Hi Fraud Fighters,

I’ve been busy with the fraud team at Point Predictive writing the 2025 Auto Lending Fraud Trends report and was surprised that credit washing has spiked 162% in 2024. When it’s too clean to be true, it probably is!

Hope you get a chance to check out the analysis- its an amazing report. You can get a free copy of it here 👉️ get the report.

Let’s check out the top stories this week.

This Week’s Top Fraud Highlights

• Scammers Manual - If you haven’t checked out this New York Times piece on Pig Butchering money laundering involving Huione Pay, do it now with this free link. Its so informative 👉️ Free Link

• 10 Accounts for $175 Million - Chase only booked 10 bank accounts from their $175 million Frank acquisition fraud - ironically none were students. Cap One passed on the deal because they thought the data looked “abnormal” Read More

• Capital One Cracker - An Amazon employee who stole 100 million Capital One records was released but she might be going back to jail. Paige Thompson was released for time served, but prosecutors argue she got off way to easy for her $40 million crime. Read More

• Anti Fraud Co, Was A Fraud - The founder of an AI Fraud prevention company that promised "a world free of fraud" just got sentenced for fraud. He told investors he developed a “magical” system that could detect 300% more fraud. It was a sham. Read More

• Chase Reg E Case - A victim is suing Chase to reimburse him for a $142,000 scam under Reg E. The fraud dept rejected the claim because they said they spoke to him and he approved the wire. When he asked for the recording, they said he needed to subpoena the recording. He says it doesn’t exist. Read More

• Chase Chose Not To Verify - Acxiom offered to do reverse phone searches to validate the 4.5 million accounts but Chase declined. Another interesting wrinkle in the bizarre case. Read More

Fake Car Dealership Cloning Scheme Is Spreading Nationwide

What happens when a car dealership doesn’t have a website? Scammers rush in and create a fake website for them, post fake car listings and then make off with millions of dollars from victims who never get their cars delivered.

The scam is spreading fast. Attorney Generals and authorities across Wisconsin, Tennessee, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Oregon have all issued warnings. Many of these scams appear to originate in Romania from professional fraud rings.

Read More

Auto Fraud Jumps to $9.2 Billion in 2024 And Credit Washing Surges

Auto Lending fraud has jumped to its highest level ever recorded according to analysis by Point Predictive.

And it’s not identity theft that is to blame - it’s an array of first party fraud schemes including credit washing, use of CPN’s and bust-out that are driving it higher. Credit washing - where borrowers work with shady credit repair companies to blast away their bad debt by claiming identity theft is soaring.

Read More

40% Of The GDP Of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar Now Comes From Scamming

We are in the midst of a the industrial revolution of scamming which is transforming the economy of nations.

According to a report released by the United States Institute of Peace in May 2024, the annual returns from cyberscams are estimated at $12.5 billion in Cambodia, $15.3 billion in Myanmar, and $10.9 billion in Laos – nearly 40% of the combined GDP of the three countries.

An excellent report that provides the full arc of how we got here, and where we might be headed appeared last week. It covers the history of how this happened and the impacts.

Bank Teller Help Bag Hunters Pass $80 Million in Fraudulent Checks

A bank teller in Queens, New York, was the inside man for a massive fraud ring that stole $50 million in fraudulent checks.

The Fraud Ring, called the “Bag Hunters,” appears to have been masterminded by two Nigerian International fraudsters who attempted to steal nearly $80 million from two different government programs.

Shan Anand, the teller, opened fraudulent business accounts using stolen identities. When the bank’s security systems flagged suspicious transactions, he called the internal “fraud hotline” himself, falsely vouching for the legitimacy of transactions to unfreeze the accounts.

Read More

SSA Slashes eCBSV Cost To As Low As 4 Cents To Take On Synthetic Identity

The Social Security Administration slashed prices by 40% on eCBSV to make it more affordable.

The new fees range from $6,650 for up to 10,000 verifications to about $7.84 million for up to 200 million verifications. This means the effective cost per SSN verification varies with volume—roughly $0.66 per check at the lowest tier (10,000/year) and about $0.04 per check at the highest volume tier (200 million/year).

I think service providers should band together and pay the highest tier together. What do you think?

Read More

“Bring Me Your Bank” Facebook Fraud Ring Targeted Credit Unions

A fraud ring operating out of Fresno had the perfect plan. Recruit a postal employee to steal checks out of the mail, and then recruit mules on Facebook to push those checks into their credit union bank accounts.

They recruited close to 100 people to participate in the scheme to steal $1 million from small credit unions in the area. Credit Unions are increasingly the target of these new check fraud schemes.

Read More

Amazon: Rekk Refund Fraudster Arrested In Lithuania. $6 Million Seized!

Amazon attorney, Jamie Wendall, reports that Domantas Radeckas a major refund fraudster they sued was arrested in Lithuania and $6 million in crypto was seized.

Amazon has gone to war with refund fraudsters to protect their platform.

Click to Read

Ex-Baltimore Ravens Coach Indicted In Shocking Digital Stalking And Hacking Case

Matthew Weiss was a coach for the Baltimore Ravens and the Michigan Wolverines, but he seemed to spend most of his time hacking into female athletes' emails and iCloud accounts.

Between 2015 and 2023, he breached the databases of over 100 colleges, compromised the accounts of 3,300 people, and stole PII on over 150,000 people.

His target was private, intimate photos and videos of the athletes.

Read More

Kitboga To Headline Fraud Fight Club II

I am super excited to meet one of the most amazing fraud fighters in the world, Kitboga, and talk about his new AI Clones, which are defeating scam centers worldwide.

Are you headed to the Fraud Fight Club? This should be big 👇️ 

Music Executive Ran Gang Like Mafia: Arrested For Fraud, Racketeering and Murder

He helped launch the career of famed rapper Nipsey Russell, but he also did a lot of nasty things like fraud, human trafficking, extortion, murder, and other crimes - at least that is what the LAPD alleges.

His frauds ran everything from PPP Fraud to Mortgage Fraud and everything in between.

Read More

Fraudsters Scan Realtime Jail Bookings To Create HyperTargeted Bond Scams

Fraudsters posing as deputies run sophisticated bond scams targeting families of recently arrested people.

In a recent case shared on Reddit, a brother was called to make a bond payment via cash app for his sister. When they tried to reach her, she was arrested.

Scammers are scanning jail arrests to make their scam attempts hyper-targeted and more realistic!

Full Body AI Deepfakes Making The Rounds With Yahoo Boys

AI isn’t just for faces anymore. Scammers from Nigeria are circulating videos showing how they can deepfake a whole body, including hands and arms like this guy picking up a drink mid-phone call.

Yet another level up for these romance scammers.

Click to Watch

Instant Walker Fail - “They Pulled Up To Bus Stop And Asked If I Had ID”

A fascinating video is making the rounds. It shows a walker/mule who was busted for trying to cash a fraudulent check.

The fraud ring approached him at the bus stop, asked if he had an ID, drove him to a bank far away. Within minutes he was arrested.

Watch It

That’s a wrap for another weekly edition of FrankonFraud.

I hope you have an amazing week ahead fighting fraud.

FrankonFraud