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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

We Infiltrated a Counterfeit Check Ring! Now What?

Summary: A volunteer fraud fighter known as "B. Ware" has spent a year receiving daily lists from an insider in a cybercrime gang that mails counterfeit checks drawn on real companies' bank account information, with some days seeing thousands of checks go out in amounts mostly between $2,500 and $5,000. The group shared this intelligence with fraud investigators at FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service, whose stolen shipping accounts are used to mail the checks, but B. Ware says a year later there is little sign anyone is acting on it.

What you should know: The checks scan fine through bank systems initially and are only canceled days later, leaving the person who deposited the phony check on the hook for the entire amount - and the FBI says business email compromise scams, which researcher Ronnie Tokazowski links to the same actors, netted thieves nearly $2 billion in 2020.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Fraud & Scams
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