Security News

Federal Reserve’s FraudClassifier model helps classify fraud involving payments
2020-06-23 00:00

The Federal Reserve published the FraudClassifier model - a set of tools and materials to help provide a consistent way to classify and better understand the magnitude of fraudulent activity and how it occurs across the payments industry. The model was developed by the Fraud Definitions Work Group, which was comprised of Federal Reserve and payments industry fraud experts.

Visa unveils AI tool to help stop digital identity fraud
2020-06-22 15:17

Visa said it created the Advanced Identity Score to reduce the amount of digital identity fraud. The company described Advanced Identity Score as an effort to combine "Visa's artificial intelligence and predictive machine learning capabilities with application and identity related data to generate a risk score for new account applications to help reduce fraud, prevent negative impact to brand loyalty and trust, and eliminate operational costs due to remediation."

U.S. Sanctions Six Nigerians for BEC and Romance Fraud
2020-06-19 18:37

The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Justice this week announced sanctions against six Nigerian nationals for their involvement in business email compromise and romance fraud schemes. The six, namely Richard Uzuh, Micheal Olorunyomi, Alex Ogunshakin, Felix Okpoh, Nnamdi Benson, and Abiola Kayode, engaged in BEC fraud schemes that resulted in American citizens losing over $6 million, the U.S. Treasury says.

FEMA IT Specialist Charged in ID Theft, Tax Refund Fraud Conspiracy
2020-06-18 22:07

On June 16, authorities in Michigan arrested 29-year-old Justin Sean Johnson in connection with a 43-count indictment on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The stolen data also included federal form W-2 data that contained income tax and withholding information, records that prosecutors say Johnson sold on dark web marketplaces to identity thieves engaged in tax refund fraud and other financial crimes.

More ad fraud apps found hiding on Google Play Store
2020-06-17 10:21

The apps were among a small haul of 38 beauty-themed apps the company detected from the same developer which were reported to Google for bombarding users with unwanted ads. As well as serving out of context ads at every opportunity, the apps also sent users to websites and made it difficult to de-install the apps using techniques such as hiding icons from the home screen and apps folder.

Incognia launches location-based behavioral biometrics solution to combat mobile fraud
2020-06-03 02:30

Incognia announced the launch of its location-based behavioral biometrics solution developed to combat rising rates of mobile fraud. Incognia location behavioral biometrics provides a new frictionless weapon for enhanced fraud detection and prevention.

Riding the State Unemployment Fraud ‘Wave’
2020-05-23 13:40

Last week, the U.S. Secret Service warned of "Massive fraud" against state unemployment insurance programs, noting that false filings from a well-organized Nigerian crime ring could end up costing the states and federal government hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Yes, for roughly $50 worth of bitcoin, you too can quickly jump on the unemployment fraud "Wave" and learn how to swindle unemployment insurance money from different states.

3 ways the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting consumer behavior and fraud
2020-05-22 15:39

A new report from Forter has found that, since its April report, there have been "New and steady increases in online consumer purchasing volumes." The new findings, which were gathered through Forter's global merchant network-which processes upwards of $150 billion each year-look at how e-commerce consumer behavior and fraud are changing during COVID-19.

U.S. Secret Service: “Massive Fraud” Against State Unemployment Insurance Programs
2020-05-16 04:34

A well-organized Nigerian crime ring is exploiting the COVID-19 crisis by committing large-scale fraud against multiple state unemployment insurance programs, with potential losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new alert issued by the U.S. Secret Service. A memo seen by KrebsOnSecurity that the Secret Service circulated to field offices around the United States on Thursday says the ring has been filing unemployment claims in different states using Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information belonging to identity theft victims, and that "a substantial amount of the fraudulent benefits submitted have used PII from first responders, government personnel and school employees."

COVID-19 online fraud trends: Industries, schemes and targets
2020-05-15 04:00

The telecommunications, retail and financial services industries have been increasingly impacted by COVID-19 online fraud, according to TransUnion. "Given the billions of people globally that have been forced to stay at home, industries have been disrupted in a way not seen on this massive of a scale for generations," said Shai Cohen, Senior VP of Global Fraud & Identity Solutions at TransUnion.