Hi Fraud Fighters 👋
Happy Thanksgiving Week!
Let's get to this week's best frauds, scams, and trends.
Fraud News Roundup 🗞
Big Bank Data Hack - The biggest banks in the US including Citi, Chase, Morgan Stanley and others had customer data stolen as part of a large SitusAMC hack attack.
Actimize On Sale For $1.5 Billion - The fraud company that generates an estimated $453 million in ARR is being put up for sale so NICE can plow the money into AI. 3X seems like a very low price to me.
Brazil Bank CEO Arrested in $2.5 Billion Fraud- Banco Master (a large Brazilian Bank) has failed and the CEO was arrested at airport trying to flee the country.
Visa’s Ominous Warning - Visa warns that there has been a 450% increase in dark web chatter about AI agents and a 25% increase in malicious bot payment transactions over the last six months. They say criminals are rapidly exploiting AI shopping agents.
WhatsApp Leaks 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers - An enumeration flaw has resulted in the largest phone-number leak in history, according to security researchers.
Napsters $3 Billion Fraud - Remember Napster, did you realize they are under fire for a massive fraud this year?
Associate Bank Internal Fraud - The SVP of Purchasing was banned from banking by the OCC for using bank purchasing cards to pay her taxes, renovate her home, travel, and buy things online.
Google Says 200 Companies Hacked - Google is reporting that 200 companies were victimized in a recent and new Salesforce breach.
Spoofers and Hijacking - A New Jersey Fraud Gang spoofed real companies, or hijacked their identities and stole and cashed over $11 million in Treasury checks into bank accounts fraudulently.
Walmart Acquiring Fraud Company - Fraud is so bad that Walmart is considering acquiring its own fraud company to get a handle on counterfeits and scams on its platform.
How AI Learned To Lie - Anthropic uncovered how AI learned to lie through a process called “Reward Hacking”. Once they learn to lie, they keep doing it - just like humans.
Vamp’s 222% Increase In Chargebacks - RevitPay reports that chargebacks have skyrocketed 222% as Visa's new VAMP program forces merchants to stay under a 2.2% fraud and chargeback rate or face penalties.
Fake Tech Crunch Reporters - Startups beware, fake reporters from Tech Crunch are reaching out to start-ups to steal confidential and sensitive information about companies.
Sim Swap Insider Syndicate Targeted Banks - A fraud ring that recruited AT&T and TMobile employees to swap sims so they could break into bank accounts was indicted in New York this week.
Wreckage - Check out how scam workers literally destroyed their scam call center before they left. Looks like they left in a hurry!
Poser - A jailed inmate posed as a funeral director and successfully conned a recently widowed woman out of money.
You owe $1,000 - A new iPhone 16 pro voicemail scam is leaving convincing messages to victims that a phone was ordered and they need to pay up.
$200 Million in Deepfakes - Resemble.AI released this deepfake report which indicates criminal use of AI is surging with $200 million lost in 3 months alone this year.
Tax Dollars Funding Somali Terrorist - New reporting finds that fraud scandals in Minnesota are funneling high profile terrorists groups in Somalia.
Highly Inappropriate AI Teddy Bear - An AI Teddy Bear named Kumma which is being marketed for kids, speaks of Sex, Knives, and Pills and is raising concerns of child safety.
Fake Meta Ads - A security blogger posted a fake scam ad for free “suborbital flights” on Meta and could not believe how easy it was to scam people on the platform.
Restaurant Eaters Abuse Chargebacks In London To Get Free Food
British restaurants are reportedly losing thousands of pounds weekly to friendly fraud. Customers are going to expensive restaurants, eating their meals, paying with contactless cards, and contacting their banks to dispute the charges.
One London owner now bans contactless payments. Industry leaders call it a modern version of dining-and-dashing.
Shopify Rocked By Fraud Sales Scandal That Went Undetected For A Year
The revenue numbers simply weren’t adding up at Shopify.
When leadership at the company dug deeper, they found that salespeople were inflating their deal values to earn higher commissions and it was creating a huge gap of tens of millions of dollars in projected revenue.
