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Fraud Jackpots And Other Crimes Too Good To Pass Up
Frank McKenna
August 22, 2023
Greetings Fraud Fighters from FrankonFraud,
The glow of flashing neon lights, the intoxicating chime of coins clattering, and the euphoric ring of the machine announcing a win; there's nothing quite like the sensation of hitting a jackpot on a slot machine.
The same is true with Fraud Jackpots, which push many good people to do bad things for fear of missing out. Such was the case in Ireland this week when an ATM glitch sent people lining up by the hundreds to get a chance at some free money.
Here are your top fraud stories of the week right here 👇
Linkedin went under attack by malicious hackers
Bloomberg says AI will turbocharge $10 trillion in fraud
Vestoo is done. Bankrupt due to massive fraud.
Ai Bots Crush Humans in solving annoying Captcha’s
Bank of Ireland had a major ATM Glitch that went viral
A powerful tool called “Roop” delivers 1 click-deep fakes
80-year-old Meth Trafficker was actually a scam victim
A study reveals 42% of Musk’s followers might be fake.
The car theft crisis is pushing people to archaic methods
Fake license plates were sold to hide other crimes
Big Tesla breach was caused by insiders.
Let’s dive into these top stories in fraud!
Bring Back The Club? Car Theft Crisis Is So Bad Many Are Considering Archaic Methods
Car theft and associated crimes are so bad in Canada that experts are wondering if it is time to bring back old-school methods like The Club.
Remember it? It was that clunky device that would make your car undrivable because it would lock the steering wheel.
Vehicle thefts in Canada have skyrocketed due to new high-tech ways like relay attack schemes that can hijack “smart,” modern vehicles — including copying the signal from your electronic car key, even when it’s inside your home.
Fraud Jackpot - ATM Glitches And People Go Nuts
Thousands of Irish people thought they had won the jackpot from the Bank of Ireland, but sadly it wasn’t true.
Everyone loves a good ATM Glitch, except the bank of course.
Last week, the Bank of Ireland experienced a technical glitch that allowed people to withdraw more money than they had in their accounts at their ATM Machines.
Thousands of Irish people lined up at ATMs across the country to withdraw £1,000 thinking they’d found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
After the glitch was fixed, the bank warned customers that their accounts would be debited for the “free money” they withdraw and that they would be subject to overdraft fees for taking the money.
Bloomberg - AI Will TurboCharge $10 Trillion in New Wave Of Fraud A Year
A new article appearing in Bloomberg is pointing to a doomsday scenario with AI-driven fraud.
Today, cybercrime costs globally, including scams, are set to hit $8 trillion this year, outstripping the economic output of Japan, the world’s third-largest economy. But by 2025, the finance industry is expected to lose $10.5 trillion a year more than tripling in the last decade.
Experts at major banks, including Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank AG, say the fraud boom on the horizon is one of the biggest threats facing their industry.
As fraud explodes, banks across the world are moving at lightning speed to create their own Artificial Intelligence solutions to counter the risk of AI-generated videos and voices.
Chris Sheehan takes a more pragmatic approach to the rise in scams. To him, it’s not a war, it will be a constant battle that the world will have to live with.
So Sad. 80-Year-Old Meth Trafficking Mule Was A Vet And Victim Of Elder Fraud
If there was ever a guy that deserved a break it’s this guy.
80-year-old Roy Payne is facing his last days of freedom. Payne is a heroic vet who served on the front lines of the war in Vietnam but a couple of years ago he became a target of international scammers that took advantage of him.
He was often told he won international lotteries and, earlier this year he was talked into flying to Mexico City to fill out paperwork before traveling to Japan to collect his winnings.
But when he returned to the United States, Roy Payne was searched at DFW Airport, where authorities found seven pounds of meth hidden inside luggage.
He now faces over 6 years in prison - essentially a life sentence. The DOJ however disagrees and said Roy Payne knew exactly what he was doing.
This Teen Is The New Frank Abagnale. And He Is Just Getting Started
Zachary Brent Bailey is only 17 years old, but he is putting Frank Abaganale to shame.
4 months ago, he gained notoriety for posing as a traveling nurse and gaining access to two hospitals in Corpus Christi Texas. He galavanted around the hospitals in scrubs.
After his con was discovered, he was arrested and it was then that police found that the car he was driving was worth over $50,000 and that was purchased fraudulently as well.
Being the true conman he is, after he was arrested for impersonation he got right back to work - even when he was on house arrest.
In the ensuing weeks, he was found to have 192 separate GPS violations.
He got those GPS violations because he traveled out of state to start defrauding several car dealerships in Oklahoma. He would make fraudulent ACH transfers to engage in a fake car loan payoff scheme and then bring the cars into the dealership to sell.
After the dealer would cut him a check, he would cancel the ACH transfer and keep the money. All told he ripped off dealers for over $100,000.
