Hi everyone,
Welcome to another weird and wacky week in fraud.
Earlier, I wrote a blog post about the TransUnion 7 Day Credit Sweep—welp, it turns out it was a real thing, and the bureau is now reporting a 9,000% increase in Human Trafficking blocked tradelines.
Why is this a big deal? Because those credit scores you rely on are absolute trash when someone washes their credit. 🗑
Let’s get to the top stories right now!
Fraud News Roundup 🗞
Sentenced To Death For Pig Butchering - Five Kingpins of Myanmar Scam Mafia were sentenced to death by China for running scam compounds.
HSBC Fake Data Breach - Just weeks after PNC reported a fake data breach by hackers, HSBC says it has experienced the same thing, as a reported “treasure trove” of PII was leaked on Telegram. Time will tell if it’s true.
Nvidia Deepfake AI Clone Scam - A deepfake livestream featuring CEO Jensen Huang drew 100,000 people, 8 times the number who attended his real keynote at the same time. It was a crypto scam attempt.
They’re Not Paying - Ransomeware payments to hackers are dropping and cutting into their profits as 3 out of 4 companies now are refusing to pay ransom anymore.
Two Bank Employees Banned - The Federal Reserve banned a First Horizon Bank employee and Noble Bank employee for internal fraud, They stole customer funds.
Hacking Tata Motors - A hacker shows receipts of how he hacked into 70+ terabytes of data on India’s largest car manufacturer and how their security is a complete joke.
They’re Blowing Up ATM’s - Self-Taught thieves are blowing up ATM’s in the Netherlands, its the newest trend in scoring boatloads of cash.
Illegal Firearm Purchase - This new variant of the fraud department scam is a little scary. Apparently scammers are calling as Federal Agents who have detected an “illegal firearm purchase” on AMEX cards the victim knows nothing about.
Freezing Him Out! - Singapore just froze $150 million more in assets of the scam Kingpin Chen Zhi of Cambodia’s Prince Group. This guy is hurting.
NFL Start Identity Theft - Cam Ward, the Tennessee Titans rookie sensation was the victim of a $250,000 identity theft scheme. High paid sports stars are increasingly becoming victims of fraud scams.
Pinnacle Bank Internal Fraud - A branch employee convinced an old man with dementia to put his money into CD’s and she began writing checks off the account stealing tens and thousands from him.
Don’t Even Touch Em - Security experts say AI browsers like OpenAI’s Atlas are highly insecure, subject to a simple prompt injection attacks giving hackers access to absolutely everything. No thanks!
Yale Fake Student Scandal - A freshman student name “Katherina Lynn” went to great lengths to create a new identity and a completely fabricated background to get into Yale. Her roommate outed her and now its a national story.
Inside India’s Scam Villages - We’ve all heard of scam compounds in Southeast Asia, but in 2011 “Scam Villages” were emerging throughout India, replacing farming as the main industry as this interesting article explores the trend.
Dumbest $1 Million Scam Attempt Ever - Watch police arrest the dumbest criminal ever, who was caught on surveillance tape trying to cash a $1 million check.
VAMP Calculator - This is a cool new VAMP calculator for merchants to see if they are high risk or not.
Shocking Inside Job - Cybersecurity Company Employees Were Also Ransomware Hackers
This is shocking. Employees of Cybersecurity company DigitalMint and Sygnia Cybersecurity Services worked as hackers stealing millions through ransomware while they simultaneously worked to help companies respond to attacks.
Aunty Wang And 1,400 Other Elderly Fell Victim To An AI-Powered Fortune Teller Scam
It’s wild how AI is making scams crazier. In China, a fraud ring was busted, and 92 people were arrested for pulling off an AI-powered “Feng Shui” scam targeting older, superstitious ladies.
It was like a Pig Butchering scam, but instead of using crypto, they used AI-powered Fortune Tellers and “fear” to get victims to send money.
Suspicious Fake Emails Were The Key To This Audacious $500 Million Fraud
Small details, when reviewed closely, were the red flags that tipped investigators off to a $500 million loan fraud that has BlackRock stunned.
It all began with a suspicious email address, and everything imploded from there.
In July 2025, an analyst at HPS, a major player in the private credit world, noticed something odd: an email domain used to confirm a multimillion-dollar invoice didn’t match that of a major telecom carrier. Instead of the legitimate “bics.com,” the domain read “bics-telecom.com.”
