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- AI Romance Bots: The Ultimate Catfish Scammers 🐱
AI Romance Bots: The Ultimate Catfish Scammers 🐱
Frank McKenna
August 20, 2024
Good Morning from FrankonFraud,
I’m back in beautiful San Diego, catching up on all the latest fraud schemes and scams.
Boy, is there a lot to cover!
Conspiracy - Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch was finally cleared of fraud after a decade of suspicion but is presumed dead after his Yacht sank this weekend. To add to the mystery, his codefendant, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed in a car accident the same day in the UK. This is suspicious, no?
Gigantic BEC - A Texas firm fell victim to a massive BEC attack that they say will result in them taking a one-time $60 million loss. These BEC attacks are becoming increasingly more devastating in 2024.
Kafkaesque Treatment! UK customers are already complaining that banks are blocking payments and wire transfers and accusing them of acting like police states, invading their privacy by questioning them. Trust me, it will only worsen in October when reimbursement is mandated and banks start to decline even more.
Deepfake Elon Wave—Elon Musk has emerged as the #1 deepfake target, appearing in tens of thousands of fraudulent deepfake ads and billions in fraud and scams. The New York Times dives into how his deepfakes are created.
Trust Nothing - Microsoft is warning of an impending wave of political deepfakes this week as the election heats up and the DNC kicks off. Trust almost nothing you see at face value over the next few weeks.
Heartbreak Hotel Hijacker - The Feds nabbed a crazy Elvis lady who almost successfully stole Graceland with an Identity Theft and Title Fraud scheme.
DeepLive Cam Craze -Deepfake software called DeepLive Cam went viral last week, becoming the 4th most popular software package on GitHub for its potential to create a digital doppelganger of anyone with as little as one photo.
Guilty Guy - Santos, the disgraced politician charged with credit fraud and identity theft, pled guilty yesterday; he will likely do jail time.
AI To Bypass KYC At Banks and Fintechs Is Hot On Telegram 🔥
Videos of faces moving left, right, up, and down are peppering Telegram’s big fraud channels. And you have to wonder what you’re actually looking at its so strange.
These videos depict people using AI tools that use single images of other faces (presumably the ones on the fake ID cards they are using) to go through the typical liveness checks you must do when opening new accounts.
There has been a marked increase in AI chatter and demos on Telegram in the last month—a surefire indicator that it’s probably happening in real life.
The New Threat - Weaponized AI Romance ScamBots
Imagine a bot farm with thousands of good-looking AI boyfriends and girlfriends scamming victims by the thousands every second of the day. That day may not be far off; it could be happening today.
As AI accelerates, weaponized romance scam bots may soon be used to create emotional attachments far stronger than the catfish scams used today.
Hybrid scams are the wave of the future. First Pig Butchers combined romance and crypto scams to steal billions, and now the same techniques are being used across other scam types because they are so effective.
The latest was announced last week. Social Security officials warn the public about a particularly brutal scam draining elderly victims' life savings. The scam involves multiple impersonators working together and “house visits” to convince the victims the scheme is legitimate.
The Actor, The Film Company, And The Dumbest Data Breach Fiasco Ever
This has got to go down as one of the largest, weirdest, and dumbest data breaches in history - over 2.9 billion records stolen from a background check company owned by an actor and run by a film production company. Surprisingly, the company published its own passwords on its site, allowing hackers to unmitigated access to every SSN in the country.
Troy Hunt did a great job digging into the data breach, discovering that much of the data is redundant and might be closer to 900 million records (not 2.9 billion) as advertised.
But the strangest part is why this aspiring actor and film producer, Salvatore Verini, would own a background check company. You can check out his demo reel here.
Brian Krebs provides a great history of the twisted history of the NPD Breach, diving into the ties between the actor and the film company and the fact that almost anyone in the US can become a trusted data broker.
Auriemma - New Account Fraud Is Up, Check Fraud Down, and Linkables Rising
I spoke to Troy Huth, my secret source for all things related to banking benchmarks, and he gave me some interesting insights into trends. 😲
New Account Fraud Shift - Banks report that as many as 43% of apps are being declinined for fraud. The average is 24% across banks. wow. 😲
Check Fraud Slopes Down - On average; check fraud has decreased by about 14% across banks (from 2.8 basis points to 2.4 basis points) 🙌
Linkables Rising - ACH fraud is on the uptick as debit card linkable fraud sales soars on Telegram and the dark web. 😡
Auriemma’s benchmark data is a goldmine of insights.
Are you interested in getting benchmark data for your bank? I highly recommend it. Click the button below to learn how to join.
The Big Drain - A Fascinating But Sad Look At How Annette Mane Lost $1.4 Million
She lived a modest lifestyle. Her bank accounts barely budged for years. Then, suddenly, everything changed as she began withdrawing and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.
This is a fascinating look at how eight different banks reacted to her account activity and how scammers got her to move $1.4 million of her money, into their accounts.
Insider Ransomware Attack By Trusted Employee-Shocked Company
Usually, a company expects Russian hackers to be to blame when they are subject to a massive Ransomware attack that takes down all of their IT systems and network.
But what happens when a trusted software engineer you hired planted the malware and tried to extort you for close to $1 million? That’s exactly what happened to this prominent company in New Jersey.
Are We Doomed? AI People Want Rights, Too
A video entitled “It Has Begun” takes viewers on a trippy journey through the realm of AI-generated people while emotional piano music plays softly in the background. The deepfakes hold signs imploring humans to treat them as people, too, affording them the same rights and respect as the living.
A year ago, something like this was not possible. Is it all moving too quickly?
Hundreds of San Diego Marines Accused of Fraud
A massive $65 million fraud scheme involving hundreds of Marines and extraordinarily ridiculous subscriptions is evolving.
At the scheme's heart, four Marines and a Sailor enlisted over 350 Marines and their families as sham patients, receiving $300 monthly kickbacks for participating in the scam. Marine recruits don’t make much money, so the $300 kickback was enticing to them. The sham clinic then billed the government between $10,000 and $20,000 for each prescription it filled for the Marines who participated.
Ransomware’s Having a Record Busting 2024
According to a new report by Chainanalysis, ransom attacks and company payouts are set to break all records this year. Already, $460 million has been paid, and they project over $1 billion before year-end. Even more alarming? One company paid a record $75 million to hackers this year.
Has Check Fraud Peaked? Claude.AI Says It Has.
I decided to see what AI thought about Check Fraud, so I uploaded some historical SAR stats into the software, and it gave me the answer.
According to Claude.AI’s analysis of the situation, check fraud will decrease slightly in 2024.
With a single prompt, I uploaded a CSV file to Claude and asked it to make an interactive chart and project an estimate for check fraud in 2024. This took less than 60 seconds. AI is going to transform fraud fighters’ reporting capability!
It’s pretty cool, check it out 👇️
Mom Receives 15 Scary Calls From 8-Year-Old Girl. Was She Being Scammed?
A TikTok mom is warning parents to check their phones after she received a series of 15 calls from an 8-year-old girl. The phone calls, which occurred over 2 hours one night, left her wondering if she was a scam victim or the little girl might be in big trouble.
@mama_mess_express PSA 📣 CHECK YOUR KIDS PHONES!! #fyp #missingkids #phonesafety #phones #humantraffickingawarenes #kidnapping #safetytips
That’s a wrap for another weekly edition of The Newsletter. I have a lot of fun putting together this weekly roundup and appreciate all of the tips and trends my readers give me throughout the week. Keep them coming!
Happy fraud hunting 🕵️♀️!