. I was hired to help perform due diligence for a mortgage investor to identify if there were any fraud in loan files that they were about to purchase. I was a little apprehensive at first, because I had never looked in a […]
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 […]
Mortgage Fraud Risk Falls to Historic Low
First American today released the First American Loan Application Defect Index for January 2020, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. The index, which is released each quarter, shows that mortgage fraud risk has dropped to its lowest level in the last 9 years in large part […]
$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 […]