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- Deepfake Hong Kong Scam Syndicate Steals $46 Million 🐷
Deepfake Hong Kong Scam Syndicate Steals $46 Million 🐷
Frank McKenna
October 15, 2024
Good morning, fraud fighters,
It was a devastating week for Telegram fraudsters. Many more fraud channels were banned, including one of the biggest and most popular, BigFatChat, which disappeared from the face of the earth.
Will all these bans disrupt fraud activity? Maybe for a while, but they will likely emerge somewhere else.
Let’s check out the top stories this week!
eCBSV In Trouble—The program has lost $37 million since 2020, bringing in only $25 million in fees, putting it in trouble. They spent over $30 million in IT costs developing a simple database check.
89,000 Years - A man who scammed an entire country out of $130 million using a mobile game is facing a massive prison sentence for his crimes.
Lousy Landlines—Scammers and older people are the only ones using landlines in the UK. Over 50% of scam calls there are made by scammers.
Fraud Flies: A Nigerian airline CEO allegedly orchestrated a $20M bank fraud and now faces additional charges for obstructing justice by submitting false documents to investigators.
LimpBizkit Label Larceny - A massive $200 million lawsuit filed by Durst against UMG alleges the label fraudulently concealed hundreds of millions in royalty payments and promises to rattle the entire music industry.
Revolut Under Fire - The BBC published a damning new report on how Revoluts scam controls are lacking, and they have a poor track record of reimbursing victims.
$360 Million Deepfake Scam Syndicate Smashed By Hong Kong Police
It’s happening. Pig Butchering ops are now using AI extensively in their scams.
If you don’t believe it, now there is proof. Just Monday, Hong Kong police arrested 27 people they say were using deepfakes to con victims into transferring over $46 million into fake crypto trading platforms.
When Pig Butchering victims became suspicious and asked for a video call, the scammers would use face-swapping AI to lure them in further. Check out the following story on Haotian AI. They might have used software like this.
It’s here, folks. What do we do now?
Haotian AI - It’s The Deepfake AI Tool Pig Butchering Bosses Love
An advertisement for Haotian AI, a company that provides face-changing software on Telegram, shows they mean business. “We have an R&D team of hundreds of programmers and dozens of servers to serve you.”
The company provides the AI for between $1,200 and $9,900, which they tout as providing “God Level Assistance.” in assisting with scams and building trust with the victims.
Capital One VP Reports 400% Increase in Synthetic Identity Fraud
“Fraudsters are targeting the auto industry specifically, Joseph Portera, senior vice president and chief risk officer for financial services at Capital One, said Tuesday during a fireside chat at Auto Finance Summit 2024.
“We see in our applications that about one out of every 130 or so applications has some indicia of a synthetic identity,” he said. “It’s grown fivefold, in the last four years, maybe 400%.”
Chase Denied Her Fraud Claim. Turns Out The Fraud Was By Bank Insider
Someone stole $30,000 from Suzanne Lee’s checking account by wiring funds from her account. Chase repeatedly denied her fraud claim and lost when she went to arbitration months later.
Determined for justice, she investigated the fraud on her own and learned that a Chase employee, Robert Murphy, was responsible for it. He accessed her account over 26 times without her knowledge.
Digital Escobars: Billion-Dollar Chinese Scam Bosses Reshape The Future of Fraud
Like drug empires reshaped Mexico, fraud and scam criminal groups are doing the same in Southeast Asia, creating powerful crime syndicates and billion-dollar scam bosses that may become untouchable.
A grim and ominous 140-page new report from the United Nations spells out how organized criminal empires are reshaping how fraud is done, combining complex networks, employing thousands to carry out the dirty work, using AI and crime services to scale operations, and then laundering money expertly.
Read my top takeaways from the report.
“ProKYC” - New Demo Shows How AI Is Being Used To Defeat Identity Controls
First, there was SwapCam Pro, and now there is PROKYC. While SwapCamp Pro touted its ability to deepfake selfies, ProKYC does much more, touting the ability to create fake documents with AI too.
The software first discovered by Cato CTRL security researchers provides a demo of how it works in case you are curious.
JailBreaking OpenAI For Evil 👿
OpenAI has just released a new report detailing how scammers, hackers, and fraudsters try to jailbreak their platforms for malicious purposes.
It’s a great behind-the-scenes look at attacks in the last year. Open AI says that despite these attacks, scammers have not made significant breakthroughs in using it for evil. 🙄
Recorded Future Analyzed 1 Million Checks For Sale On Telegram
Stolen checks are posted to Telegram within eight days of the theft. 70% of checks posted to Telegram are posted on multiple channels, indicating fraudsters are actively trying to get rid of them quickly. Most fraud occurs on the eastern seaboard with the highest target being New York.
Recorded Future released this and many other exciting statistics this week. It analyzed over 1 million stolen checks gathered from 700 different Telegram channels and has some eye-opening stats on the shady underground of “Glass”.
“It Was Easy” Man Creates Catfishing Video With Cheap AI Tools
An artist shows how incredibly easy it was to create a fantastic Catfish using two off-the-shelf AI tools: Runway to create the video and ElevenLabs to clone the voice. Both are available for a low minimal cost online each month to virtually anyone.
The result? He turns himself into a beautiful woman with a few clicks. We will see a wave of deepfakes like this in the coming months.
Stumped At SOFI. How A Manila Envelope Unraveled A Very Mysterious Fraud
“You can’t catch me.”
It’s this decade, “Catch Me If You Can,” filled with intrigue and betrayal, and it all started with a nondescript manila envelope delivered to a local news station stuffed with a letter from a self-described hacker and personal information about a man named “Sugi.”
This case has more twists and turns than Lombard Street in San Francisco
Can You Use GenAI To Spot Forged Paystubs?
We are just beginning to learn how the power of Generative AI can help fraud fighters.
I wanted to see if it could help fraud analysts spot forged paystubs. For this experiment, I used Claude.AI and uploaded the following internet-generated pay stub I created on Mr. Paystub. This is the pay stub here.
Click to download and see the answer 👇️
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Bank Robber Paid Wizard $500 To Make Him Invisible Before Hittin The Bank 😆
A man in Iran who was going to rob a bank paid a sorcerer $500 to make him invisible. The wizard took the money, performed some magic, and then convinced him that he was invisible.
Soon after entering the bank and demanding the money, the man realized he was not invisible, so the police rushed in and arrested him.
Talking Fidelity Glitch and 9-Year-Old Fraudsters With Karisse
Check out the latest fraudology podcast, where I join Karisse to talk about how the Fidelity Glitch went down and our thoughts on the rumors that 9-year-old fraudsters are defeating major retailers in the US.
It’s Here! Three Trends Impacting Fintechs
I was thrilled to participate in a Webinar this week with three people I admire Jason Mikula, Chris Sidler, and Trisha Kothari.
Register for the event if you have time. Its eye-opening 👀
That’s a wrap for another weekly edition of FrankonFraud. I hope you have a fantastic week ahead fighting fraud.