“Join Our Board” LinkedIn Scam Is Targeting Executives At Large Companies
It can be quite prestigious to be asked to become a board member. Which is why scammers are using that for their latest scam attempts.
Hackers are sending LinkedIn messages to finance executives pretending to be exclusive invitations to join the board of a South American investment fund called "Common Wealth Investment Fund."
The scam message is sent via LinkedIn messages with a malicious link. When the executive clicks the link it redirects many times until prompting them to view the invitation with Microsoft Word, where their details are phished.
Woman Lured By Scary AI Scam In Home Depot In Apparent Carjacking Attempt
A complete stranger approached Melanie Valentine at Home Depot while she was making keys, showing what appeared to be real security footage of her husband’s truck being stolen.
“You have to follow me. You have to follow me.” the man said, “We can catch him. We can catch him. Trusting her instincts, she refused to go outside with the man, and now thinks it was a carjacking in the making.
Credit Washing CFPB Complaints Hit Record - 9,000% Increase In Human Trafficking
Credit bureau complaints to the CFPB hit over 518,000 in October as credit washing soars to new heights.
And if that isn’t enough. TransUnion reports that there has been a 9,000% increase in human trafficking disputes this year. And that’s not all. They say there has been a 272% increase in identity theft tradeline blocks this year.
Ever heard of the TransUnion 7 Day Credit Sweep?
US Kills Off Three Mexican Banks For Facilitating Cartel In Fentanyl Production
Three major Mexican financial institutions - Intercam Bank, CiBanco, and Vector Casa de Bolsa - officially ceased operations following the US Treasury Depts allegations that they were laundering money for the cartels.
The shady banks facilitated payments for precursor chemicals used to produce fentanyl. The US Ban on transactions with those banks put a stranglehold on them and they closed doors.
Lady Finds Her AI Digital Doppelganger On TikTok And Sets Up a Sting Call
What would you do if you found someone using your photos to do deepfake video calls with men to scam them?
Well, a 32-year-old woman named Pimporn said she found out about an imposter on TikTok using her stolen images. She asked her male friend to add the woman to see what was going on, but the woman would not meet in person - she would only do video calls.
Here is the twist - Pimporn thinks its someone she knows because they know all sorts of personal information about her.
Click to watch the deepfake video call here 👇
Job Listing For Pig Butchering Compound - Passport Management Officer
It’s no secret that one of the first things that scam bosses do when a new worker comes in is confiscate their passports so they can’t leave the country.
Here’s an interesting job post I found on one of their Telegram channels. This is just evil.
DarkTrace CEO Victim Of DeepFake That Targeted Her Employees
Jill Popelka, the CEO of DarkTrace, reports that she was the victim of a sophisticated deepfake intended to obtain confidential information from company executives.
While she was out of the office, her team received a voicemail, apparently from her, requesting confidential corporate details. The voice was perfect: tone, accent, phrasing, all indistinguishable from her real voice.
Billions Of Fraudulent Streams Of Drake Songs, Stole Money From Other Artists
A new lawsuit just dropped from rapper RBX who claims that billions of fraudulent streams of Drake were used to steal money from other artists.
Starting in 2022, he claims that bots operating all over the world began fraudulently streaming Drake's songs continuously using VPN’s and other techniques to disguise themselves.
This CEO Deepfake Is Insane - Could Fool Anyone, I Think
CloudGuard created a deepfake of their CEO using publicly available social media footage.
I watched the original and the deepfake side by side, and it’s actually very hard to tell the difference!
Watch it yourself 👇
He’s Not Wearing Pants. Police Officer Shows Up To Court in Boxers
A judge was shocked when Officer Jackson showed up to court on a Zoom call and he wasn’t wearing pants.
“Do you have some pants on officer?”, the judge ask. The officer replies “No Sir”
Man, This Fake M Is One Dirty Trick By Phishers
A new domain is being used by scammers to make you think you are communicating with Microsoft. Instead of an “m”, as the first letter, the scammers are using “rn” in its place since at first glance it looks like an m! 😲
Brazen Thieves Rip ATM From Wall With Excavator In England
They will obviously go to any lengths to get cash when they are desperate. This is a startling image of the damage done by thieves who stole an excavator and almost tore down the whole building to get to the ATM machine.
That’s a wrap for the week.