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Slightly Strange Stories In Fraud And Other Things đŸ˜”â€đŸ’«

Author

Frank McKenna
August 01, 2023

Sometimes fraud is strange and unbelievable.

There are a few strange and unusual stories I discovered that I have highlighted in this weeks newsletter - like the guy that tried to cash a $380 Billion check to build an underwater restaurant.

This week we saw

Lets get to the top stories of the week!

Chinese Scammers Hire Domain Experts To Develop Flawless Scams

The industrialization of scams is in full effect and scammers from China and India are collaborating in new ways.

A report out of India this week claims that Chinese scammers are hiring teams of “Domain Experts” whose sole job is to develop effective scam methods and release them into the wild.

The team of domain experts create realistic SMS text messages, enticing advertisements to lure victims, and attractive websites that lead them to believe they are working with legitimate companies.

These are scam strategist whose whole job is to think of new ways to scam people out of their money.

The domain experts are used in everything from sophisticated pig butchering scams to phishing attempts to online gambling.

Forget Crypto. “AI Picked Stocks” Is The Latest Investment Scam Method

Scammers are capitalizing on the AI bubble and going all in on the trend.

In China, hundreds of victims of online investment fraud have been tricked to buy stocks they claimed were selected by artificial intelligence (AI) software.

Fraudsters tout ‘AI-picked stocks’

Source says police handled 1,222 reports of investment scams between January and May, with July figure more than double past monthly average.

Did This Fraudster Lookup Bot Just Copy AboutFraud’s Tagline?

Are fraudsters watching fraud fighters’ every move?

A Lookup Bot that helps fraudsters lookup social security numbers, phone numbers, driver’s licenses, and other PII is advertising itself as created “By Fraudsters, For Fraudsters.”

Does that sound familiar?

If it does, it’s because you probably have heard of About Fraud, and their tagline is “For Fraud Fighters, By Fraud Fighters”.

The service is pretty scary. And it works very fast.

And to top it off, it’s a Bot that works right within Telegram. I tested it, and it took less than 10 seconds. It reminds me of these TLO lookups all these fraudsters and scammers are selling.

This New Airline Impersonation Scam Is Really Bad

Scammers are impersonating airlines to steal people’s credit cards.

The scammers are posting fake 800 numbers from major airlines, so when people google search for an airline to make airline reservations or change their reservations, they are directed to the scam call center, where they are charged hundreds of dollars.

One of the scam companies is called PCM Travel and you can see their horrible BBB rating here.

Imagine going to the airport thinking you had changed your flight and paid a huge change fee, only to discover you had paid scammers instead!

This New Airline Imposter Scam Is Really Bad

Scammers are out of control, impersonating airlines to steal people’s credit cards. It's a real devious con job that appears to be based out of India.

Artificial Intelligence will be able to exploit us in ways you won’t believe

This is our future. A future where you imagine an exploit, a scam, a fraud or a deepfake possibility and the very next week it materializes into reality.

Watch this sobering video by A Hint of Truth which dives into the scary future of Ai and scams. Thank you to Brad Sriro for bringing this compelling video to my attention.

@ahintoftruth2.0

Replying to @Time VS Journey Artificial Intelligence will be able to exploit us in ways you won’t believe | Part 2 #ai #artificialintellig... See more

Tim Cook Got Fraud Declined For An Apple Card

We all know the Apple Card was a highly coveted item in the summer of 2019. So coveted that not even CEO Tim Cook was able to get one.

It turns out his initial application for the credit card was denied because it was flagged as fraud. His high profile status means he is often a victim of hacking and fraud, so the system automatically flagged the application.

Now we know anytime the CEO gets declined, the first thing that banks do is turn off all the fraud strategies! That didn’t happen here, rather, Tim Cook got his credit card, and Goldman Sachs was able to keep their strategies running.

Tim Cook's Original Apple Card Application Was Denied

Apple CEO Tim Cook was initially rejected for an Apple Card when it launched in 2019, according to a new report by The Information.

Visa Launches Deep Learning AI Score To Stop FedNow Instant Payment Fraud

Visa announced a pilot of a new deep learning score called RTP Prevent which will score instant payments for potential fraud and scams.

