Fraud Prevention Blog

Recently, in Brooklyn, a man successfully made a $1,500 purchase using fake identification at a department store. It was not until he tried to continue his identity theft spree at a nearby Best Buy that he would be caught.  Shortly after his successful attempt at Kohl’s, the man attempted to make a purchase at a Best Buy store, where the suspect tried purchasing $945.32 of merchandise on an existing store-credit-account, without presenting the card. He asked the cashier to look up the card information using his name and date of birth.  In order to verify his identity, the employee asked him for his drivers license.  The employee recognized the New Jersey DL that he presented as a fake. After notifying the store manager, the authorities were called and arrested the suspect.

  Recently, a news story was featured on CBS 2 News Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that highlights the circulation of counterfeit money that has targeted the area.  The town is not exactly the type of market we imagine counterfeit currency thieves to target. We typically associate such a crime with large markets and big scale merchants. The Lion Bridge Brewing Company was the targeted business that had discovered that they had accepted counterfeit bills. 

      The New Year is bringing a change to the credit card industry. In the United States, credit card companies will be transitioning to the EMV card system.  Now credit cards will be embedded with a smart chip. The chips are the credit cards companies’ preventative method against credit card fraud.

So what is EMV?  It is the card system known as Europay, which is the standard for Visa and MasterCard in Europe.

Just when we all thought cash was going obsolete it looks like this holiday season shoppers will be opting to use cash and not their charge cards to purchase gifts. Credit cards seemed more convenient and more efficient than cash until customers’ credit card information was being stolen and getting used for fraudulent charges. Since credit card theft is at its highest during the holiday season customers are not taking any chances this year. It has been reported that 48% of holiday shoppers this season are going to be using cash instead of credit cards to purchase gifts.

The holiday season is nearing meaning the busiest time of the year for retail businesses is arriving. This is the time of the year in which spending increases but also the times of the year when businesses are more susceptible to transactional fraud in the form of counterfeit currency, counterfeit credit cards and identity theft. It is important that your business is prepared to handle the influx of transactions that will come at this time of year and the possible fraudulent vulnerabilities that business are susceptible to during this season.

The usage of fake IDs in an in environment like a Gentlemen’s Club typically is for underage drinking or illegal entry. We do not normally associate the use of fake IDs at’such clubs in order to get a job. Although not a common occurrence in the Gentlemen’s Club industry, the hiring of underage performers is an issue that has recently surfaced in the public eye.A recent case in Florida, in which a 13 year old girl was hired as a performer under a fake ID, has brought the industry under scrutiny for permitting sex trafficking practices to occur under their watch. This is not a common occurrence within the industry but one isolated incident is enough to blemish an industry’s reputation.

Black market websites, located in the “deep web” are known for supplying sophisticated criminals- typically hackers- with information that will allow them to compromise a person’s identity. Personal information is typically the main commodity on such sites although, it is common to see transactions for illegal drugs, credit card data, malware, and spyware and in some extreme cases, even contracts for murder have been bought and sold on the deep web.