Merry Christmas Fraud Fighters 🎅 Let’s get to the top stories!
Fraud News Roundup 🗞
Saved By The Banker - An alert bank manager noticed a regular customer was “panicked and sweaty” as he requested a large wire transfer. When he intervened he discovered the customer was a victim of “digital arrest” that is sweeping across the world.
“ScotaiBank” And Other Redirect Fraud - Customers that type and misspell domains are being re-directed to scam sites 90% of the time now according to Krebs. In fact, it is up massively and represents a real threat.
CFPB Bans Credit Repair Co For 25 Years - The credit repair company signed up 40,000 people and promised to remove negative tradelines from their credit but they failed to deliver - now they are toast!
New “Snowballing” Scam - A new WhatsApp technique called GhostPairing, tricks users to linking their account to devices controlled by the hackers.
Going Long on Crime - A mail thief traveled across two states stealing checks and credit cards. Court records show he used stolen credit cards to try purchasing a "penile girth enhancement" at Alabama Men's Clinic.
Florida Man Of The Year - The Chuck E Cheese credit card fraudster has won the dubious honor for being arrested in full wardrobe including the styrofoam head on police bodycam.
Thailand Scam Bombs - As Thailand drops bombs on Cambodia, they claim that their border skirmish is also a war on scammers. Unfortunately, most of the scam centers they are bombing are filled with trafficking victims.
Chinese Gang Fraud Revolution - An incredibly insightful expose by FT on how Chinese fraud gangs are completely upending fraud and scams across the world.
Field Trip Fraud - Sad story this Christmas. A Florida man stole $770,000 from students for a European trip that never happened. The jerk fled to Los Angeles before capture.
Crypto Bridge Had No Kill Switch - The FTC goes after Nomad, a crypto company that could not stop hackers who drained $186 million from customers accounts
$50 Million Gone In The Blink of An Eye - Ever hear of scheme called “address poisoning” where scammers subtly change a crypto address to steal money? Someone just lost $50 million to it in the blink of an eye.
PornHub Extorted - Hackers were able to capture information on PornHubs premium customers and are extorting them to avoid releasing the list and potentially embarrassing their customers. This is similar to Ashley Madison years ago.
Mileage Blocker Fraud - They can be purchased online for a few hundred dollars and they helping scammers rip off car dealers. When luxury dealer shares his story.
Is The US CyberAttacking Venezuela? - An oil company is blaming the US for cyber attacking them after the seizure of their tanker.
AI Voice Cloning Helps Terrorist Grow - A new report indicates that terrorist are cloning voices of people like Adolph Hitler to help them spread hate and grow.
Charlie Wants Chase To Pay For $524 For Her Gummy Bears
First she sold Chase 4.5 million fake accounts for $175 million, and now she want them to reimburse her $75 million in legal expenses including $524 in gummy bears, a pet hair roller, a cookie monster toddler toy, a plastic cup, $284 car ride for half a mile and many other outrageous expenses.
Talk about insult to injury - she wins my vote for worst fraudster of 2025.
Treasury Check Fraud Plummeting As Paper Checks Are Eliminated
Will eliminating checks, eliminate the fraud problem? Apparently so. Weylin Johns with Dark Tower reports that stolen treasury checks posted on Telegram channels in November plummeted 63% from the prior month.
How Amazon Security Caught North Korean Spies By Looking For Tiny Keystroke Lags
When Amazon shipped a laptop to their new system administrator in North Korea, they had no idea that they were shipping the keys to the kingdom.
Days later Amazon security noticed an odd detail that caught their eye, there was almost an imperceptible delay in how long it took their keystrokes to hit their server - about 110 milliseconds.
That tiny detail helped them bust a massive laptop farm that had generated $17 million for North Koreas missile program.
How UPS Uses AI To Catch Return Fraudsters Cold In Their Tracks
UPS is using HappyReturns AI solution to stop return fraud with great success. When a suspicious return package is dropped off, they take a photo and the AI indicates if their is a difference between what was shipped, and what is being sent back to the retailer.
Watch the team in action, click below 👇
Wells Fargo Branch Manager Spent Stolen Money on Cars, Doctors Credit Cards
A Wells Fargo Branch manager stole $655,000 from the cash vault over eight months and went on a spending spree buying a Lexus, paying doctor bills and paying off her Citibank credit cards.
After she got the cash, she cleverly laundered the money by depositing it in an array of bank accounts all over the city, taking care to make sure it was less than $10,000.
Shockingly, after she was arrested, she got a job as a manager at another bank!
The $69 Billion Company That Is Ground Zero For Scams In America
Circle K is the second largest convenience store in America. But they are also ground zero for scams and misery. Their partnership with Bitcoin Depot at 750 of their stores generates $700 a month in income each (about $6,3 million a year), but its also giving them a major black eye too.
An Auto Fraud That Will Go Down In History As The Most Brazen Of All Time
Daniel Chu, the CEO of Tricolor called comparisons to Enron “perfect” and rather than being alarmed at the comparison, he embraced it and suggested that they use it to pressure Chase, Fifth Third and others into settling with them.
This case is wild and will go down as one of the most brazen and shocking in the history of auto finance.
In China, Workers Use Face Mask To Trip Up Facial Recognition
Chinese government workers printed paper masks of colleagues' faces to fool facial recognition attendance machines.
The cheap $4.50 mask let one person clock in for the whole office.
Super Yacht Captain Arrested For Helping Evil Scam Kingpin Launder Money
Nigel Tang’s job was to Captain the notorious scam kingpin, Chen Zhi’s Yacht but his other job was to help launder money. Kind of a bizarre side hustle for the Captain of a 175 foot luxury yacht.
He was arrested this week by authorities for money laundering when he returned to Singapore.
Fraud Tourist Traveled To Minnesota Because It Was So Fraud Friendly
Minnesota was such a fraud-friendly state that people were traveling there to raid government programs. In a first ever, prosecutors are saying the state had a “fraud tourism industry”
Two guys from Philly traveled there and set up a scheme to fraudulently bill the Medicaid program for $3.5 million.
Venezuelan Gang Used Millions In ATM JackPotting To Fund Terrorist Activities
Venezuelan gang members fanned out across America with a digital weapon called Ploutus. The malware caused ATM machines to spit out money, literally.
The gang members popped open ATM hoods, swapped hard drives, and watched machines spit out cash like broken slot machines. Even worse? The malware erased itself after each heist which would cause bank workers not to find the root cause of the heist, allowing them to carry out the scheme longer.
1,400 Fake US Passports From The Streets of Bangladesh Nets Fraudster Millions
The Feds shut down three websites last week including “TechTreek” and “EGiftCardStoreBD.” that were run by Zahid Hasan out of Bangladesh. His operation netted him over $2.9 million which is impressive given he only charged about $12 for every fake ID.
The Dumbest Fraudster Of The Week Is From Wilson NC
This is about as dumb as you can get. The wife of a police officer tried to pull off a brazen identity theft and insurance fraud scheme against many of the top officials in Wilson North Carolina.
Click here or below to see the story.
That’s a wrap and one of the last editions of the FrankonFraud newsletter for this year. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!