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Thursday, May 04, 2023

Malaysia: online scammers offer money for use of people’s bank accounts; use them as money mule accounts

  

Dissident Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Is Able To Leave Iran For The First Time In 14 Years


Meaning And Machines And Making Sense Of How Art Works

There’s something irrevocably empirical about the fact that poems and novels and paintings and music and films stir cognitive-affective goings-on that have the bearings of sense. And there is something irrevocably empirical, too, in the pressure to admit these goings-on as ‘thoughts’ or ‘meaning’. - Aeon


DOJ announces US coordinated effort against vaccine fraud; 18 arrested; includes fake billings for vaccine; counterfeit vaccination cards; billing the government for test kits that were not needed

Nevada: Man pleads guilty to check fraud; got bank account information from foreign telemarketers and then used that to create checks and debit accounts; took in millions
 
Spain dismantles crypto investment operation; arrest 1; took in $110 million; marketed on internet, phone calls; gave investors web page with fake account information, graphics

Myth Two: For most of us, fraud schemes are easy to spot. By Anthony Pratkanis.  The general public believes that scammers usually employ giveaway clues such as typos, poor grammar or a shifty demeanor on the phone.

In explaining why Australians lost a record amount to scams last year, Catriona Lowe, Deputy Chair of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, points to a factor identified by others:  “We have seen alarming new tactics emerge which make scams incredibly difficult to detect.  This includes everything from impersonating official phone numbers, email addresses, and websites of legitimate organizations to scam texts that appear in the same conversation thread as genuine messages.”

Over 50 years of research on detecting lies finds that the same results apply to detecting fraud.  People generally think that they can spot liars based on their insincere demeanor.  This may work for the people we encounter on an everyday basis, but these types of cues are a poor means of detecting lies (slightly above chance in laboratory tests).  This is especially the case for con grifters who ooze fake sincerity with a “naturalness and uniformity of action.”  Unfortunately, con criminals’ ability to do this will only improve as they adopt new artificial intelligence tools.
The implications for fraud prevention:  (a)  when training or educating people do not assume that a fraud can be easily spotted and, (b) based on research in lie detection and my own research on fraud (with Doug Shadel and published by AARP in Off the Hook), all of us need to be very skeptical and question critically the information we receive.
 

Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraud, romance fraud; BEC fraud, sweepstakes/lottery fraud,  tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud, gift cards,  free trial offer frauds,  job scams,  online shopping fraud, and crypto scams
 
Fraud News Around the worldHumor                                                                               FTC and CFPB   Virus Benefit Theft RansomwareBitcoin and cryptocurrencyATM SkimmingJamaica and Lottery Fraud Romance Fraud and Sextortion
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