Howdy Fraud Avengers, 👋 

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Now it’s back to the grind of stopping fraud like heroes.

Let’s check out the top stories this week!

• Frozen Chicken Funds - A girl sold her chickens for $2,000, deposited the check at Chase Bank, and was shocked when they froze her account and said she would not get her money back initially. She did get her money back, though.

• Massive Breakthrough - "This is the largest breakthrough in Windows/Office piracy ever," a hacking group claims. The exploit reportedly enables permanent activation of nearly all modern versions of Windows and Office.

• Viral Dubai Chocolate Scam—It was bound to happen at some point. This chocolate has gone so viral that people are getting scammed now.

• Deepfake Detector—A promising new deepfake detector emerged last week. It can reportedly identify alterations in as little as a single pixel on an image. Maybe there is hope?

• Stolen Phone Career Destroyer - The Transport Secretary of the UK was forced to resign when it was discovered she fraudulently reported her work cell phone stolen 11 years ago.

• Doppelganger Problem - Bluesky, the new viral alternative to Twitter, has a doppelganger problem, according to this expert.

• Deepfake Drama - Outraged parents are suing a school after a ninth grader created deepfake nude images of 50 female students. The school failed to disclose it and parents are enraged.

• AI for Refunding Fraud - LaCoste is using a clever new AI solution to detect people who return counterfeit merchandise for refunds

• Revolut Lawsuit—Revolut is facing a $700,000 lawsuit from a company that says its scam controls are lacking. The case is one of thousands of complaints against the company as they come under increasing fire for scam reimbursement.

• Scammed Series—The Washington Post released a seven-part series called “Scammed” that dives into the intricacies of imposter scams. Unfortunately, for most, it's behind a paywall.

Founder Forced To Become Fraud Fighter After Stripe Payment Attack

Last week, Richie McIlroy launched his new " Cap " product on Product Hunt (a website devoted to helping founders get their products to market).

He nervously waited to see if anyone would download and pay for it.

While launching, he glanced at his Stripe dashboard. At first, he thought, "Wow, that's a lot of new subscriptions!". Transactions were pouring in—hundreds within minutes. But his excitement quickly turned to concern. He was under a full-blown payment attack, which risked destroying his company.

Read how he handled the situation and went from founder to fraud fighter.

Click to Read 👇️ 

A Digital Arrest Scam Wave Could Hit US Next Year

Pig Butchering Bosses are looking for new ways to scam victims, and they seem to be locked into going to new lengths -shifting from romancing their victims to terrorizing them.

Banks in the US should be on alert for a potential wave of digital arrest scams - they are increasing in India and China and looting people’s lifesaving.

I am predicting the next wave of scams could be one of the most devastating ones yet - the Digital Arrest.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Go Fund Me? Tycoon’s Race Against Time To Raise $9 Billion To Save Her Own Life

One way to avoid the death penalty is to pay $9 billion to the Vietnamese Government before the clock runs out, and that is precisely what Vietnamese Tycoon Fraudster Truong My Lan is trying to do right now.

Will she make it?

Click to Read 👇️ 

They’re Baaack. Enron Relaunches And Appear More Fraudy Than Ever

Decades after its notorious collapse, Enron has relaunched, and it’s confusing the hell out of everyone, including me.

Their launched website announces, “Let’s Talk” and displays inspirational videos about how the company will “revolutionize energy” and change the world. “We’re here to lead by example,” the narrator says as a flag emblazoned with the Enron logo appears on the screen.

It’s unclear if this is a scam in the making or something very clever by one of the most fraudulent companies of all time.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Don’t Mess With Allison Dixon 🥷 

When a hacker named “Waifu” threatened a woman on Telegram, it was the beginning of his downfall. Turns out he messed with the wrong fraud fighter.

Like many, Waifu would brag about his criminal exploits openly on Telegram, but when he threatened Allison Dixon, the founder of cybersecurity firm Unit221B, he didn’t know what he had coming.

She and her research team picked apart his online profile and identified his real identity - Connor Riley Moucka and had him arrested. Moucka is allegedly the mastermind behind the Snowflake hack — one of history's most significant data breaches.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Retailers Are Charging For Returns To Combat Refund Fraud Losses

We all eventually pay the price for fraud, which is precisely what is happening now.

Retail Chains like Saks, Abercrombie, and Zara are now charging “return fees”, that they say are because refund abuse and fraud are eating into their profits.

Many consumers are pissed and returning to in-store shopping to avoid the fees.

Click to Read 👇️ 

The Extremely Shady Ghost Family Fraud Scheme

A couple from Colorado developed a “Ghost Family” fraud scheme to steal benefits meant for school children in Arizona. Rather than creating individual scholarship applications, they constructed entire fictional family units with carefully chosen names and then submitted applications for many kids simultaneously. They went to great lengths to make each person look real by providing an array of fake government documents, utility bills, and more to get the money.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Crazy Deepfake AI Call Shows How Romance Scammers Use Interactive Chatbots 🤯 

Yahoo Boi, a Nigerian Yahoo Boy Influencer, posted a crazy video showing how romance scammers use artificial intelligence chatbots to scam their victims.

Watch the video below, which shows how realistic these calls are. Anyone, and I mean anyone, could get fooled by this!

Click to See 👇️ 

SEC Says Crypto Boss That Ate $6.2 Million Banana Involved In Fraud

Did you see this? Hong Kong Crypto Boss Justin Sun bought an expensive piece of art, a Banana taped to a wall with duct tape, and then ate it. He paid $6.2 million for that banana.

With crypto booming again, we are watching another return to excess and fraud and this $6.2 million banana stunt is a perfect example.

Interestingly, Justin Sun is currently under investigation by the SEC for various manipulation schemes with crypto. He called charges meritless.

Click to Read 👇️ 

Commonwealth Bank Chops Scam Losses by 50% With Gen AI

CBA is touting extraordinary success using Gen AI combined with CallerCheck, NameCheck, and CustomerCheck technology.

They say that they are instantly analyzing 20 million payments a day to generate 35,000 proactive customer alerts when they suspect fraud or scams.

Click to Read 👇️ 

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

FrankonFraud