Howdy FraudFighters,

It’s been an interesting week in fraud. A new phenomenon is arising from the Chase Infinite Money Glitch: copycat glitches are going viral on social media and Telegram and may not end anytime soon. Read my coverage below.

Let’s check out the top stories this week!

• ChatGPT Tricked - Find out how a hacker tricked ChatGPT into giving instructions on making a homemade bomb. AI can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

• Recovery Takedown - The FBI announced the takedown of three crypto recovery sites - MyChargeback, Payback LTD, and Claim Justice.

• Korean Deepfake Panic - A wave of illicit deepfakes in Korea has prompted the government to remove all publically available photos of military personnel from their websites for fear of the pictures being used for extortion and scams.

• Deepfake TellTales - Do you know how to spot a deepfake image or video? An expert in the matter tells you how to spot a deepfake when you are suspicious you are being scammed.

• Hustle Academies—Hustle and fraud academies are thriving in Nigeria and Ghana. They train young juniors in sextortion, scamming, and even using supernatural “juju magic” to captivate their victims.

• Mastercard Big Bet - Mastercard spends $2.65 billion to acquire cybersecurity giant Recorded Future. At the same time, Visa is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Featurespace.

• Revolut Scam Wave - Bloomberg reports that Financial authorities in the UK are reporting that Revolut has leapfrogged all other banks regarding scam complaints.

• Dent in GDP—According to Nasdaq, fraud is holding back the US economy, accounting for an over half-percent reduction in our GDP. In 2023, our economy would have grown by 3.1% instead of 2.5%, they say.

Glitch Plague Spreads From Chase To Fidelity And Others

Check Fraud has a new name - “The Glitch”. It's a daily social media plague as fraudsters and scammers probe banks' policies on fraudulent check deposits and convince gullible people to do extraordinarily criminal things when they find an exploit to attack.

Fresh from the recent Chase Glitch, fraudsters appear to have latched on to a new target - Fidelity, where mobile deposit limits can be as high as $100,000. Unlike Chase, however, this viral trend permeated Telegram and Facebook, not TikTok. Also, unlike Chase, this scheme targeted mobile deposits, not ATMs.

Click to Read 👇️ 

“Maybe It’s A Computer Glitch” - 35 Pollinators Got Added To Her Chase Card

While the Chase Glitch generated national attention last month, another glitch ruined Jodi Haye’s vacation.

While on a cruise, Jodi Hayes got a concerning email that 35 credit cards were coming to her home. When she arrived home, there they were in her mailbox. Credit cards with random names like Marsha Rose, Chantelle Brown, Towana Rogers, and Shawn Jones cluttered her mailbox.

I had no idea you could actually add 35 authorized users to your Chase Credit Card? 🤔 

It turns out that not only was she a victim of identity theft, but the 35 people were added as “authorized users” to her credit card account, allowing them to piggyback on her credit score - presumably to pollinate synthetic identities. The cards were automatically sent, which tipped Hayes off.

Click to Read or Watch Below 👇️ 

The $5.4 Million Inside Job: How Two Credit Union Employees Orchestrated a Decade-Long Fraud

They knew all the employees’ passwords, and sometimes, they would allegedly login and complete transactions using others’ profiles.

Leah Lehman and Teresa Paulo, executives at Pine Valley Credit Union, devised an elaborate scheme that blended fictitious loans, identity theft, and meticulous cover-ups to bilk Southern Pine Credit Union out of millions. It’s a case of insider fraud that has recently plagued credit unions.

Click to Read 👇️ 

A Whopper of A PPP Fraud - 1,300 Loans for Over $178 Million

PPP fraud may be old news, but I was stunned to see this massive $178 million PPP fraud carried out by Eric Karnezia - you can see his website here. He was released from Prison years ago, wrote a book, and started a podcast touting himself as a “self-made business success” who knew how to take “calculated risks”. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Telegram Is Home To Professional Refunders Costing Retailers Billions

After eight years, professional refunding fraud has gained more mainstream media attention. This week, it was the Wall Street Journal that covered the growing problem of professional refunding fraud and how it is being

Click to Read 👇️ 

Permission To Lie - They Stole Trips To Disneyworld From Homeless Kids

In a shocking abuse of power, six NYC Department of Education employees allegedly turned trips meant for homeless students into family vacations.

The employees who were in charge of administering trips for a homeless kid program to Disneyworld are said to have forged permission slips in the names of those homeless kids and taken their kids and families on vacations to the Magic Kingdom instead.

When investigators caught wind of it, the ringleader instructed others to “lie about it”

Click To Read 👇️ 

How Telegram Became A Global Sewer Of Criminal Activity

The New York Times completes a 4-month investigation into the toxic world of Telegram, analyzing over 3.2 million messages and concluding that it is a sewer of criminal activity.

From drugs, to fraud, to scams, to rampant activity by pedophiles, the shocking levels of criminal activity are not controlled.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Scary Pimp Scam Has Redditor Terrified

He got a bit drunk and messaged some girls, he said. What happened next terrified him. A video message popped up on his phone with some sinister-looking guys with guns demanding money

Watch the video 👇️ 

Did You See What I Did There? Watch This.

This looks like a typical call center agent, but it was a remarkably effective ad ahead of its time. Barclays released it seven years ago, and it is going viral again because it is that good.

The Chase Glitch Aftermath - Panicked TikToker’s Are Lawyering Up

Panicked TikTokers who engaged in check fraud are lawyering up. Many say they have no idea that they committed fraud, but an article last week in the Wall Street Journal claiming that Chase is referring thousands of people to law enforcement has them running scared.

If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.

Click to Reads 👇️ 

That’s a wrap for another weekly edition of FrankonFraud. Hope you have an amazing week ahead fighting fraud.

FrankonFraud