Greetings Fraud Fighters 💪 

Here is a new stat for you that blows my mind. A brand new survey reports that 96% of Americans are now scammed once a week 👉️ Overwhelmed By Scammers 

Raise your hand if that’s you. 🖐️ 

Quick Fraud Snippets This Week

• Visa Says Application Fraud Is Surging - A new report by Visa warns that application fraud is surging as criminals target online lending. They report that there has been a 244% increase in document forgery over the last year. Read More

• UK Bank Fraud Shift - As banks reimbursed customers for domestic APP fraud in 2024, fraudsters shifted to international scam payments which doubled from 2023 proving once again you never eliminate fraud, just move it. Read More

• Threaten AI To Get Better Results - This is weird. Google’s Sergey Brin says you will get better results from your prompts if you threaten AI with physical violence. Read More

• AI Pet Scams Spiking - There is a rash of scammers creating AI pics of people’s lost cats and dogs and claiming they have them, demanding money to keep them safe. Here’s one - See Reddit Post

• Bank Fraudsters Released - The famous Chrisleys were released from prison this week. They sent fraudulent documentation to over 20 banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Crescent, and Midtown, to name a few) to get over $30 million in loans, then stiffed the banks. Read More

• OFAC Sanctions Pig Butchering Enablers - Funnell Technology was sanctioned for providing domain names and hosting services to Pig Butchering scammers to be used in fake cryptocurrency websites Read More

• Bank is a Revolving Door Of Scam Victims - A Reddit user reports that his bank is flooded with scam victims. Every time he visits his bank branch each week, there are 2-3 elderly victims, and he has intervened multiple times. Is this how bad bank branches have gotten? Read More

• Fake “Is Alive” SSN Flag - 12.3 million additional SSNs have now been marked as deceased with people who were reportedly over 120 years old. This should mean another significant increase in the Death Master File soon (if that’s where these end up) Read More

• They’re Baaaack - Huione Guarantee and Xinbe, the notorious money laundering network for scammers were banned from Telegram last week. However, they just reopened new VIP channels on the platform and are still operating. Read More

• Take a Look - Dealership cloning (fake websites with fake car listings) is the latest scam sweeping the country as scammers lure victims into sending in ACH payments for cars they will never receive. Here is a live site of a dealer clone called QG Autos if you want to see how they set it up. Take a look

• Fighting Back After $70 Million In Fraud - The US Govt is implementing Death Master File Checks, Identity Fraud Checks, and new negative file database checks in response to the mushrooming problem of Student Aid Fraud. Read More

• ChatGPT Finds First-Ever Zero-Day Vulnerability - Security researchers are blown away that o3 found a hidden vulnerability - a backdoor into millions of computers - that no human has ever detected. Watch It

• Crack Is Whack - The Italian businessman who was captured and tortured in the Crypto Fraud Kidnapping case was captured on video cooking up crack cocaine in an air fryer. The captured video was going to be used to extort him - Read More

• The Barnacle Scam - This is a doozy of strange scam. A man was arrested in Hawaii for placing a barnacle device on cars (windshield suction device) and then extorting money to have it removed. Read More

The New Infinite Car Glitch Machine Sells For $535 On Amazon

Earlier this year, police arrested two men in India carrying a small Android device and a trove of 50 stolen cars. That device, the Autel MaxIM, lets them program new keys in less than 90 seconds on over 700 different makes and models.

First uncovered by Eric Huber, the Cybersecurity Research Leader at TD Bank, this machine is catching fire on Telegram fraud channels by car strikers and criminals that have discovered the “Infinite Car Glitch”.

To add another layer of fraud, Strikers are buying the devices online than saying they never received them and committing refund fraud - essentially getting the key creating machines for free.

Read More

The Hidden Fraud Machine Targeting Credit Bureaus

Fraudsters are weaponizing America’s credit system, creating fake identities with stolen Social Security numbers and then parlaying those identities into shell companies to inject fake financial data into credit reports.

David Maimon, Forbes’ latest contributor, covers this emerging scheme in his new article, which blows the lid off these credit repair shysters.

Read More

Fannie Mae Turns To AI - That Means Fraud And Your Repurchase Demands Will 🚀 

Fannie Mae has implemented new AI technology to sniff out fraud on a mortgage file in a few seconds. That same task used to take their investigators months to do, and they would only investigate when they received a tip or when the loan went into default.

With this new tech, they can now scan all the mortgage files they purchase from banks not just risky apps or defaults, and it can pick up things invisible to the human eye. I predict that we will see more repurchase demands on banks and lenders in the coming months as the AI is rolled out.

Fannie Mae also established a new Crime Detection Unit to handle all the newly detected fraud that the AI reveals.

Read More

A Flood Of Tariff Fraud-Dodging Schemes Is Hitting US Business

As Karisse Hendrick warned me two months ago, Tariff Dodging has turned into the newest and hottest fraud frontier.

Chinese fraudsters are flooding American companies with tempting emails promising to "Beat U.S. Tariffs" and make duties "go away" completely. One advertised "Malaysia Transshipment Route" promises to reload Chinese goods into new containers with fake Malaysian certificates of origin, instantly cutting tariffs from 145% to just 10%.

Read More

Smoke Shops, Insider Fraud, and Empire Processings $66 Million Fraud

When merchant processing goes bad. Here’s another shocking story involving massive fraud. This time, it’s food stamps being used with shady merchant terminals configured with stolen merchant codes.

A merchant processor called Empire Processing bribed a corrupt USDA employee with “flowers” and “gifts” to have her funnel them merchant codes for SNAP terminals they sold to smoke shops and other corner stores that sold everything but food. All told the scheme netted over $66 million in fraud.

Read More

Builder.AI Faked Their AI, And Their Revenues Too

Builder.AI was once valued at over $1.5 Billion but now it is bankrupt and a total loss. The company is accused of not only faking revenues by “roundtripping” with a large partner, but they also faked their AI and employed 700 programmers in India to manually build apps they claimed were created with artificial intelligence.

Read More

Man Locates Dude That Stole His Identity And Citizen's Arrest Him

This is a wild video. This guy takes matters into his own hands and rushes down the mall to capture the dude who stole his identity. He grabs him by the shirt and holds him until the cops arrive.

When police arrest him, he has a forged identity of the victim, a Cap One credit card, and a grip of applications that he stole from his employer, an auto dealership where he works. He is also caught driving a Range Rover he financed in the victims name too.

Watch It

It’s Back Again, Fyre 4? Please say no. 😆 

Well, well, well. Billy Macfarland sold the “Fyre” name, but it lives on. This week, it’s been relaunched as an experience in Honduras.

This might be legit, but my gosh this thing won’t die!

Check it Out

That’s all the fraud news for this week. Got a tip? Send me a message here, and I'll look into it for our readers.

FrankonFraud