Greetings Fraud Fighters,

I am absolutely appalled at the depths fraudsters and scammers will go and this last week are some extremely disturbing examples of just that.

• Cyber Team is stopping donation scammers

• Terrorists pilfer victims credits cards

• Massive unemployment fraud erupts in Hawaii

• Nigerian scammers perfecting video deepfakes

• Banker is fed up with Imposter scams

• Up To 70 Law Enforcement face indictment

• A Bonnie and Clyde Synthetic Duo

• USPS Tapped To Fight Identity Theft

• A Trove of 70,000 Suspicious Phone Numbers

• Going inside Amazon Fake Review Complex

• A Two Sandwich Fraud Fiasco Folly

Let’s get to the top stories of the week!

Scammers Pounce On Israeli Fund Raisers

Gary Warner of Dark Tower is a busy man finding scoundrels on the internet.

And when he is not doing that he is dedicating his time to Intelligence For Good, a group that has taken in upon themselves to identify scammers trying to take advantage of the situation in Israel.

And the groups got some familiar faces including Ronnie Tokazowski.👇

And they are finding a lot. A flood of fraudulent donation site and cryptocurrency scams are sprouting up all over the place, taking advantage of the turmoil in Israel.

According to Warner, one such site, “ToHelpIsrael.com, claims to be organized by Elon Musk, Vitalik Buterin, CPZ (the CEO of Binance) and other crypto luminaries.

It calls itself "The Official Fundraiser for Israel" and says that you can get bonuses if you donate. If you give at least $10,000, Elon Musk will tweet a thank you.”

A few short hours after his post, I notice I can no longer reach the site. Maybe they successfully got it taken down!

Thank you to Gary and others at Intelligence For Good for all they are doing to stop these scammers!

Shocking - Terrorist Pilfer Victims Credit Cards

Karisse Hendrick called my attention to a disturbing story that occurred in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

As families in Israel scrambled to find out where their missing loved ones were, some began receiving fraud notifications from credit card companies informing them of excessive purchase activity on their credit cards.

The family of Shani Louk spoke to German reporters and advised them that they learned her credit card was used in Gaza after she disappeared.

Later in the day, The Times of Israel reported that credit cards were pilfered from Israelis after they were brutally killed.

Some indicated the fraudulent transactions were for online orders which means that there could be some valuable intelligence for investigators tracking the terrorist.

Fraud Departments for the banks are urging victims families to contact them so they can block or freeze accounts.

This Twitter Account Shows Scammers How To Video DeepFake A Victim

I came across this Twitter account that specializes in tools for Nigerian scammers, including how to deepfake victims on during video calls.

You can click here to see one of his demos on a poor victim or click on this image to see the Twitter posts. ⬇️

It looks like this Nigerian scammer will actually help romance scammers download the software and give them tutorials how to scam their victims.

Click on This Link Or Image Below To Read The Blog

Idiot FEMA Fraudsters Are Overwhelming Hawaii’s Disaster Aid

Fraud is running rampant in Hawaii.

Idiot criminals are targeting Hawaii’s unemployment insurance system while it deals with huge job losses from the wildfires.

Unfortunately as these fraud jerks gum up the system with their fake applications, 75% of the legitimate claims are stalled meaning that innocent Hawaiians are suffering due to this criminal activity

Teller Might Get In Trouble For This Fraud Warning To Customers

Fraud Analyst imposter scams are out of control. One banker, Laksmy Sanchez, has gone viral when she took to Tik Tok to send a warning to everyone and anyone that will listen how bad it has become.

“I don’t even know if I’m allowed to make this video right now,”, she began her clip.

Even though she might get in trouble, she just wants to help people. Let’s help her get the word out!

Click This Link Or Image Below To Watch Her Warning

A Couple That Synthetics Together, Stays Together (Until Their In Jail)

Husband and wife, Montressa and Felicia Cunningham had a synthetic identity scheme that was good enough to fool Wells Fargo, Ally, Mechanics Bank, CarMax and and a handful of credit unions.

And there methods show just how criminals can bend synthetic identities to do all sorts of financial fraud.

