• FrankonFraud
  • Posts
  • Major Advancements In The War On Check Fraud

Major Advancements In The War On Check Fraud

Author

Frank McKenna
May 16, 2023

Hello from FrankonFraud,

Last week, I had an amazing week at the Fraud Fight Club in New York.

It seemed every fraud fighter I know was at the event.

Kudos to PJ Rohall and Ronald Praetsch for pulling off the fraud conference of the year! If you couldn’t attend this year, hope you can make it next year.

There was some major fraud news this week as well:

Between Mitek and the postal services efforts to combat mail theft, we might be making some major progress on the war on check fraud.

Let’s get to the top stories of the week

Taking The War On Check Fraud To The Front Lines Of The Dark Web

Mitek announced a partnership with DarkTower that I think could help a lot of banks stop millions in check fraud.

Mitek and DarkTower will scan the Dark Web and other undisclosed locations to find stolen checks and alert banks to the checks so that the banks can stop the fraud before the checks are cashed.

When a potentially compromised account is flagged, Mitek sends automated alerts to financial institutions so they can conduct victim searches using the company’s identity-verification platform, which launched in 2022

In a small test of only 200 images collected from the Dark Web, Mitek was able to identify more than $10 million in check fraud. This technology could be a game changer.

Taking The War On Check Fraud To The Dark Web

I often refer to check fraud as the Rodney Dangerfield of fraud types because it gets "No Respect" and even less investment. It's an arcane fraud that first emerged over 500 years ago but has recently taken center stage again thanks to rampant mail theft of checks, a bustling secondary market fo

Postal Service Is Throwing A Wrench In Check Fraudsters Business Model

Say goodbye to those Arrow Keys that have become a fraudsters dream. A new set of Postal Service initiatives could very well disrupt the plans of millions of check fraudsters this year.

Armed robbery against mail carriers is up over 300% in the last 24 months, check fraud has doubled and fraudsters have over-run Telegram posting hundreds of thousands of checks stolen from the mail.

And now the Postal Service is promising to do something about it.

This includes

  1. Installing 12,000 High Security Blue Collection Boxes Nationwide.

  2. Installing 49,000 Electronic Locks to Replace Antiquated Arrow Locks

  3. Creating more Robust Change of Address Authentication online

The postal service is already rolling out these enhanced security features and will begin to roll them out to the major metropolitan areas where most of the crime takes place soon.

USPS, Postal Inspection Service Roll Out Expanded Crime Prevention Measures To Crack Down on Mail Theft,

WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service (Postal Service) and United States Postal Inspection Service (Postal Inspection Service) today announced expanded actions to protect Postal employees and the security of the nation’s mail and packages as threats and attacks on letter carriers and mail fraud incidents have escalated concurrently with a national rise in crime.

Should The US Implement Positive Pay Verification Service For Checks?

I moderated a check fraud panel last week with Karen Boyer and she presented a novel idea to help crack down on check fraud - have customers validate their large checks through a text message.

The idea is actually something that India implemented in 2021 when their check fraud soared.

They implemented a system called Positive Pay.

There process was a little different though and more time consuming on the customers part because the onus was on the customer to notify the bank before they wrote the check, not during the check processing

India Implements Validation Rule To Stop Check Fraud

The Reserve Bank of India is so concerned with rising incidents of check fraud that they are forcing banks to implement arcane rules to stop it. As per the new rule, customers who are looking to write checks will have to inform their respective banks about the check details via net/mobile banking

You’re Not Dead, Bizarre Credit Karma Glitch

Imagine waking up to find out your dead and your credit score has gone to zero.

What appears to be a Credit Karma glitch of some sort is going viral on Social Media. Thousands of people are reporting that their profiles are reporting them as “deceased” on Credit Karma and that all of their accounts have been closed.

The problem is, they are all very much alive.

You’re Not Dead – Bizarre Credit Karma Glitch

Imagine waking up one day to find out you are dead. What appears to be a Credit Karma glitch of some sort is going viral on Social Media. Thousands of people are reporting that their profiles are reporting them as "deceased" on Credit Karma and that all of their accounts have been closed. The

“Greatness Boss” Lets CyberCriminals Create Convincing Phishing Pages

There are OTP Bots, DDOS Attacks, Professional Refunders and a host of fraud and scam services that help newbies commit fraud. And a new Phishing as a Service (PAAS) is helping scammers create highly believable decoy sites of corporations.

Greatness is especially designed to target business users through phishing pages designed to mimic Microsoft 365 login interfaces. I

ts affiliates are provided with a tool that generates extremely realistic decoy pages and corresponding links.

A new phishing-as-a-service tool has already been seen in the wild.

Greatness incorporates features seen in some of the most advanced PaaS offerings, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) bypass, IP filtering, and integration with Telegram bots.

Know Someone That Wants A Job In Fraud? Have Them Check Out That Fraud Job.

I found a pretty killer job board for fraud, trust, safety, and risk jobs. With so many big companies cutting back, I know a lot of people might be out there looking.

Check out the board; there are literally hundreds of open positions. It might not be every fraud job out there, but it is a great place to start.

Special thanks to fraud fighter Brian Davis, for pointing this out to the Linkedin network.

That Fraud Job Has Lots Of Fraud Job Opportunities

That Fraud Jobs is where top talents go to easily access active fraud, trust, payments, and risk job opportunities from vetted tech companies. Check it out!

Report - Synthetic Refund Fraud Rolls Two Dirty Deeds Into One Fraud

A new dangerous and extremely well layered fraud is emerging - Synthetic Refund Fraud and its so well hidden merchants and banks may never be alerted to it.

According to Brett Johnson who uncovered the scheme, Synthetic Refund Fraud combines professional refunding fraud against merchants with synthetic identity fraud against banks.

Fraudsters have discovered that they can create endless synthetic identities, open up bank accounts, and then use those bank accounts to make purchases at merchants which they later claim that they did not receive.

The whole scheme is ingenious because it allows the fraudsters to gain complete anonymity at both the merchant and the bank while netting thousands of dollars in free merchandise

Synthetic Refund Fraud Rolls Two Frauds Into One

Brett Johnson has been tracking Professional Refund Fraud for close to 8 years and he is reporting a new dangerous variant that has emerged - Synthetic Refund Fraud.

17 Australian Banks Join Fraud Reporting Exchange To Halt Payments To Scammers

Australian banks have joined forces to create a new Fraud Reporting Exchange (FRX) digital platform to help stop payments going to scammers.

The new platform will give banks the ability to halt multiple fraudulent transactions taking place as part of the same scam, share intelligence to assist with loss-prevention efforts and offer a streamlined return of funds where possible.

Banks in Australia have been under fire recently. A recent report showed that the major banks were reimbursing just 2-5% of scams losses last year.

Big banks join forces in new ‘arsenal’ against scammers

They’re incessant, they’re everywhere and now the big banks are fighting back against scammers stealing Aussies’ hard-earned cash.

That’s all I have for you this week.

I hope you have a great week fighting the bad guys.