Fraud in the news

There's spam in that app

Mobile devices, of course, increasingly enable fraudsters. According to a May 10 VentureBeat article, Adjust says mobile ad fraud rates doubled in the past year, by Dean Takahashi, fake ads are infiltrating mobile devices. The Berlin-based company Adjust conducted a study to measure the number of fake advertisements among legitimate ones on various mobile channels. The company analyzed 3.43 billion application installations and more than 350 billion instances of ads during the first quarter of 2018.

According to Adjust, SDK spoofing (bot-based fraud from hidden malware downloaded through apps) was most prevalent at 37 percent of all fraud. The other types included click injection (real ads replaced by fraudulent ads and track clicks) at 27 percent, faked installs at 20 percent and click spam at 16 percent.

The article also highlights the gaming industry, which has been the hardest hit in online activity. Mobile ad spending could reach more than $75 billion in the U.S. in 2018.

I see fraud in your future

A New York psychic failed to foresee her own arrest, according to a May 12 article in The Guardian, She didn’t see it coming: psychic arrested for $800,000 fraud, by Arwa Mahdawi. Ann Thompson, also known as “Psychic Zoe,” was arrested by the New York Police Department for allegedly defrauding her clients out of more than $800,000.

According to the article, two of Psychic Zoe’s former clients notified police. One Canadian client claimed that Psychic Zoe pressured her into multiple fortune-telling sessions in order to find love, costing her at least $740,000. Psychic Zoe also allegedly coerced the client to buy her a 9.2 carat diamond ring in remittance for her services.

While Thompson awaits sentencing, not all law enforcement want to investigate fortune-teller fraud. According to the article, agencies often see this service as a joke, despite supposed psychics defrauding desperate people of large amounts of money.

Hitching a ride

High rollers are boarding flights to the Middle East but allegedly not for good reasons. According to the May 14 KMSP-TV/Fox 9 News story, Millions of dollars in suitcases fly out of MSP, but why? by Jeff Baillon, the Fox News affiliate has been investigating what appears to be rampant fraud in a massive state program. Investigators believe government-funded money intended for childcare services in the Middle East is actually going to terrorist groups via carry-on luggage to avoid detection.

According to the article, the Fox News affiliate uncovered a recent incident where a man was traveling outside the country with $1 million in cash packed into his carry-on bag. The money passed federal reporting protocol because the carriers had filled out government forms. But the agents transferring the money worked for “Hawalas,” which are businesses that courier money to countries with no banking regulations.

According to the report, it’s harder to track the flow of money overseas with the decrease in wire transfers. Investigators believe $100 million was transferred in carry-on bags last year to countries overseas.