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- Digital Wolves in Credit Union Clothing: New Scam Alert 🐺
Digital Wolves in Credit Union Clothing: New Scam Alert 🐺
Frank McKenna
September 10, 2024
Hello FraudFighters,
What do you think of all those people who took the bait and did the Chase Infinite Money Glitch and are now surprised to find out they might have the police knocking on their door? They’re getting JPMorgan Chased down! 🚓
Let’s check out the top stories this week.
Ken’s Take - Ken Palla provides a great breakdown of how regulators approach Zelle scams and why the tide may be turning.
Fyre Festival II Mystery - Billy MacFarland insists it’s happening. Only a few questions remain, like where, when, and how. No details are forthcoming from him in this Wall Street Journal expose.
Scam Refunds Plummeting - It’s only a month away, but the refund cap in the UK is dropping refunds for scam victims from $545,000 to $111,000 per case. But banks aren’t satisfied, demanding it be dropped to only $39,000 per case. How low can it go?
Card Carnage—The US Secret Service has issued a dire warning that skimming fraud is rising dramatically and now costs the US over a billion annually. EBT cards, which still use mag stripes, are the target.
10,000 Bot Fans - A musician created thousands of AI songs, purchased email lists of real people’s names, and created 10,000 fake bot accounts that would listen to the music all day. He generated over 661,000 listens a day, stealing over $10 million.
Airbnb Flippers: Renters secretly rent their apartments on Airbnb, collecting hundreds a night, jet-setting worldwide, and stiffing the landlords on the rent.
Unreal Keanu—A deepfake Keanu site is so realistic that everyone believes it is the real Keanu, fooling everyone.
Crypto Scurge - Over 50% of all fraud losses involve cryptocurrency. Remind me again of why crypto is good, I only see negatives here.
Durov Speaks. Say’s He’s Cracking Down On Crime
Are the days numbered for thousands of fraud and scam channels active on Telegram?
Pavel Durov, the beleaguered founder of Telegram, says his goal is to reduce the channel's criminal activity. But, he laughably says that 99.999% of Telegram users do not commit crimes. ok….
If he is cracking down on crime, I have not seen any evidence of it, as all the fraud channels we track are as active as ever!
They thought they were getting infinite free money from Chase. But now they are going to pay the price.
A Chase spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that thousands of people caused the glitch and would be reported to the police. Interestingly, the glitch appeared to be real and ran for a few days, but Chase has patched the hole.
What Are They Thinking? 🤦 Why oh Why Would They Do This?
I was intrigued by an article on CNET titled "See if Your Social Security Number Is Part of the National Public Data Hack."
I read the article, and the reporter pointed people to a website called NPDBreach.com, which people can check.
When I navigated to the site, this search tool required consumers to enter all their data to check. Unbelievable huh? THe
The site was created by Atlas Privacy, which claims to help consumers protect their data. But this site is just ludicrous.
FinCEN Report - Is Check Fraud An East Coast Thing?
FinCEN released its comprehensive study on mail theft-related check fraud from February to August 2023. The analysis was based on 15,417 SAR reports, representing over $688 million in check fraud losses.
What struck me most about the report was the geographic disparity between the East and West Coast. While California showed high numbers in the raw counts of check cases, East Coast states like New York, Florida, and Georgia consistently ranked higher in both subject counts and branch location activity. The disparity becomes even more pronounced when adjusted for population, with East Coast states dominating the top rankings.
It’s a pretty insightful report, but only represents a tiny fraction of all the check fraud losses so it may not be entirely representative.
New Sextortion Scams Terrify Victims With Photos of Home, Spouses Names
The email says, “I know it would be more convenient to visit you at your home,” and then a picture of your home pops up.
A wave of new highly personalized sextortion scams is making the rounds on social media, which KrebsonSecurity is highlighting.
Victims are receiving emails with screenshots of their homes taken from Google Street View as evidence that the extortionist knows where they live.
And if that isn’t enough, extortionists are also targeting spouses, claiming to have evidence of infidelity. Emails use personal details like full names, possibly sourced from wedding planning websites or breached data.
Fake Credit Unions Lure Victims And Then Harvest Their Data For Fraud
Online scammers create fake Canadian credit union websites, offering unrealistically high interest rates to lure unsuspecting customers.
Ontario's financial regulator has warned about three unregistered entities but lacks the power to shut them down. These sites, which appear to be AI-generated, mix legitimate-looking content with nonsensical information and contradictory statistics.
One site, Ottawa Credit Union, claims to have 700,000 customers and 5,500 shared branches. One problem—they don’t exist.
Experts warn that even if no direct financial losses are reported (which appears to be the case), these scams could be harvesting personal data for future identity theft or fraud.
Linkables - The Cash App Infinite Money Glitch 🤑
Forget the Chase Infinite Money Glitch; something far more sinister is trending on social media called “Linkables.” also marketed as the “Cash App Glitch”
The glitch isn’t a glitch at all - and it’s not check fraud. It’s credit card fraud.
Fraudsters operating on Facebook and Telegram are selling stolen debit cards as “Linkables”. Isn’t that a nice, friendly name?
They tell the buyer exactly how much you have in your account, and the buyer links your debit card to their Cash App and sucks your account bone dry.
Wonder what happened to the funds in your bank account? Maybe someone siphoned it off and posted a TikTok of it!
The CIA and UK Secret Service Go All In On AI
If you think AI isn’t the future of investigations and fraud, think again. The CIA and MI6 are partnering and investing heavily in Gen AI to find new patterns and build out their red teams.
“We are now using AI, including generative AI, to enable and improve intelligence activities — from summarization to ideation to help identify key information in a sea of data. We are training AI to help protect our operations and “red team” to ensure we can still stay secret when needed,” said CIA Director Bill Burns.
Click to Read 👇️
Outlandish Check Fraudster Claims To Be Federal Agent
This guy's fraud goes from bad to worse as he gets nabbed trying to pass a fraudulent check and then tries to get out of it, claiming he is a Federal Agent presenting a fake badge.
Apple Event HighJacked By Tim Cook Deepfake
Before Apple’s Live event to announce the new iPhone, crypto scammers created accounts resembling Apple's YouTube channel and started their own deepfake live streams of Tim Cook.
The deepfake of Cook claimed, “Once you complete your deposit, the system will automatically process it and send back double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited.” This type of scheme is commonly known as a “double-your-money” scam, where the scammers ultimately retain the funds sent by unsuspecting victims.
BOLO! The “Unexpected Package” Scam Is Trending
You get an unexpected package from Amazon. You open it, and it has something nice inside. A card inside says thanks for your loyalty with a QR code to get more free stuff.
If you scan that QR code, it installs malware on your phone, and hackers steal all of your personal information and can even take over your phone, draining your bank accounts.
LOL 😆, This Glitch Video Is Worth A Watch
You gotta love this video posted by the one and only Luke Raven this week.
@officialjadenwilliams Chase Bank money glitch #chasebank #moneyglitch #funny #comedyskit #meme
Are there any frankonfraud fraud fighters at MRC in San Diego this week? Sounds like another fantastic event!
That’s a wrap for another weekly edition of FrankonFraud. I hope you have a fantastic week ahead fighting fraud.