The fraud went undetected for a year due to Shopify’s policy to pay sales people based on “intent of the merchants” and not on actual revenue.
Fraudster Wore Diamond-Encrusted “Truist” Ring And Had A Corrupt Insider To Help
A Truist bank teller, Mariarlene Brown, helped a fraud ring deposit fake checks and increase account limits to enable a large-scale check fraud operation. She was the classic “Inny” that has become all too common in bank branches.
The fraudsters, who also had a corrupt postal employee on the payroll, were so prolific that the leader wore a ring of diamonds encrusted with the Truist logo.
She was sentenced to 3 years and has to pay Truist back over $300,000 in restitution.
Shocking Inside Job - Cybersecurity Employee Helped Hackers
Another shocking case of insider fraud at yet another Cybersecurity company - that’s 3 cases this month!
An employee of CrowdStrike shared screenshots taken on internal systems with hackers, who then posted them on Telegram. In addition to screenshots, he also helped the hackers by providing SSO (Single Sign-On) cookies so they could break into systems.
Millions of undocumented immigrants use stolen Social Security numbers as their own, creating synthetic identities with real people’s information. And sometimes that leads to disaster.
The New York Times covers one victim’s perspective - Daniel Kluver. An undocumented immigrant named Romeo Perez-Bravo used his SSN for more than 15 years. The theft cost Kluver thousands of dollars in tax debts and even linked his name to a fatal car accident in Missouri.
Brutality Knows No Bounds In Scam Centers
This is a shocking photo taken from a scam center in Cambodia that shows the depths of evil and brutality that is commonplace.
The Chinese text on the right reads "1.6米黑鹰大牛电棍" which translates to "1.6 meter Black Hawk Big Bull electric baton.
This is a device used to punish scam workers who have been trafficked into the compounds.
This Small Town Mayor Opened Up A Scam Compound In Her Town
A 2024 raid on a Philippine online casino exposed an internet scam operation with hundreds of captive workers who were scamming people.
As they investigated the compound in the coming weeks, they discovered that it had all started with the town's mayor, Alice Guo, who was allegedly an illegal citizen. She now faces money laundering and human trafficking charges
Ruthless Growth - Watch KK Park Transform From Farms To Scam Megaplex
KK Park, the world's biggest scam compound, went from empty farmland to a sprawling criminal operation in just five years. These satellite images tell the story of its rapid growth and now, show how it is slowly being destroyed.
The ruthless growth is shocking and a major wake up call. Click the image below to watch the transformation 👇
Happy Thanksgiving. Did You Get Your Free Turkey From Costco yet?
Who wants a free turkey?
Just in time for Thanksgiving, people across the US are being targeted in a new Turkey Scam.
Monk Blesses Scam Iphones With His Sacred “Good Luck Chicken”
I have absolutely no idea why a monk is blessing iPhones sitting on a table with his sacred Chicken in hand.
The phones all have QR codes, presumably for scams. Perhaps this gives the phones better scamming power. I don’t know.. 🤷♂
Did Anyone Have the $100,000 Penny Scam On Their Fraud Bingo Card For 2025?
Online sellers are hawking ordinary 2025 pennies for hundreds or thousands of dollars, exploiting confusion about the penny's phaseout. Coin experts say it's pure scam which is designed to confuse people.
I didn’t have penny scams on my fraud bingo card this year!
10,000 Phones Seized, 350 Arrested In Dramatic Raid On Shwe Kokko Compound
Watch this dramatic first-person video of the Myanmar Military raiding a scam compound as scam workers hide under their desks - over 350 were arrested, and 10,000 phones were seized!
If you want to see more interesting videos, check out this video of a CAT roller destroying 20,000 phones and a bunch of computers courtesy of Gary Warner.
The Golden Ticket Is Back For Someone You Nominate!
I'm giving away two free tickets to Fraud Fight Club, the best fraud conference of the year to NEW fraud fighters that are nominated.
I’m looking for new fraud fighters who have never attended a conference and work at a bank, lender, credit union, or merchant.
Nominate your favorite newbie fraud fighter who is passionate about fraud so we can bring the next generation of fraud fighters up.
That’s all I have for you this week.
Have a great week!