Fraud Typologies
A fraudster uses credential stuffing to hijack a victim's neobank login, adds their own debit card or external bank account, and instantly drains the balance via P2P or push-to-card.
What is Account Takeover (ATO) / Smishing?
During KYC onboarding, the applicant's selfie has unnatural pixelation around the edges, zero micro-movement, and metadata indicating a virtual webcam injection tool instead of a mobile camera.
What is a Deepfake / Injection Attack (or Presentation Attack)?
The undisputed #1 excuse parents give when disputing $900 in late-night Roblox, Fortnite, or V-Bucks charges made on their own saved Apple Pay account.
What is "My kid took my phone"?
In 2017, influencers paid up to $12,000 for VIP villas and gourmet meals at this Bahamas music festival, only to receive wet mattresses in FEMA tents and a slice of cheese on white bread.
What is Fyre Festival?
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon lead a crew of 11 thieves to rob three Las Vegas casinos at the exact same time in this 2001 hit movie.
What is Ocean's Eleven?
Combining a real Social Security Number (often from a minor or credit-unbanked individual) with a fabricated name and VOIP phone number to pass automated KYC onboarding and open a deposit or BNPL account.
What is Synthetic Identity Fraud?
Forty new accounts are opened within 12 minutes using sequential Gmail aliases (alex.smith+1@, alex.smith+2@), VOIP numbers from the same carrier, and an Android emulator fingerprint.
What is a Bot Farm / Automated Account Creation Attack?
A customer claims they couldn't possibly have authorized a 2:00 AM transfer in Miami because they were "abducted by aliens"—or, slightly more down-to-earth, claim they made the purchase while doing this in their sleep.
What is Ambien / Sleep-Shopping?
In 1925, con man Victor Lustig successfully convinced a scrap-metal dealer to buy this iconic Paris landmark—and then came back months later and tried to sell it a second time.
What is the Eiffel Tower?
Leonardo DiCaprio plays real-life con artist Frank Abagnale Jr.—who cashed millions in fake checks while posing as a Pan Am pilot—in this Steven Spielberg movie.
What is Catch Me If You Can?
A user signs up for a fintech app using stolen identities or paid recruits ("smurfs") solely to harvest $50 sign-up bonuses and referral credits before abandoning the accounts.
What is Promo / Referral Abuse (or Bonus Abuse)?
A dormant account with a $12 average balance suddenly receives three separate $4,900 ACH credits from different external banks and immediately attempts a single $14,700 outbound wire.
What is Funnel Account / Pass-Through Mule Activity?
A buyer disputes a $600 luxury sneaker purchase claiming an "empty box" arrived, completely forgetting that FedEx recorded the package weight at delivery as this.
What is the exact weight of the shoes (e.g., 3.5 lbs)?
In 1999, a New Jersey man named David Phillips exploited a Healthy Choice frozen dinner promotion to buy 12,150 cups of this dessert, earning 1.25 million frequent flyer miles for $3,140.
What is Pudding ("The Pudding Guy")?
In Home Alone, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern play Harry and Marv, the bungling burglars who flood robbed houses and call themselves by this soggy nickname.
What are the Wet Bandits?
Fraudsters link a bank account with $0 balance, initiate a large ACH pull into their fintech wallet, and immediately off-ramp the funds via instant debit card transfer or crypto purchase before the ACH bounces three days later.
What is ACH Kiting (or Non-Sufficient Funds / R01 Return Abuse)?
A user links an external checking account via Plaid/open banking, immediately unlinks it, links a different account, and repeats this six times in 10 minutes while testing small micro-deposits.
What is Bank Account Enumeration / Micro-Deposit Testing?
A customer claims they couldn't have authorized a $1,500 charge in Las Vegas because their card never left their wallet—even though it was an EMV chip-and-PIN transaction at a casino ATM.
What is Card Present / Chip Cloning Impossibility (or Friendly Fraud)?
Elizabeth Holmes convinced investors and board members like Henry Kissinger that her startup Theranos could run 200+ medical tests from a single drop of blood using a machine named after this inventor.
Who is Thomas Edison (the Edison machine)?
In this 2013 movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, a group of stage magicians known as "The Four Horsemen" rob a Paris bank live on stage during a Las Vegas show.
What is Now You See Me?
Criminals recruit everyday people—often via fake "remote payroll clerk" job ads—to receive illicit wire or ACH transfers into their newly opened fintech accounts and forward the funds out via crypto or wires.
What is Money Muling (or Mule Herding)?
Behavioral biometrics show a user pasting their password, navigating the app with zero mouse/touch curvature, and typing their SSN at an inhumanly uniform 15 milliseconds per keystroke.
What is Automated Script / Bot Session Takeover?
A user claims a "hacker" broke into their apartment, guessed their 6-digit PIN, transferred $2,000 to the user's own brother, and left without stealing their MacBook or TV.
What is Friendly Fraud / Family Collusion?
In 2009, a Colorado couple sparked a nationwide live-TV panic by claiming their 6-year-old son had floated away inside a homemade silver aircraft shaped like this—only for him to be found hiding in the garage attic.
What is a UFO / Flying Saucer ("Balloon Boy")?
In this 2003 heist movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron, a crew uses three modified Mini Coopers to steal $35 million in gold bars from a former partner in Los Angeles traffic.
What is The Italian Job?