The score which integrates into banks systems was designed to catch Authorized Push Payment fraud and other scams was designed with a clean slate from the ground-according to CEO Ryan McInerney.

The software is being launched on the heals of the release of FedNow here in the US.

Experts Say FraudGPT Is Probably Just A Big Scam

Cybersecurity experts are not impressed with the new evil ChatGPT twin called FraudGPT - in fact, many think it’s likely just a scam to steal other scammers’ money.

An article in Fast Company calls into question that app which looks like it creates phishing emails that a first grader could have written.

“I haven’t seen my industry peers overly concerned about either of these two models,” says Melissa Bischoping, an endpoint security researcher at Tanium. “And I have seen nothing to suggest that this is scary.” If anything, she says, the creators of the tools “are preying on people who are not sophisticated enough actually to write their own malware but want to make a quick buck.”

You be the judge; take a look at this video advertising how WormGPT works - the output looks super meager

The Most Audacious Check Fraud Attempt In History Has A Strange Story Behind It

In 2015, Jeff Waters strolled into a Bank of America in Florida to cash a $368 Billion check.

When the teller got suspicious, that’s when the story got wild. You might not believe his story. No one else did!

He Tried To Cash A $368 Billion Fraudulent Check

Let's go back in the Internet Gold Hall of Fame momentarily and remember a Florida Man who tried to cash a fraudulent check.

“What Is “Bank Flashing” And Why Are Fraudsters Buzzing About It?

Perhaps fraudsters are angling for new ways to exploit FedNow and instant payments.

A new term and fraud scheme appears to be trending this week on Telegram - “Bank Flashing and “BTC Flashing”. Many fraudsters and scammers seem to want to get people to help them with the scheme, or maybe they are just scammers trying to scam other scammers.

After some research, " flashing " appears to involve coordinated attacks where fraudsters wire transfer fake funds or bitcoins and then quickly withdraw or transfer the money elsewhere before the wire transfer is reversed.

You could think of this as the modern equivalent of check-kiting with fraudulent deposits. The surprising thing about this is there is all sorts of software that can be used for sending fake Bitcoin to rip people off.

This site claims to have Bank Flashing Software called the SQR400 and they even have a tutorial of how to do it.

Bank Flashing Software Fakes Wire Transfers

Bank Flash Software.

Believe it or not, there is even a Google Chrome Extension that lets people send fake Bitcoin. How did this get through their verification checks?!

This Family Conned California Out Of $7.6 Million With Trash Hauled In From Arizona

Not even Oscar the Grouch could have devised a scheme like this from his trash can.

A criminal complaint filed last week shows how lucrative recycling fraud can be.

Eight members of a Riverside family imported 178 tons of recyclables over the course of an eight-month period from Arizona, then recycled them in California.

In California, when you buy a drink, you pay a fee of 5-10 cents, and then when you bring it back to a recycling center, you can collect that money back.

The family simply crossed the border into Arizona, hauled tons of bottles from the trash, and brought them back to California to collect the return fee.

All told, they collected $7.6 million, according to the allegations.

The IRS Is Very Concerned With ERC Fraud

COVID Fraud 2.0 (AKA Employee Retention Credit) has the IRS very concerned and they are stepping up their efforts to tackle the rampant fraud in the program.

A hearing was held last week and there is so much fraud that it is backing up the IRS ability to process claims. Fly by night ERC Mills have sprung up and they are inducing companies to file fraudulent claims for the tax credit.

Did you read about this ERC Mill Owner - Leon Haynes - who was just busted yesterday for filing over 1,300 fraudulent claims worth over $124 million. He is just one of thousands out there operating.

"The further we get from the pandemic, we believe the percentage of legitimate claims coming in is declining," Werfel said. Instead, the IRS is receiving more and more questionable claims, which the IRS is addressing by intensifying its compliance work, he said.

IRS Commissioner

Thanks for catching up in the weekly fraud trends and stories. Fraud and scams can be a strange world and the stories are always interesting.

Have an amazing week fighting the bad guys