He’s in the slammer again but who knows what will happen once he is released.
Elon Said He Was Going To Get Rid Of Bots, But Now 42% Of His Followers Appear Fake
Remember when Elon Musk claimed that 20% of Twitter accounts were fake and he vowed to rid the platform of them when he took over?
New research by Mashable on Musk’s 153 million followers suggests that he might not have followed through with that promise.
They found that 42% of his followers (about 65 million accounts) are highly suspicious of being bots as those accounts have zero followers. They also found that about 62% of his followers have no tweets either meaning that a most of his followers probably are not real.
Linkedin Under Attack - Enable Your 2FA, It’s The Only Thing That Works
Security researchers identified that a widespread LinkedIn malicious hacking campaign started last week.
The researchers found that the number of Google searches related to compromised LinkedIn accounts have grown by over 5000% in the last 3 months.
Is your account safe? Better put those 2FA options on your account. Apparently that is the only thing that appears to be working at the moment.
$70 Device Tricks People Into Sharing Passwords In A Harmless-Looking Way
Attendees at Defcon this year were confused and concerned when their iPhones started showing pop-up messages prompting them to connect their Apple ID or share a password with a nearby Apple TV.
It turns out it was all an experiment by a security researcher, Jae Bochs, who wanted to see if he could trick people into getting their passwords.
He carried around this contraption which takes advantage of Apple’s Bluetooth design which tries to make it easy to connect to devices around you.
Meta - The Fraud and Scam Dream Platform That Won’t Pitch In To Help Victims
A new Money Mail Investigation has found that an estimated 16 percent of all crimes recorded by the police in 2022 originated on platforms owned by social media giant Meta – more than double the number of robberies, burglaries, homicides, and knife crimes combined.
The media, government, and banks are in an all-out media blitz to hold Zuckerburg more responsible for protecting consumers from scams. With banks agreeing to reimburse customers, many want Meta to pitch in too.
But still, he’s got nothing to say
Is This A Clue Into The “Huge Scam” That Brought Down Heartland Tri-State Bank?
A lot of mystery has shrouded the implosion of Heartland Tri-State Bank. And people want answers. I might have found a clue this week deep in Youtube comments.
2 weeks ago Kansas Banking Commissioner, David Herndon revealed that they were a victim of a huge scam and it’s left fraud experts scratching their heads.
I’ve been digging a bit into a lot and while many suspect it was a BEC attack, a post on Youtube may reveal a more plausible explanation.
User novaaldo1735 claims they live near Elkhart (where the bank’s headquarters are) and rumors are swirling about the CEO being arrested for trading crypto with bank funds.
This rumor could be pure speculation, but the CEO did depart abruptly and the user NovaAldo does appear to have ties to Elkart based on other videos he posted.
Some say the FBI is investigating so no doubt we may hear more about whatever the scam was in the coming weeks.
AI Bots Crush Humans When It Comes To Solving Captcha’s
Chalk one up for the machines. A new research report shows that AI Bots crush humans when it comes to figuring out those annoying puzzles that pop up when you try to log in.
It’s funny and just a little ironic that AI is better at responding “I am not a Robot” than humans don’t you think?
The researchers pitted 1,400 human volunteers against their AI Bots and tested 120 of the most popular websites in the world.
And it wasn’t even close. Bots beat humans completing the various Captcha’s in record time and far more accurately than people.
Car Dealership Shell Co Sold Fake License Plates To Help Criminals Hide Crimes
A Spring Texas car dealership called EZ Used Cars and Trucks was nothing but a shell company created to sell fake paper license plates called “Dealer Tags”.
Dealer tags are mostly reserved for agents of dealerships for test drives or loaner cars. But the owner of the shell dealership, Tina Marie Jimenez sold over 1,000 of those tags to people that might have used the license plates to hide other crimes.
Inside Job - Tesla Breach Was Caused By Ex-Employees.
Two former employees of Tesla are being blamed for sending personal details including names, SSNs, addresses, and employment records of 75,000 people.
The employees sent the information to a German media outlet of all places. The data contained information on employees as well as customers who complained.
The employees sent 23,000 internal documents, dubbed the “Tesla Files,” containing 100 gigabytes of confidential data.
And to top it off, Musk’s very own social security number was included in the breached data.
Scary “Roop” Tool Delivers Deep Fake Videos With 1 Click Install
A new piece of software called Roop is making deep fakery a snap.
Roop Deepfake is a tool that lets you swap faces in videos with just one image of the desired face. You don't need to collect many images or train a model to do this. You need to run a Python script and select the face and the target video.
Yet more examples of how powerful Ai tools are giving fraudsters of all skill levels powerful capabilities.
Thanks for catching up on the latest fraud stories and trends.
Hope you have a fantastic week fighting fraud!