Welcome, FraudFightings and Scam Stoppers,

I had the impression that fraud is just going up and up every year. But the annual fraud reports that have been released over the last month indicate that fraud is experiencing a post-pandemic drop-off in 2022.

• Consumer Sentinel indicates fraud reports dropped by 17%.

• Javelin’s Report also indicates a 17% drop in ID Theft

• FBI’s IC3 Report reported a 6% drop in fraud complaints

One might think fraud is down, but the fact is, it is just morphing. A case in point? The FBI report shows that while fraud complaints dropped by 6%, the losses skyrocketed by over 30% to over $10.3 Billion.

There were fewer victims, but they were hit with far worse scams!

Sometimes the reports don’t tell the full story, which is why you have to look beyond the headlines to get the real scoop.

In addition to that, some types of fraud are way, way up. Keep reading on, and you’ll see some not-so-surprising news on Check Fraud.

So, let’s check out some of my favorite weekly stories and articles.

Identity Theft And Scams Is Trending Down, According To Javelin

Javelin’s highly anticipated ID Theft report dropped last week. The report called “The Butterfly Effect” highlights consumer advocate groups' impact on reducing the losses victims experience.

According to Javelin, traditional identity fraud losses amounted to $20 billion last year, a decrease of nearly 15% from the previous study period. But while the dollar losses fell, the number of victims remained almost identical.

And scams are trending down too. Javelin indicated that scam losses fell by 5 billion last year - about 17% less than in 2021. They credit banks and advocate groups for making headway in educating consumers about scams and how to avoid them.

Click on this link or the image below to request their report.

Veteran Fraud Fighter Launches Silver Bullet “Fraudinator”

On April 1, Karisse Hendrick launched a brand new company called Silver Bullet and a new product called Fraudinator.

The extraordinary fraud tech delivers zero false positives while maintaining a fraud detection rate of 125% or more. The extra 25% detection comes from specialized Ai boosters that help companies turbo past 100% detection of fraud – an industry first.

Only a fool would miss out on this absolutely incredible advancement! 1️⃣🤪🤣

Click on this link or the image below to read the article

Holy Fake Priests Swindle Batman! These 3 Guys Preyed On Victims For $28 Million in Fraud.

Three individuals masquerading as men of the cloth and financial consultants operated a Ponzi scheme, amassing nearly $28 million until substantial overdrafts in their bank accounts exposed their deception.

They claimed to be holy men and pastors that were only interested in “helping people,” but in reality they were only interested in their greedy scheme.

Click on this link or the image below to read the article.

Cool Sentinel Report Tool Lets Fraud Geeks Dig Into Fraud Data

With FTC’s Fraud Sentinel Report, you can access a wealth of information online with this great interactive tableau tool. If you love fraud data like me 🤓, you’ll love this interactive tool which has the latest FTC fraud data right at your fingertips

According to the FTC reports, you’ll note once again that fraud is trending down.

Click on this link or the image below to get access to the data.

This Fraud Is Way Up. Check Deposit Fraud Up Close to 400% in 2022

Well, one fraud is not going down: Check Fraud. According to Auriemma, recent benchmark data from Q4 2022 shows that check deposit fraud is way up.

The industry average for deposit check fraud was a whopping 10.5 basis points in Q4 of 2022, up 385% from Q4 of 2021 when it was measured at 2.17 basis points.

The check Deposit fraud rate is measured as total check deposit losses divided by total check deposit transaction dollars

According to Auriemma, Check fraud was the number 1 topic at a recent Bank fraud roundtable. Due to the large number of deposits coming in via mobile deposit resulting in no visual inspection of the items by a teller, banks need to implement more sophisticated image analytic capabilities.

This new data would indicate that Check Deposit fraud has now surpassed Credit card fraud and even Zelle fraud (both of which run at less than 7 basis points for banks). But unlike those frauds, there isn’t a whole lot of tech available for banks which means high rates of check fraud could be here to stay.

There is a serious lack of industry data on check fraud, so I appreciate the insight into the growth in Check Deposit fraud that Auriemma has provided here.

If you’re not attending Auriemma’s roundtables to discuss check fraud with your peers, I highly recommend you do.

SCAR’s - World Order In Scams Has Changed, And Asia Now Dominates

A fascinating Linkedin post by Tim McGuinness of SCARS opened my eyes to just how quickly scams are shifting globally.

According to McGuinness, Asia has become dominant in the last 5 years. In part, it was the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was mostly the expansion of India and the movement of Chinese domestic criminal organizations that moved into Southeast Asia.

This might help explain why investment scams like Pig Butchering and human trafficking, which initially emerged from Cambodia, are devastating so many victims across the world.

What Is Tech-Infused Social Engineering? Scam Ranger Highlights The Trend.

I was a guest on Ayelet Biger-Levin’s Scam Ranger Podcast to discuss the use of technology in combination with social engineering tactics to execute online scams, including bots, voice imitation, and deep fakes.

This is a growing problem, and I believe where scams are headed - particularly as accessible Ai begins to proliferate.

I recommend subscribing to Ayelet’s podcast because she is really tackling some of the more advanced elements of scamming and where it is headed!

Click on this link or image below to hear the podcast

Ketchup Fraud Is A Real Deal. Heinz Has A Solution To Stop It

Did you know what ketchup fraud is? It happens when restaurants run out of ketchup and fill the bottle with cheap knock-offs.

To solve the problem, Heinz is affixing a label with the correct color of the ketchup so customers could compare the label to the color of the ketchup in the bottle. If the color is different, customers can report fraudulent ketchup to the police.

The whole thing is actually a clever advertising campaign by Canada’s Rethink Agency. It brings a little excitement to one of the oldest brands in the world.

Click on this link or image below to read the article

Thank you for keeping up with my weekly newsletter. If you have any ideas or tips on trends in fraud and scams, drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

Special thanks to Troy Huth from Auriemma for the industry benchmark stats.

Have an amazing fraud and scam-stopping week.

FrankonFraud