The duo created a scheme where they would create fake identities, finance cars with no money down and once they had the cars, they would title wash the vehicles to make it look like the cars were free and clear so they could get title loans.

The couple scored LandRovers, Maseratis, Mercedes and Lexus’s in their clever scheme. Hit the button to read the whole case against them.

Take A Number And Get In Line, We’ll Be With You in 2 Hours and 44 Minutes

You thought the lines at the DMW were bad, wait until you see what the post office is cooking up! And its all because the government doesn’t trust AI and thinks the only way we are going to be able to verify people is in person - physically.

A new bill proposes to make the post office, yes, the post office the place that companies can send customers to when they want to verify their identities. Companies of course would have to pay the USPS a fee for doing that work for them.

The Bill called the Post Office Services for Trustworthy Identity Act of 2023 and it would allow the USPS to issue authenticators such as physical security keys to verified individuals for future interactions and enroll them in digital accounts or systems.

So if you have a loan, or bank account, or any digital service and you are not sure the person is who they say they are, send them to the post office to verify their identity!

Click on This Link Or Image Below To Read More

70,000 Suspicious Phone Numbers, Some Associated With Thousands of Identities

John Chang at Sentilink was investigating patterns associated with Money Mules when he stumbled upon an interesting pool of phone numbers.

70,000 highly suspicious phone numbers where more than 90% of them appeared to have been fraudulently furnished to many other consumers' records.

Many of those numbers were each furnished to hundreds or even thousands of identities.

And the punchline? Those frequently used phone numbers in some cases were 33 to 40 times more likely to be involved with suspicious ACH and money mule activity!

Click On This Link Or Image Below To Read It

“Anywhere from 50 to 70 guys is the rumor spreading around over here”

No one is above the law. Dozens of Broward Sheriff’s deputies face indictment in a growing case out of Florida.

The unprecedented surrender of what insiders expect to be 50 to 70 BSO employees prompted the sheriff to close BSO headquarters building at 2601 W. Broward Boulevard. Parking spaces were roped off; orange traffic cones were set up at the building’s entrance.

There is an estimated 100 BSO employees who have been matched to PPP loans so many more indictments should be forthcoming.

And that is nothing compared to Chicago. This week, a watchdog group estimates that over 1,000 city employees took PPP loans that appear to be fraudulent.

5 Star Phonies - A Look Into The Amazon Fake Review Complex

Zachary Crockett went deep into Amazon’s massive fake-review economy — a journey that included private Facebook bazaars, thousands of fraudulent sellers from Tianjin to Tennessee, and an encounter with a morally righteous bodybuilder who is trying to deadlift a broken system.

Click on This Link Or Image Below To Read More

Dumb Fraud - How A Two Sandwich Lunch Got Him Fired For Fraud

Szabolcs Fekete, an analyst for Citibank, was fired for gross misconduct after he submitted an expense report during a lunch trip to Amsterdam.

The expense report raised eyebrows when he claimed that he ate two sandwiches, two pasta dishes and had 2 coffee’s on his own.

After he was fired, he sued Citibank for wrongful termination but he lost the case after it was learned that he took his partner along for the trip and he actually didn’t eat all that food himself.

Santos Reacts In Realtime As He Is Indicted For ID Theft and Credit Card Fraud

Nothing like getting out of a meeting and finding out you’ve been indicted for identity theft and credit card fraud. 23 counts of fraud to be exact.

Check out his reaction as reporters swarm.

Safer E Commerce Day Is Coming

Safer E Commerce day is quickly approaching ➡️ November 1st!

And Mary Ann Miller and I are going to be live at the virtual event covering our an interesting session called - Triple Threat: The Terrifying Convergence of Evolving Tech, Bad Actors, and a Questionably Ready Financial Ecosystem

It’s a free virtual event, chocked full of fraud experts and speakers sharing their insights into fraud!

And it’s not just us but a bunch of other experts working to collectively stamp out the scourge of fraud.

Thanks for checking out the weekly newsletter.

I hope you have an amazing and positive fraud fighting filled week.

FrankonFraud