Merry Christmas Fraud Fighters, 🎅 

This is it: we hit the end of 2024, and it’s been a fantastic year.

Over 50 newsletters, 70,000 words, and hundreds of thousands of clicks on stories and blogs about fraud later, it feels great knowing that I can help inform people about what’s happening in the world of fraud.

My most clicked story of the year? - This one. The story of how the glitch contagion was spreading.

Let’s check out the top stories this final week of the year!

This Week’s Fraud Highlights

• Sea Monkeys - A man-made thousands selling fish that never really existed. Odds are you bought some yourself.

• USAA Trouble - USAA Bank was slapped with a regulatory crackdown after the OCC said they failed to have a proper fraud monitoring system and SAR reporting.

• BofA Trouble - BofA was also hit with a regulatory crackdown by the OCC. They say the bank failed to maintain adequate systems for monitoring and reporting suspicious activity and had a breakdown in its transaction monitoring systems.

• Pirate Site Shutdown - A massive Vietnamese-based live-streaming sports piracy site that boasted 821 million annual views was shut down and forced to relinquish control of over 138 domains.

• Holiday Heist - A holiday heist worthy of the Grinch diverted $1M in toys on three different trucks — in a new scam that threatens US businesses.

• AI Christmas Scams - The New York Times covers how scammers use AI this Christmas to steal people’s money.

• “The Magician” - A New York Tax Preparer became known as the magician for getting his clients big tax refunds. He pled guilty last week and now has to pay a whopping $145 million in restitution.

• Text Hijacking - An alarming rise in text hijacking, where scammers insert themselves into conversations with your bank, friends, family, or other trusted sources, is happening worldwide.

• Reign of Terror - A key leader in one of the most destructive cybercrime entities, Rostislav Panev, has been arrested in Israel. The Justice Department calls this a pivotal moment in dismantling their reign on terror.

• Massive Haul - North Korean hackers have reportedly stolen a massive $1.3 billion in crypto in 2024. State-sponsored hacking in North Korea is big business!

• Rapper Hacked DEA - Minnesota Rapper, Lil Shine, reportedly hacked into DEA systems to help himself to illegal Codeine prescriptions.

• Let Them Free - Biden pardoned over 1,500 criminals, including many convicted fraudsters which has fraud fighters piping mad.

Visa and Mastercard Both Say Fraud Attempts Have Skyrocketed This Christmas

Visa says fraud attempts are up over 200% this holiday season, partly due to AI adoption by fraudsters.

But here is the kicker: Visa says it has blocked over 85% more fraud than last year because of the $11 billion it invested in new fraud tools.

The New York Times also says Mastercard reported significant increases, blocking 9 times the fraud on Black Friday this year than last.

Earlier this month, TransUnion reported that Black Friday fraud significantly decreased compared to last year. Maybe now we know why.

Click to Read

CFPB Blistering Zelle Lawsuit, But Cash App Is 6 Times Worse. What Gives?

The CFPB launched a 92-page blistering lawsuit against Early Warning and the nation’s largest banks for launching Zelle, which they claimed has caused consumers over $870 million in damages.

Early Warning and banking groups quickly fired back, saying the lawsuit had no legal basis in law.

One problem with the CFPB’s lawsuit is that it omitted CashApp, Venmo, and PayPal, all of which have higher fraud rates than Zelle. Cash App’s fraud rates are six times higher!

The lawsuit revealed shocking facts, such as that fraudsters could register up to 20 tokens (phone numbers/emails) per account, enabling mass fraud.

But the problem isn’t just about Zelle in the US; it's scams running wild, and no amount of suing Zelle or forcing reimbursements will change that.

Read Ken Pallas Take On It 

Hundreds Of Pages Of New Court Documents Reveal How Refund Fraudsters Operated

Simple Refunds, a prolific professional refunder group, was only in business for a year but pulled over $3 million on fraudulent refunds against some of the biggest merchants in the business.

Newly released court documents that investigators provided now reveals the extent of their operations and how they worked.

Click to Download

Straw Borrower Scheme - 8,000 Fake Accounts and 800 Million In Stolen Reward Points

Two men orchestrated an elaborate credit card straw borrower fraud that turned credit card rewards points into millions of dollars, leaving Amex holding an $8.2 million bill.

According to the indictment, Lev opened close to 8,000 fraudulent credit card accounts using the identities of over 1,500 unwitting individuals, known as "Straw Cardholders." These accounts were used to accumulate more than 800 million reward points, which were then converted to airline miles and sold for profit.

Click to Read 

Deepfake Extortion Fraud - Imagine Watching This CNN News Clip Of Yourself 😨 

From David Maimon of Sentilink this week - “Fraudsters are now creating fake CNN news clips featuring their victims as the subject of fabricated reports to use for blackmail. According to one fraudster, victims are more likely to comply with payment demands after viewing these realistic clips that depict them negatively.”

Click To Watch

Chilling AI Deepfake Video Shows How Good Romance Scammers Are Getting

A video posted on Telegram shows how a Yahoo Boy took a video from social media, created an AI Clone (including the voice of the celebrity), and recorded a video to send to the victim.

These deepfakes are getting incredibly good and believable now.

Scam Bosses Forced Him To Become Bank Mule; Then They Assaulted His Girlfriend

A particularly brutal story out of Thailand where a victim was tricked into taking a job in a scam casino. When he got there, they forced him to open a mule bank account and perform face scans when victims transferred money in.

When his girlfriend tried to find him, they lured her in and raped her.

Click to Read 

PayPal Could Be In Very Big Trouble. Whistleblower Says Honey App Is A Scam

You probably have the “Honey” extension on your browser to save money. Paypal purchased the app for $4 billion, and tens of millions use it to save money.

However, after years of investigation, a whistleblower says PayPal is involved in a major scam. He accuses PayPal of stealing from influencers, consumers, and small businesses by manipulating its discount processing. In fact, Honey will hide discounts from users if businesses pay them off.

Reddit users quickly point out that Markiplier was suspicious of Honey years ago in this video. This could spell awful news for PayPal.

This is well worth watching, as it is a developing story on a major scam.

Click To Watch 

Scammer Gets Outsmarted By Grandma. This Recording Had Me Rolling 😆 

It’s nice when scammers get what is coming to them. This elderly Grandma managed to turn the tables on the scammers on the most hilarious way.

Click to Watch 

That’s a wrap for another week of FrankonFraud and the year's last edition. It’s been a pretty interesting year if I must say so myself.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season full of cheer and love!

FrankonFraud