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- A Fraud Factory, Amex Massive Dispute Case, and A $1M Washed Check đź’°
A Fraud Factory, Amex Massive Dispute Case, and A $1M Washed Check đź’°
Frank McKenna
April 23, 2024
Hello friends đź‘‹ ,
We’re heading into another busy conference season.
I’ll present at the ACFE in Ohio, the RSA Conference in San Francisco, and the NAF in Dallas. Seeing some of you in person at these events will be great.
Let’s get to the top fraud news of the week 👇️Â
Your Zoom Clone - A company is creating digital clones for people to use at work that will dial into Zoom calls for them. What’s next, the fraud clone that will do the fraud for scammers?
Check Fraud Consortium— Mitek's CEO says 20 banks have signed on to their check fraud consortium and will have 50 by the end of 2024. He expects big growth, citing $200 million in revenue over the next five years from the solution.
Pig Butchering Aftermath - More details emerge on Shan Hanes, the CEO involved in a Pig Butchering scam that took his bank down and shattered the sleepy town he lived in.
The Work Number - A woman filed a lawsuit against The Work Number, claiming she was a victim of identity theft (synthetic identity) and falsely reported her work status, causing her benefits to get terminated.
Eliminating Checks - Chase is working with Codat to provide virtual cards to businesses to eliminate their use of checks. Getting rid of checks may be the only way to stop check fraud.
Gun-Toting Granny — An elderly lady resorted to robbing a bank after she fell victim to an online scam and lost all her money.
Founder Fraud Plea - The founder reportedly ripped off Chase to the tune of $175 million is in plea talks with federal prosecutors.
Check Fraud Hangover - Regions Bank earnings were hit again by a reported $22 million in additional check fraud. According to American Banker, that makes $157 million for the bank in the last nine months.
Gold Grab - The largest heist of gold in Canadian history was pulled off thanks to the help of Air Canada insiders.
Casino Glitch - Star Casino in Australia gave gamblers over $2 million in cash through a glitch in their cash machines, and now they are charging anyone who took the free money with fraud!
Never Broke Again - Rapper Kentrell Gaulden allegedly stole doctors’ identities, created fake patients, and used fake voices in a large prescription drug fraud scheme he was involved in.
Billions in dirty money - Heathrow-to-Dubai flights have two big money-laundering features: One airport doesn’t scan outbound luggage for cash, and the other welcomes sacks of it. Read this fascinating Wall Street Journal expose.
Lawsuit Calls Car Dealership A “Fraud Factory”
A class action lawsuit was filed against Car Dealer Olathe Dodge, claiming that the dealership has ripped off hundreds—possibly thousands—of customers over the past decade.
The dealership is accused of inflating borrowers' incomes, falsifying paystubs, payment packing, and altering documents after loans were funded. According to Ken Mclain, they are a “fraud factory”
This $400K A Year Amazon Engineer Had A Criminal Side Hustle
Shakeeb Ahmed, a senior security engineer at Amazon, earned over $400,000 per year as the technical lead for their “Bug Bounty” program.
But while he did that job, he carried out two sophisticated hacks against crypto exchanges. In July 2022, Ahmed hacked "the Crypto Exchange" and collected $9 million. Months later, he hacked a second exchange called “Nirvana Finance,” stealing around $3.6 million, representing nearly all of Nirvana's funds.
He was sentenced this week, but he told the judge he likened it to a video game versus a fraud. “It was more akin to a cheat code in a video game than a hack that undermined the financial system,” he said.
Cheyenne Bank Stops Woman From Cashing Washed $1 Million Check
Pamela Kubesh thought she was going to be a millionaire. Instead, she is facing ten years in federal prison.
On April 8th, she walked into a small credit union on Cheyenne. She presented a fake California driver’s license and a treasury check for $985,020 to the teller to deposit in her account.
The Teller took the check but put a ten-day hold on it. Kubesh was so hard-up for the money she kept coming in the bank day after day. The bank finally called the police and had her arrested!
Senator Sent This Letter To Top Banks Asking Them For Wire Fraud Stats
Banks can’t catch a break. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown sent this letter to the top banks, asking them for sensitive wire fraud stats to get banks to reimburse wire transfer fraud when the consumer is a victim of a scam.
Police Shift Tactics in the UK Relying On Paranoia To Scare Perps
Jaime Bartlett highlights a fascinating new approach Police are taking to crack down on fraudsters.
In the past, they relied on taking dark websites like LabHost, only to see those sites emerge on a new server with a new name weeks later. Now, police are taking a “paranoia” approach and alerting subscribers to those sites that their information is in “police’s hands” and they might be prosecuted.
The idea behind the new approach just might be working, too. Police noticed a significant decrease in the usage of Lockbit after it was taken down, and they applied a similar paranoia technique to those users.
Amex Losing Over $1.6 Million In Chargebacks A Day From This Retailer
Pirch, a San Diego-based luxury retailer, is in big trouble, and Amex is flooded with chargebacks.
Some details of the suit show the massive chargeback losses the processor is taking:
Amex has already processed $5 million in chargebacks from Pirch customers and is now facing an additional $33 million in disputes.
If 1,800 Pirch customers disputed $33 million, the average disputed transaction through that merchant would be around $18,300.
Amex says it is losing about $1.6 million per day.
“Give em The Money.” Bank Manager Says Her Bank Didn’t Care About PPP Fraud
This bank manager said the bank she works for couldn’t have cared less about PPP fraud because the government guaranteed the loans. I wonder what bank she works for.
@___ronnie.lo702___ #stitch with @Ms Sharnise #ppp #politics #finance #blacktiktok #blackgirlmagic #economy #money #banking
This KIA Boyz Video From Channel 5 Is Wild
You’ve undoubtedly heard of the TikTok Challenge, where Kia theft is rampant. If you want to look at the subculture and how a few kids in Connecticut are taking it to the next level, check out this wild video from Andrew Callahan, who spent time behind the scenes with them.
Something Very Cool From Auriemma 👍️Â
Troy Huth shot me an email last week with something cool. I wanted to share it with you. 🗞️Â
They are opening up their benchmarking report to allow other banks in the industry to participate in the benchmark who are otherwise not eligible for full roundtable membership.
If you don’t have Auriemma Benchmark data, believe me you need it! - This PDF document outlines everything you get.
Smug Check Fraudsters Smile Turns To Nervous Laugh After Arrest
This check fraudster was making the rounds all over town, hitting up banks until 5th Third Bank tellers caught on and called the cops.
Check out how smug this guy is. 👇️Â
Webinar Today - 10X Fraud Strategy
If you have time, join the AboutFraud Webinar today. It's free to attend, and we'll cover how to supercharge your fraud strategy!
Well, that is it for another exciting and challenging week in fraud. Thanks for keeping up on it and following along with me.