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Neural Networks Can Churn Out 20,000 Fake ID's A Day 🪪

Welcome to FrankonFraud 

This week’s top fraud snippets ✂️ 

Let’s dig into the top stories a little more.

Everyone Looked Real - 6-Person DeepFake Zoom Call Stuns Victim

It’s a first of its kind but a harbinger of the future of scams. A mind-warping 6 person deepfake conference call where only one of the people was real - the victim.

An employee of a large company was invited to a conference call with the CFO and about six other employees. When he got on the Zoom call, he recognized all of his co-workers and the CFO, who was based in London. The CFO provided detailed instructions on some wire transfers he needed.

Over the course of the week, the employee then followed the instructions and made 15 transfers totaling $25.6 million to five Hong Kong bank accounts. When interviewed by police, the victim claimed, “Everyone Looked Real” 😲

But here is an honest question 👉️ why does any company have such loose controls that a single person can wire out $26 million without real signoff? Something seems a little fishy here 🐟️…

Inside The Site That Churns Out Neural Network-Generated Fake ID Cards

404 Media reports that an underground website called OnlyFake claims to use “neural networks” to generate realistic-looking photos of fake IDs for just $15, radically disrupting the marketplace for fake identities and cybersecurity.

“The era of rendering documents using Photoshop is coming to an end,” an announcement posted to OnlyFake’s Telegram account reads. As well as “neural networks,” the service claims to use “generators” which create up to 20,000 documents daily. The service’s owner, who goes by the moniker John Wick, told 404 Media that hundreds of documents can be generated at once using data from an Excel table.

Joseph Cox from 404 Media generated a fake ID with an online service in minutes, then used that ID to bypass the identity verification check on a cryptocurrency exchange successfully.

This new technology could fundamentally change the way identities are created for the worse!

Wolf In Hen House? Fraud Prevention Co-Founders Have Questionable Past

They are a company that helps merchant retailers defend against FTID fraud, where fake tracking numbers are used to perpetrate refund fraud and other schemes.

However, according to Brett Johnson, the company’s founders “were and perhaps still are” actively engaged in the type of Fraud their service protects merchants against.

The founders tout their ability to stop fraud because they “proactively engage” with professional refunding groups on Telegram. Johnson speculates that this is because they are still actively involved with refunding fraud themselves.

What do you think? Would you pay for help in stopping fraud from insiders who are maybe a little too close to the criminals? Seems way too risky of a proposition for me.

“Don’t Wear That T-Shirt”. Merchants Fend Off Wave Of Insider Recruiting

Insider fraud risks are increasing, particularly among retailers, after Amazon announced a major lawsuit against insiders who were in cahoots with professional refunders late last year.

Merchants are apparently trying to fend off attempts to recruit their employees outside of work.

According to Karisse Hendrick, one large merchant reportedly enforces a policy where employees cannot wear company shirts on the subway or other public transportation. The reason? Employees who wear the shirts are being approached by fraudsters who want to recruit them to help facilitate refunding fraud and other internal fraud schemes.

X Fired 80% Of Its Trust And Safety Staff. Now They Are Flooded With Card Fraud

Since 2022, Elon Musk has fired over 1,213 Trust and Safety staff, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

The problem is that the platform is getting flooded with ad spam. And that ad spam has also coincided with a surge in credit card chargebacks. That means that at least some of the spam ads are paid for with stolen cards.

The ad spam flooding has largely taken the form of ads promoting dubious pornography sites, including some that are known malware or fake luxury goods—as users and other media reports have noticed.

Want To Steal Every Piece of Mail in The City? Create Your Own Key

Famed cybersecurity researcher David Maimon has discovered fraudsters are resorting to 3D Printing to create Arrow Keys that can be used to open up any mailbox in a zip code, city, or apartment unit.

He shared a post that illustrates how they are preparing the keys for printing and shows that fraudsters are not afraid of using modern tech for their old-fashioned crimes.

American Banker’s 6-Point Plan To Take A Bite Out Of Check Fraud

More news on check fraud. The Senate committee met last week to grill experts on Scams and Fraud in the Banking System, and it’s worth a listen.

The ABA outlined big new measures that they think will relieve customers who have been impacted. From a new fraud claim directory with 1,200 bankers, to reducing the need for affidavits, its all designed to make the claims process easier and faster for consumers

No indications of any technology enhancements yet, but I know banks are working on some big things this year.

Apple Vision Pro DeepFake Live Gives You Glimpse Into Distopyain Future

Just launched last week, the Apple VisionPro Deepfake Live app freaks people out with its instant realism, but also for fear of what this could all become.

Witness the live demonstrations of Apple Vision Pro’s deepfake capabilities in this video that was released this week. 👇️ 

That’s all I have for you this week, fraud fighters.

If you have any fraud tips or insights, please contact me here.

Have a great week, friends 👋