Hello, Fellow Fraud Fighting Compadres,

It was another fun-filled week in anti-fraud. One thing is for certain; there is no shortage of new devious acts from all these bad players out there trying to steal money.

That is why I always say if you get a job in anti-fraud, you will never be bored at work again ever. It’s also why hardly anyone ever leaves a career in fraud once they start it.

This week we saw-

• A massive scary data breach with MOVEit.

• Lexis CEO says the US could lose $1 Trillion to Ai fraud.

• Consumers nationwide were urged to stop mailing checks.

• A Point Predictive Report that Auto Fraud Tops $8 Billion.

• A Sentilink report that 41% of SSA mismatches are fraud.

• Banks are fed up with Fraud at Facebook.

• And a new must-see Pig Butchering documentary.

Let’s get to the top fraud stories of the week!

Holy Drivers License Fraud, Batman! 👺

Last week, I mentioned that driver’s license fraud was booming after the Identity Theft Resource Center warned that it was sweeping the country after the pandemic.

We now use Driver’s License scanning for so many of our fraud controls that fraudsters are hell-bent on finding better ways to do the fakes.

Well, this week, the massive global hack involving MOVEit spells even more really bad news for driver's license fraud. Check out this video here if you want a great overview of the breach.

Many organizations were greeted with this message in broken English from Russian Hackers informing them that they might be impacted.

Well, it turns out both Oregon and Louisiana reported that the residents of their states driver’s license data were likely stolen.

• In Oregon, about 90% of the residents of the state were exposed - about 3.5 million in total.

• In Louisiana, every person in the state with a driver’s license or identity card was impacted - over 6 million people.

The list of organizations hit by this breach is growing by the day. Over 63 now, including Shell, The Department of Energy, BBC, Boots, British Airways, and Air Lingus.

Click on this link or image below to read more.

Sentilink – 41% of SSA Name Mismatches Are Synthetics

Patrick Eckerle, Head of Analytics for SentiLink, posted an insightful blog that digs deep into the SSA’s social security number verification program (eCBSV) performance.

The blog dives into statistics on the over 134 million verifications the company has done for its customers since 2018.

My first thought was, wow 😮- that’s a lot of checks they are doing!

The second thing the blog stated was that the mismatch rate is pretty high – about 7.7% of all requests to the SSA don’t match the name on file.

But if the Social Security Administration’s eCBSV program was designed to catch abuse and theft of social security numbers, it looks like the program is remarkably effective.

According to Sentilink, about 41% of all name-to-SSN mismatches are actually synthetic identity attempts.

Click on this link or image below to read the article

Dangerous Times - Lexis CEO Says US Will Lose Over $1 Trillion Due To Ai-Assisted Fraud

If the government does not act in the next 12 months, Ai -assisted fraud will cause an estimated $1 trillion in losses to US taxpayers.

Citing fraudsters' dramatic increase in video and voice cloning to perpetrate highly elaborate scams, he believes both domestic and international fraudsters will begin an onslaught against government agencies.

Watch his dramatic warning by clicking this link or image below.

Vice Report - Pig Butchering Victims and Perpetrators Tell Their Stories

Vice just released a report on Showtime that looks like a must-watch expose - Catfished by Captives. It covers pig butchering scams from the perpetrators, who are often slaves, and victims who often live across the world.

Check out the video below. You’re going to see and hear from 3 Pig Butchering scam victims and how they got conned.

Fast Money, Fast Cars - Auto Fraud Scams Now Top $8 Billion

If you want to understand what drives auto fraud, Point Predictive released an Auto Loan Fraud Trends Report last week.

The company, which tracks a large swath of auto loans and fraud trends, found that rising unaffordability, pandemic-era fraudsters, and credit repair companies are driving big increases in risk at lenders.

While first-party fraud still dominates auto lending losses, the identity risk index is flashing red, indicating a 45% increase in identity risk since 2017. The company tracks the level of identity-related red flags and scores on millions of applications a month, and the risk is clearly rising.

What’s also interesting to see is how much affordability risk impacts the level of fraud. The company has been tracking the affordability of car payments since 2017 based on average car prices, loan amounts, and borrower risk factors such as income, credit scores, car payments, and average loan terms.

As cars become less affordable, more people resort to fraud to qualify.

And when you look at the type of cars, these fraudsters love, the list is dominated by luxury vehicles. Fraudsters love BMWs, Mercedes, and LandRovers.

The report is chocked full of statistics and research on fraud trends. Let me know if you want a copy, or click on the link below.

Can Anyone Please Tell Me What Is Going On With This Website? 🤔

I need some help.

For about 9 months, I have seen posts on Telegram from fraudsters showing they can clone chip cards with EMV software. But I thought that was impossible. And experts I talk to say the same thing.

I thought the whole point of chip cards was that they were impervious to counterfeiting.

Now I see internet sites like this called EMV Studio Writer, where they have videos that appear to be selling EMV software. And if you want to buy it, they only take Bitcoin!

What is going on here? Is this a scam? Or is this a legitimate piece of software that banks use that fraudsters are exploiting? Let me know if you have any ideas; I sure don’t. 🤷

Click here to see the website or image below

Fed Up UK Banks Demand Meta Do More. You Can’t Blame Them Really

UK banks are fed up with Meta and want the social media giant to step up their game.

Chief Executives of the nine banks in the UK, including Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Natwest, Santander, and Nationwide, sent a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak demanding Meta be held accountable for their part in the 1.2 billion in scams that UK consumers will suffer.

In typical fashion, Meta’s response was lackluster and deflected the criticism by calling it an “industry problem” without accepting any responsibility.

Mark Zuckerberg is worth over $97 billion, yet he doesn’t seem to be in any rush to help the millions of people being scammed on his platforms. You can see why the banks are ganging up on Meta, and you really can’t blame them.

Click on this link or image below to read the article

Check Fraud is Exploding - Stop Mailing Checks. Really?

A flurry of articles made the rounds on the internet last week warning consumers to stop mailing checks. There was this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one.

As legit check use declines, and fraudulent check use increases you have to wonder what it’s going to take to move on from checks in this country.

Turns out check fraud is so bad now that checks are the same as cash when you put them in the mail.

Is it time to kill the poor check once and for all?

Free Investigator Tool - SpyDialer Is Pretty Awesome Tracking Who Owns A Phone

It’s a little quirky, but it works! I was at a conference last week, and a few investigators were talking about a free site they use to do reverse searches.

Now, most sites that claim to do this are clunky and give you out-of-date information. But this one appears to work. I tried it on many numbers, and for the most part, it provided me with the real owner.

Add this site to your investigative bookmarks

Thanks for reading the weekly fraud newsletter. If you have any stories you think I need to be aware of, email me so I can cover them.

Have a great week, fraud fighters! 🙌

FrankonFraud