Hello from FrankonFraud,

Now ChatGPT has only been around for a few months, but it’s kind of crazy how quickly it’s forced us fraud fighters to really think about how Ai is going to change everything we do.

From voice cloning to malware creation to better deep fakes - it’s all going to get that much harder to detect what is real and what is not.

One thing I hadn’t considered was how Ai coupled with a remote workforce could result in employers inadvertently hiring job hustlers that take on 2-3 jobs at once.

This first story blows my mind…

ChatGPT Is Helping Some Workers To Commit Job Fraud

ChatGPT is being used by some ambitious hustlers to take on multiple jobs simultaneously, making double and triple salaries from their unsuspecting employers.

Vice covered the phenomenon recently, and it’s pretty shocking how much some of these workers are making doing 3 and 4 jobs at a time and outsourcing a lot of the legwork to an Ai chatbot.

Trung Phan, a tech news writer tweeted about the article, and it caught my eye.

One worker they cover is named “Charles”. His employers don’t know it but he is already making $500,000 working two jobs, and his net worth is around $3 million. This year, he hopes to increase his compensation to $800,000 by tacking on a third position and reach a net worth of $10 million by 35.

He uses ChatGPT for the first pass at code and sends it on because it is usually good enough. He transforms everything he gets from ChatGPT into lowercase letters to “appear more organic”. He hopes someday to be able to completely outsource his jobs to India and have someone there do all the work for him.

While this is all very concerning, it does show the tremendous power and ominous nature of ChatGPT to completely automate what many workers do manually today.

Special thanks to Mary Ann Miller for this gem of a story.

Click on this link or the image below to read the article.

How Fraudsters Are Using Remote Jammer Devices To Steal Credit Cards

Remote jamming is emerging as a new method for thieves to get ahold of customers’ credit cards.

Remote jamming involves criminals interfering with the signal between a vehicle's immobilizer and the car, preventing it from locking even when the owner activates the 'lock' button.

Unsuspecting drivers think they have locked their vehicle but the car remains open since the signal was jammed from their FOB. After they leave, the thieves raid the car stealing the drivers wallets and other valuables. In many cases they are after credit cards which they quickly take to retail stores and wipe out the credit limits.

Click on this link or image below to read the article.

NICE Actimize - Close to 60% Of New Account Fraud Is Due To Mules

CashApp isn’t the only company with mule problems! Banks might be struggling with it too.

A new compelling report from NICE Actimize is shedding light on just how much new account fraud is perpetrated by Money Mules and just how fast those mules shift the fraudulent funds around.

According to their research, 59% of new account fraud is mule related, and the majority of these accounts demonstrate mule characteristics within 30 days in fact most of the activity takes place almost instantly.

Money is typically moved in a mule network within two hours before it’s completely gone, exiting the account within 12 hours!

Money mules present an interesting dilemma for banks because most banks don’t take a financial loss from the mules since fraud is perpetrated elsewhere. But as NICE Actimize points out, these accounts are unprofitable, costly to maintain, and subject banks to regulatory scrutiny.

There are other interesting insights that report fraud being up across the board.

• PTP fraud is up 40%

• Check fraud is up 171%

• Wire and ACH fraud is up 75%

• Overall fraud is up 92%

This report is chocked full of interesting fraud insights and it’s 100% free. It’s a really fantastic report for fraud fighters.

Click on this link or image below to download the report.

Chargebacks911 Sued for Helping Scammers Stay in Business

The FTC sued Chargebacks911 last week claiming that the company helped scammers stay in business while denying consumers chargebacks that they were entitled to.

What I found extremely interesting about the case is that they were accused of letting merchants run through “Microtransactions” in a program called Value Added Promotions. This program enabled merchants to essentially bypass the 1% fraud rate limits that Visa and Mastercard impose to prevent rampant fraud.

The FTC alleges that merchants could run through tiny microtransactions to artificially lower a merchant’s overall chargeback rate by inflating the total number of transactions run through the merchant’s account.

Read the whole complaint here by clicking this link or image below.

Forbes Has A Fraud Problem

The “magazine curse” is a well-known phenomenon. Consider the Sports Illustrated curse, where any athlete that appears on the cover is immediately jinxed.

In the case of Forbes Magazine it seems that it may be a fraud curse for anyone that appears on their 30 under 30 annual list.

The Forbes 30 Under 30 has always been the who’s who of up-and-comers destined for greatness or in many recent cases - prison.

Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, Elizabeth Holmes, Charlie Javice, and Martin Shkreli have all made the list of honorees, and they all have faced lengthy prison sentences.

This interesting video breaks it all down and why Forbes has a fraud problem.

This 81 Year Old Scam Victim Became A Prolific Money Mule For Nigerian Fraudsters

81-year-old Bobby Crosby was arrested last week, accused of funneling over $630,000 in scam proceeds to a fraud ring based in Nigeria.

Starting in 2020, Crosby would receive money from scam victims into his bank account and transfer most of the money out to a woman that he met on Facebook Messenger.

The sad part of it all was that Crosby started out as a victim of a brutal investment scam himself, and police believed he had sent $285,000 to scammers prior to becoming a money mule.

After his wife passed away, Crosby met a woman on Facebook Messenger who claimed she had received an inheritance and wanted to move in with him. Over the course of 2 years he funneled money from scam victims to her.

Click this link to read or the image below to read the story

Marilyn “Sharkey” Fontana My First Fraud Fighting Compadre

Do you have a fraud compadre? You know, that person you ring, text, or turn to when you have found a hot fraud trend or perpetrator and you just have to share it with someone?

Sherlock Holmes had John Watson. Starsky had Hutch. Tango had Cash.

And back in 1995, I had Marilyn Fontana. At the time, I was known as “Captain Detecto” 🦸 and she was known as “Sharky” 🦈. Those were our fraud-fighting personas, anyway.

We were both fraud investigators working credit card fraud claims back at Providian and boy we had a great time together.

The reason I got along so well with her was that she was suspicious of absolutely everything and everyone. I knew I could always count on her to get me riled up to stop fraud in progress.

One time I was on the phone with a suspect and they started to yell at me. Marilyn (like a sister) ran over to my desk, snatched the phone from my hand, and started yelling back. She had my back. Besides we could talk about fraud for hours and that was a common bond.

Everyone needs a fraud-fighting compadre in this world. Someone that inspires them or is just there for you when you need it.

Marilyn was that person for me. Who is your fraud compadre?

Thanks for catching up with me in the busy world of fraud and scams.

I am looking to feature interesting fraud fighters each week so if you know anyone flying under the radar and needing recognition, please let me know.

Have a great week!

FrankonFraud