Hello Fraud Fighters 👋

Many of you are at Money2020; I hope you’re having a great week!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, chaos is escalating as a major crackdown on a scam unfolds in Myanmar. 🏃‍♂

Let’s get to the top news.

This is becoming a new trend - using AI to throw investigators off the trail. 👮

A 32-year-old woman killed her mother and left her remains in a washing machine in the home. Days later, concerned family members called police and reported her mother missing, so police opened a “Missing Person” investigation.

To throw police off the trail, the woman created deepfake videos and audio clips of her mother telling police she was fine and to stop investigating the case.

This is a weird one!

Visa has rolled out its controversial VAMP program, and it’s literally made chargebacks twice as dangerous for merchants. And that means merchants who used to be considered low risk are suddenly high risk and paying big fines because of it.

As Rick Lynch says it’s a seismic shift starting this month, “They combined both chargebacks and fraud into a single 0.50% which merchants have to stay under - a 73% reduction!

Apparently, the seismic shift is not going over well either.

Karisse Hendrick says some merchants are already being fined for “millions in out-of-the-blue expenses” each month for exceeding the new thresholds.

Will this send merchants over the edge? Something we should watch carefully and I imagine is going to continue to snowball.

Back in September, hackers claimed they had stolen 740,000 customer records and were posting them on the Dark Web.

Lawyers, of course jumped on the bandwagon and filed class action lawsuits but it turns out it was all a scam and third-party intelligence discovered that the group responsible has been hitting reputable companies with a similar barrage of fake claims.

PNC announced the scam and got the class action dismissed last week.

In June 2024, Ray Anholts’ phone rang. The call display showed the number was from CIBC.

The caller said he worked in the bank’s fraud department and needed Ray’s help with an important, national investigation regarding money laundering.

Over the next 6 months, the scammers devoured every last cent of his money.

Shaq’s $300,000 custom Range Rover disappeared after a car dealership in California hired a transportation company to pick it up and take it to Baton Rouge.

The new scam is growing like wildfire and dealerships need to be on alert!

The Myanmar military has begun bombing the KK Park scam compound for four consecutive days.

Here is a photo of the scam park now. It seems that their objective is to completely level the compound.

From the owner of a small internet cafe to a billionaire tycoon making $30 million a day, Chen Zhi runs a network of scam compounds while pretending to run one of the largest legitimate companies in Cambodia.

The baby-faced businessman operates more than 100 shell companies across 12 countries and touts himself as a philanthropist, but he is nothing but a dirty scoundrel. He has disappeared but being protected by the Cambodian government.

Who else is seeing this? I am getting scam attempts sent directly to my calendar as unsolicited “Calendar Invites” now.

They do this to avoid spam blockers and filters, and it’s annoying as hell.

Here’s a McAfee scam I received today.

Watch what your kids are doing on YouTube. Cybercriminals have hijacked YouTube accounts and uploaded than 3,000 malicious videos that spread malware through fake tutorials and free software game cheats.

The scam works by taking over legit channels and replacing content with viral videos that rack up likes. People click links on the video thinking they'll get Roblox cheats but instead download dangerous stealer malware that can grab passwords and personal data.

Scam workers are fleeing KK Park by the hundreds and risking their lives by swimming across a rapidly moving river to safety.

Gerald Marcil and his associates owned hotels, apartments and properties in one of the most beautiful places in the world - Laguna Beach.

But the picture behind the scenes was not quite as pretty as multiple banks accuse them of shotgunning mortgages on the same commercial properties - essentially double or triple funding properties without disclosing it. This is the fraud that made Jaime Dimon nervous during his last investor call.

Watch this brazen theft at this small bakery in LA, where a woman snatches a credit card reader. She later broke into the bakeries bank account and siphoned off $18,000!

He just can’t stop. Check out Billy Macfarland’s manic video post about his next festival he swears is not a scam!

Click to watch 👇

This bank fraudster went for the sympathy play and starts crying and pleads cops to let her go. “He made me do it. He’s outside. I will take you to him” 😭

Didn’t work. They didn’t buy it. She got arrested.

Well, that’s all we have this week, folks.

Have a great week fighting fraud and scams!

FrankonFraud