FBI Ramps Up Probes of Financial, Mortgage Fraud

Red Bank, April 7, 2009/The FraudBlog Newsletter/- FBI probes into financial and mortgage fraud are growing at exponential rates. John Pristole, FBI Deputy Director, said that the bureau has more than 2,000 open investigations into mortgage fraud and about 566 corporate-fraud investigations. Corporate and financial-institution failures have forced the FBI to focus on accounting fraud, insider trading and financial-statement manipulation. The director has expressed concern that the amount of fraud that has begun to surface has actually put a strain on the FBI’s resources for investigating white-collar crime.

Credit Card Details Freely Available on Web

Red Bank, April 7, 2009/The FraudBlog Newsletter/- Details of up to 19,000 Visa, Mastercard and American Express customers were found publicly available on the web. Speculation is fraudsters posted the data with the intent to sell it to other fraudsters. Numerous internet security experts have voiced concern that it was a rare event to have such a complete set of credit card data to be publicly posted for anyone to access.

Bill Me Later finds a Diamond in the Rough

Red Bank, April 7, 2009/The FraudBlog Newsletter/- Bill Me Later will soon allow consumers and businesses to pay their federal taxes through Metavante Corp.'s Link2Gov subsidiary. If the deal goes through, Metavante should gain additional transaction volume and Bill Me Later should gain an increase in loan volume. This partnership will grant Bill Me Later access to the huge and potentially lucrative deep tax-payment market. Taxpayers will have to pay 2.49% of the payment amount in the form of a convenience fee. Metavante plans to enable tax payments by Bill Me Later customers to state, county and municipal governments at an unspecified date.

The Tax Man comes to eBay

Red Bank, April 7, 2009/The FraudBlog Newsletter/- Last year, Congress passed legislation requiring third party payment processors like PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon to report individuals and businesses that received at least $20,000 a year from credit/debit-card payments from more than 200 transactions. Importantly, this required disclosure is part of the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 and will be in effect in 2011.

Hacking, Why Not?

Red Bank, April 4, 2009/The FraudBlog Newsletter/- Recent congressional hearings have shown evidence that terrorists are more involved than previously believed in cybercrime. In short, evidence suggests terrorists are actively training new recruits on how to hack into computer systems, perform phishing operations and to move money using stolen credit cards and bank accounts. In his jailhouse manifesto, Imam Samudra (linked to the Bali terrorist bombing), urged his Muslim radical comrades to declare holy war not on the battlefield, but rather in cyberspace. Imam describes how America's computer infrastructure and networks are vulnerable to hacking, credit card and money laundering.