Good morning!

AI continues to be front and center in developing stories this week. It’s becoming clear that most of the developing use of malicious AI will target scam victims. What is alarming is how fast it is transforming the landscape.

Let’s check out the top fraud bites this week.

• FBI Fake - The FBI created a fake token called NexFundAI and even launched this fake website here, which ensnared 18 fraudsters who took the bait and tried to manipulate the token.

• So Shiesty - The Shiesty 66 gang out of New York was busted for a massive check fraud operation. At one point, they intercepted a $12.6 million check bound for Mt Sanai Medical and tried to deposit it.

• Cash Bleaching - Criminals are turning $5 bills into $50 or $100 bills by bleaching ink off and replacing numbers. It foils those counterfeit pens because the currency is real.

• Fake Employees - Watch out; if you fire one of those North Korean IT Workers, they will often export massive amounts of data and demand ransoms as payment to not release the data and expose your company.

• Flunk Out - A Korean college student victimized 700 of his fellow students with Deepfake porn of themselves and posted on his Telegram “Humiliation” channel has been arrested.

• 4 Million Users - According to Vice, deepfake Nudify app use on Telegram is soaring as four million users now regularly use the app - some for nefarious purposes.

• Red Flags - Do you remember the Frye Festival fraud back in 2017? Billy Macfarland is promoting Fyre Festival 2, and there are red flags galore. This video he posted this week has all sorts of red flags. What do you think?

• Flannel Man—ID Thief Jason Siegert loves his flannel shirt so much that he wears it to banks in multiple states. He only changed his identity (apparently), stealing over $45,000 from other people’s accounts.

AI Deepfake Zoom Calls - Your AI Can Now Attend 1,000 Calls For You

Ai-powered deepfakes in Zoom meetings have arrived. Last week, HeyGen announced a new release of their Interactive Avatars, allowing a deepfake version of yourself to attend “thousands of meetings” using your cloned image and voice.

HeyGen announced the release, saying, “Your avatar won’t just look and sound like you; it’ll think, talk, and make decisions, just like you.”

Yahoo Boy Reveals His AI Deepfake Secrets To Help Other Scammers

Yahoo Boys are latching on to artificial intelligence and deepfakes like magnets to metal, and it’s poised to reshape and improve their scam techniques dramatically.

In the last month, a YouTube channel called Yahoo Boii released over ten instructional videos on using AI and various voice cloning techniques, and video demos show him (or someone else) using them on victims.

The most revealing thing about the videos is that the Yahoo Boys have moved far beyond simple face swap software on phones into serious deepfake tools like Roop and Deepcam Live, and the results are far more convincing.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Telegram Bounty Hunters Seek and Recover Scam Slaves For Money

A seedy Telegram channel is exposing the seedy underworld of people who post bounties for people who appear to have escaped from Pig Butchering scam compounds.

The Dubai Southeast Asia Bounty Warrant channel serves two purposes: recovering scam compound slaves who have escaped and returning them to the bosses, as well as recovering victims and returning them to their families. The channel also posts bounty rewards for people who have skipped out on gambling loans from the bosses.

Click to Read 👇️ 

TransUnion - Synthetic Identity And Credit Washing Are Very Very Bad Right Now

Got fake accounts and fake fraud claims recently? You are not alone.

TransUnion’s 2024 State of Omnichannel Fraud has some juicy stats on synthetic identity and credit washing, and both look worse than ever.

Synthetic identity is at the highest point they have ever recorded, clocking in a $3.2 Billion for the first half of the year.

Credit washing is also on the rise, with 13% of all credit disputes citing “identity fraud” as the reason for the claim.

This report is really good with some great insights.

Amazon Takes On International Fraud Ring In Court

Amazon continued it’s legal blitz against professional refunders. This time they went after Spectre - an international refunding group that worked throughout UK and Europe filing police reports and making fraudulent claims that packages were not received.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Loophole Exposed : Sorry, The Scammer Banks At The Same Bank As You 🤷 

You have to read the fine print. The FCA warns consumers of a loophole in the new scam refund rules that may disappoint many because they are not protected.

Customers may not get reimbursed for transactions between customer accounts at the same banking group rather than between two separate banks. Internal transfers use a completely different system, so the rules don’t apply.

So if the scammer happens to be a fellow customer you are out of luck!

Click to Read 👇️ 

The Devilish ATO Scheme - Fraudster Setup Cloned Coinbase Site

Chirag Tomar from India was very good at cloning websites. In fact, he cloned a version of Coinbase so well that people all over the world logged in and gave him their passwords and user credentials on a silver platter.

Behind the scenes, Tomar and his merry Bitcoin bandits were logging into the real Coinbase and draining the accounts while the real customers were on his fake websites, waiting for their accounts to pop up on screen.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Insane Dashcam. Dumb Insurance Fraudsters Slam Car In Reverse To Fake A Rear End

A high-intensity dashcam video that went viral and which you can watch here shows the moment insurance fraudsters swerve in front of Ashpia Natasha’s car and then reverse at high speed smashing into her car.

Once they saw the dashcam in her car, they hightailed it.

Another TikTok is going viral in what appears to be the same car on the same day, pulling the same fraud stunt on another victim.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Man Got Burned For $25,000 By AI Clone Call From Son

“Dad, I had a horrible accident”, his son said when he picked up the phone. “I ran into a woman who is pregnant, carrying a child, and she is now in the hospital.”

After a short conversation, his son hung up. Moments later, he received a call from an attorney named Michael Roberts, who said he needed $9,200 to bail his son out of jail. He instructed him to get cash from the bank, put the money in a manila envelope, and that an Uber driver would arrive shortly to pick up the money.

Click to Watch the whole AI fiasco here 👇️ 

Reluctant Romeo Forced To Scam And “Go In For The Kill”

Follow Poom Jai, a scammer forced against his will to make people fall in love with him. He says, “I was taught to hit on them for about three or four days. After being friends for about a week, you go in for the 'kill'."

Click to Read 👇️ 

Disgraceful Daughter Defrauds Elderly Mother for Thousands

Using your elderly mother's credit card for thousands of fraudulent charges is about as low as possible.

Watch this highly manipulative lady try to weasel her way out of this despicable fraud while she is caught red-handed in the hotel room she booked with the stolen card.

Click to Watch 👇️ 

That’s a wrap for another weekly edition of FrankonFraud. I hope you have a fantastic week ahead fighting fraud.

FrankonFraud