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đź’Ą Fireworks, Hot Dogs, And The Secret To Happy Fraud Dept's đźŚ
Frank McKenna
June 28, 2023
Happy 4th of July from FrankonFraud
That’s a pretty cool pic of my wife and I celebrating the 4th in our little bike parade on the beach, isn’t it?
With the festive week upon us, I know many of you are planning BBQs or maybe just gearing up to watch fireworks. Whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re having fun!
Some highlights/lowlights from last week:
This SSA Program might be in big trouble
Fraudology released a new Fraud Benchmark Report
Fannie Mae alerts on a wild new income fraud scheme
There is a new COVID fraud scheme exploding
About Fraud released their Anti-Fraud Report
Fraud Co Socure acquired Berbix for $70 million
The DOJ announced a $2.6 Billion HealthCare fraud
Fraudsters could be selling your ChatGPT conversations
Australian banks under fire for not helping scam victims
Let’s get to the top stories of the week!
Is The Social Security Number eCBSV Program About To Enter A Death Spiral?
According to the Federal News Network, the SSA’s new eCBSV program is in dire shape.
The program, which helps financial institutions crack down on the use of stolen social security numbers on applications for credit, could enter a “death spiral,” according to experts, due to a steep increase in the fees they charge.
Some companies could see the cost increase to $8 million or more each year to process verifications. 💰 That’s a 40X increase of what they might pay today.
That means banks will use it less, which means that SSA will need to increase the cost even more.
Introverted Fraud Departments Are Not Very Happy
Introverts can be very happy and content people. But Fraud Departments that are introverted, well, that is another story.
Karisse Hendrick just released an amazing Fraud Benchmarking Report that may help unlock how to achieve “fraud happiness.”
The report is comprehensive- 60 pages of interesting fraud metrics, but the ones that caught my eye were visibility and value.
There are 3 things that make a fraud department happy, do you know what they are?
Report - Australian Banks Under Fire For Not Reimbursing Scam Victims
This 60-Minute Report, which was broadcast this weekend, probably fired up a lot of Australians who don’t think banks there are doing enough.
Featuring heart-wrenching stories, like one where an elderly scam victim lost her life savings and then had bank fraud investigators accuse her 85-year-old husband of stealing the money and others.
Face it; banks are not going to be able to dodge the reimbursement elephant in the room for much longer!
New Anti-Report Released By About Fraud - A Great Resource For Banks
About Fraud has done it again with a great industry resource. It’s called The Anti-Report, and it’s a guide written by a host of fraud fighters on how to manage all types of fraud.
This is a report you can download and pass around to others in your organization to educate them on the landscape of fraud and how to tackle them.
It’s broken out by fraud type and gives you the most important information about the use case: the problem, stats to know, KPIs to track, ways to solve the problem, and general advice.
It’s Here. Ai To Combat Scams. New ChatGPT App Fools Dumb Scammers
As scammers deploy robocalls and text, humans are fighting back with Ai of their own.
Roger Anderson has created funny and effective ChatGPT bots that are designed to waste scammers’ time. Anderson’s service is called Jolly Roger Telephone, which sells AI personalities to engage in ridiculous conversations with scammers.
He was featured last month in the Wall Street Journal, and you can listen to his bot in action here.
The AI was so effective at its job the scammer eventually hung up out of sheer exhaustion about six minutes into the call.
Fraud Expert Justin Davis Says Not All Synthetic Fraudsters Are Equal
Justin Davis has always loved fighting fraud.
But if there is one thing he loves even more, it’s getting behind the psyche of fraudsters. In particular - Synthetic Fraudsters!
“The problem with Synthetic Identity is multiple motivations,” he says. “Some of these fraudsters will pay, and some will not. Many don’t think they are committing fraud at all".
His newly created “Synthetic Taxonomy” breaks down the synthetic landscape:
Performing synthetics - synthetics that fully intend to pay
Staging synthetics - sleeper synthetics
Criminal synthetics - synthetics created for crime and profit
Synthetic mules - synthetics used to move money
Shell person synthetics - synthetics used to avoid OFAC
Check out his full taxonomy here.
If you want to connect with the fraud guru himself and hear about all the work he is doing to help lenders avoid these fraudsters - hit him up here.
Fannie Mae Alerts Lenders To Wild New Income Fraud Scheme
Liar loans are alive in well in mortgages, but this new scheme is pretty crazy and shows the lengths that these schemers will go to lie on their mortgage applications.
People resort to wild ways to qualify for mortgages, with housing prices and interest rates through the roof!
According to Fannie Mae investigators, there have been “heightened instances of misrepresented child support income in “numerous loans.”
The common red flags are:
The commonality of real estate agents involved in selling the subject properties
Bank statements and canceled checks are created to support falsified child support income.
Borrowers have no other source of income.
Child and spousal support documentation provided in the loan files do not match public records regarding those same persons; altered court documentation is also evident.
This ERC Fraud Money Grab Is Getting Out of Control
How many Robocalls, texts, or emails did you get this week to claim your $26,000 for every company employee?
I got five I know of, and many other people I know are in the same boat.
We’re still bleary-eyed from the hangover of massive pandemic fraud, and here comes COVID Fraud 2.0.
The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) – sometimes called the Employee Retention Tax Credit, is a tax credit for businesses impacted by COVID shutdowns.
But the program is also becoming a big money grab by fraudsters and scammers.
Welcome to COVID Fraud 2.0. 🤦
Uh Oh- Hackers Might Be Selling Your ChatGPT Account And Conversations
Crafty hackers have discovered a hot new commodity to sell on the dark web - your ChatGPT accounts and all your conversations with the Ai tool.
Fresh from the cyber-sleuths at Singapore-based Group-IB, over 100,000 ChatGPT accounts have been hijacked by info-stealing malware and are up for grabs in the illegal bazaars of the dark web.
Once the fraudsters buy or obtain your account, they have free reign to access all your private conversations and data.
It’s another stark reminder that your Ai conversations may not always be private.
This BullShit Fraud Case
This case is literally bullshit, but not for the reasons you might expect.
A California man stole $8.7 million from investors, claiming he could turn cow manure into green energy.
Brewer’s scam involved convincing investors he could build anaerobic digesters – large machines that create methane through microorganisms breaking down biodegradable material – on dairies in several California and Idaho counties, the US attorney’s office said in a news release. This methane can “then be sold on the open market as green energy,” the release stated.
Fraud Investigators - How To Trace An Email Back To Its Source
I’m always on the prowl for good guides to investigate fraud, and I came across this interesting guide on how to Trace an Email Back To Its Source.
Most Email comes with more information than what appears in most email clients. There's a host of information about the sender included in the email header—information you can use to trace the email back to the sender.
You just need to know where to look.
Click on this link or image below to read the article
Thank you for catching up with my newsletter again this week.
If you're enjoying a nice vacation or just with your families, I hope you are having a great 4th of July week!