Howdy Scam Stoppers, 👋 

Is it just me, or has it been suspiciously quiet in Christmas-time fraud this year? I haven’t seen or heard the typical horror stories we experienced in past years. Some fresh numbers from TransUnion indicate that may just be the case as fraud attempts have plummeted by 30% this holiday season.

Let’s check out the top stories this week.

• Apple Insider Fraud: Six former Apple Employees are accused of running a scam to steal over $150,000 in their matching donation program. The charity called Hop4Kids would kick back money to employees who donated and had Apple match it.

• Let’s Get Physical—Charlie Javice, the famed swindler who ripped Chase for $150 million, has a new career as a “Fitness Instructor. " Her ankle bracelet is weighing her leg down, so she convinced a judge to let her remove it last week.

• Final COVID Report—The government released a whopping 567-page COVID Report and identified fraud losses of $255 billion (PPP, EIDL, and Unemployment combined), far higher than the initial $100 billion estimate. This is far closer to what Jake Emry had predicted two years ago.

• Secret World of Krebs- A Wall Street Journal article on the hidden world of Brian Krebs and how he finds hackers from a secret location only a few people know about.

• Going To Bed Now - Crypto scams are exploding, and the famous “Hawk Tuah” girl has reportedly pulled off the most blatant rug-pulls in history. During a twitter live that got pretty heated, she stopped questions and said, “I’m going to bed now”.

• Odometer Fraud - A new report from CarFax indicates a sharp rise in odometer fraud. This is possibly driven by “Freeze Switches” now being sold online.

• FBI Warning - The FBI issued an unprecedented alert warning consumers of the massive increase in AI scams, what to look for, and what to do if they are victimized.

• Fraud God - The self-professed “Fraud God” was arrested in Irvine Ca and he had a storage container full of skimming equipment.

• Digital Kidnapping - A 15-year-old girl is digitally kidnapped, a victim of an impersonation scam in Singapore. This scam continues to grow all over the world.

• They’re Eating The Checks - While a suspect in Texas was being arrested for check fraud, he stuffed the check in his mouth and tried to eat it to hide the evidence.

• Brilliant Professor - This professor had a clever solution to stop students from using ChatGPT to cheat on their term papers.

• FedDetect—The Federal Reserve is tackling soaring commercial check fraud by letting organizations check for shotgunning, in which people simultaneously deposit the same check to multiple banks.

Fraudsters Vacation - Fraud Friday Fraud Rates Plunge 30%

In an unexpected twist, fraud rates during the busiest week of the year have plunged over 30% compared to last year.

According to fresh data from TransUnion, only 4.6% of global e-commerce transactions were flagged as suspicious during the “Cyber Five” period – the critical shopping days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.

In fact, on Black Friday - the fraud dropped to only 3.7% compared to the global average of 7.4% for the rest of 2024. Did fraudsters take a vacation?

Click to Read 👇️ 

Fraud Investigators Warn Of New ATM Card Swap Scam That Is Growing Fast

Bank investigators warn that a new ATM Card-switching scam targets older people in California, Florida, and Massachusetts.

The scam is catching on fast and is being caught on surveillance video by investigators after reviewing fraud claims by older customers who don’t realize they were scammed.

“Kindly strangers” can be seen calling the older people back to the ATM to help them close out transactions as they walk away.

Click To Read 👇️ 

Brazilian Drug Cartel Created Their Own Fintech Banks To Launder Money

“Far better than finding a bank or a front to launder your money is creating your own bank,” said Brazilian prosecutors who claim that 4TBank (a fintech) was created exclusively to act as a money laundering operation for Brazil’s most notorious drug gang — First Capital Command.

The bank launched about one year ago and had over $1.5 billion in assets, which the government froze as they believe it be drug money.

The 4TBank case isn't isolated. Within weeks of this discovery, authorities dismantled two more allegedly illegal fintechs in São Paulo, processing transactions exceeding $1 billion.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Fraud Ring Turned Luxe Airbnb Rentals Into Full Blown Scam Compounds

Imagine you rent your home on Airbnb, and the renter turns your home into a scam call center, running impersonation scams against victims all over Europe.

That’s precisely what happened in the Netherlands this week, where police arrested 8 people associated with a large cybercrime organization.

They contacted victims across Europe using email, SMS, or WhatsApp messages, posing as bank employees or members of a fraud prevention task force.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Yahoo Boy “Missing Person Scam” Terrorizes Family

Jiare Schneider, a famous Tik Toker, tragically disappeared but was later found dead in his car in a wooded area.

That didn’t stop scammers from contacting the family and claiming to be holding Jiare captive. One of the callers even made a $5K demand for his release. If you recall, this “Missing Person” scam is being perpetrated by Yahoo Boys now, and here is a real example of it in action.

Click To Read 👇️ 

Coinbase Struggles With 300% Post-Election Fraud Spike

Coinbase reports a massive increase in new accounts and fraud attempts after the election. And it's facing use backlash, too, as they block more suspicious activity.

With a full-blown crypto craze in effect, it’s no surprise that the industry is attracting fraudsters and scammers like never before.

Click to Read 👇️ 

She Called Herself “Mother Theresa” But She Was A Big Time Scammer

Johanna Garcia liked to refer to herself as the “Mother Theresa” of lending because she had such a big heart and wanted to help small businesses in need of money.

In reality, she was a massive scammer who bilked investors out of nearly $200 million. While she reported to investors that she had loaned that money to businesses, she only generated a measly $115,000 in loans.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Short Sale Fraud Is Back With Vengence - “Short Sale Queen” Arrested

Mortgage Short Selling fraud ran rampant after the mortgage crisis of 2008 and many thought it was a thing of the past.

Sadly, it was not, and this week, the self-proclaimed “Short Sale Queen” was arrested for perpetrating a massive $8 million fraud against mortgage lenders.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Credit Repair Giants Ordered To Payout Massive Sum To Fraud Victims

More than 4 million Americans gouged by credit repair companies, including Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com, will soon collectively receive $1.8 billion in refund checks.

The credit repair giants were accused of charging junk fees, perpetrating student and mortgage relief debt scams, and predatory lending.

Score one for the victims!

Click to Read 👇️ 

Indian Scammer Caught With $400K In Gold In His Car

Police caught a 21-year-old scammer after he posed as Law Enforcement and used fear tactics to steal from an elderly vet.

Watch the footage as he is arrested, and they found over 100 gold bars in his car.

Click to Watch 👇️ 

@copsus1988.05

Indian Scammer Steals $400k in Gold Bars, Gets Busted. BODYCAM #cops #copsoftiktok #police #policeofficer

Welcome To The Future Of Not Working And Scamming

Pickle.AI will let people attend Zoom calls while lying in bed, on the beach, or gaming. This new AI tool creates an AI Avatar of a person and then lip-synchs to whatever they are saying. Scammers will love this AI.

Click to Watch 👇️ 

She Travels All Over US Returning Bottles of Downy Wrinkle Release

It's a strange story, indeed. People all over the US and in various Walmart stores have seen this unusual lady returning 20-30 bottles of Downy with valid receipts.

Is it a coupon scam or something more sinister? Read the comments on this Reddit post to see what she is up to.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Thanks for reading the newsletter and staying informed about new fraud trends. Have a great week stopping fraud and scams.

FrankonFraud