Unmasking Cybercriminal Impersonation: Surprising Schemes and Scenarios to Watch Out For

More likely, a Hail Mary or a Mail-Order-Puppy?

Armand here, RPost’s armadillo product evangelist. This week, my message is, the unexpected can happen. The Hail Mary pass in Football can be caught. The New England Patriots can still win. The Detroit Lions can win a Super Bowl this season.

Cybercriminal “Impersonation” schemes can come in many forms; unexpected scenarios.

I was speaking with a colleague at a recent conference, and he showed me a photo on his phone of a curly all white haired very cute puppy. Being an armadillo, I don’t know much about these different dog species, but he sure was cute.

I asked, “Is that your cute puppy?” My friend responded, “Well, yes…errr…at least I paid for it. But it never came.”

What? After prying a bit to understand his answer, apparently a cybercriminal scheme is making the rounds. In this scheme, called “Breeder Impersonation Puppy Scams” according to the American Kennel Club®, the cybercriminals research key search terms and purchase data to find people who are dog lovers but do not have dogs. “Scammers love to try to take advantage of people when they are in high emotion situations,” according to Steve Bernas, president and CEO of BBB serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. The cybercriminal lures the dog lover into communication, posing as a mail-order-dog service. With this (fake) service, you select a photo of the dog you’d like to own, pay $850 (in this case with my colleague), and they (supposedly) mail the dog to you.

What? A mail-order-dog service? Could this work? Could anyone fall for this?

Well, yes. Even the unexpected can happen. This is emerging as quite a popular, unexpectedly profitable cybercrime. According to BBB and FTC data, there have been approximately 100,000 victims and counting. 

Just think. If your people are falling prey to these breeder impersonation mail-order-dog schemes, how can we train users to spot much more sophisticated and consequential GenAI powered-up impersonation frauds?

There seems to be no hope, without the use of analytical AI cybercrime pre-emption services like RPost’s PRE-Crime™ service in RMail.

In sport from this past week, you will also see the unexpected happen.

The Washington Commanders played the Chicago Bears with the game ending 18-15 in favor of the Commanders. A very slow, sloppy game, the Commanders couldn’t get anything working for them. It was 15-12 near the end of the game. With seconds ticking down, on the last play of the game… Ball snapped to rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, receivers running down the field, ball gets thrown deep, deflected by a Bears defender, and finally caught by the Commanders in the endzone. The Commanders won 18-15.

The unexpected happened. A game winning Hail Mary was caught as time expired. What makes this even better is the ultimate karma from a Bears defender. He was seen mocking and making fun of Commanders fans as the game’s final seconds ticked off. He was on the field for when this adverse-to-the-bears Hail Mary was caught. And, that's not all… It gets better; this player-heckler was actually the Bears defender who tipped the ball in the end zone right to the open Commanders receiver’s hands.

More unexpected. The New England Patriots apparently can still win – barely. 

The Patriots were looking to get out of their slump as they have recently been the worst team in the NFL. The only bright spot in the team has been rookie quarterback Drake Maye. He started two weeks prior and has been outstanding. He didn’t slow down as he scored his first career rushing touchdown which gave the Patriots the lead early in the game. His game unfortunately ended early as he was ruled out moments later with a concussion. The Jets weren’t just going to let the Patriots keep the lead and Aaron Rodgers led the team to take the lead 22-17 with less than 30 seconds left in the game. That's when Patriots running back Rhemondre Stevenson came in and scored a game winning touchdown to beat the Jets 25-22. The Patriots have improved to a whopping 😉 2-6, the same record as the Jets.

Now game of the week. The Detroit Lions vs the Tennessee Titans. 52-14. A blowout win. The Lions are legit this year and are Super bowl contenders and possible favorites. Yes, I know the Titans are arguably the worst team in the NFL but to win by that much – 52-14? The crazier thing is at one point the Lions had 42 points which was actually more in points than yards than their QB Jared Goff had thrown for. He had 28 passing yards while his team casually put up 42 points. To do this all without your QB is insane. That shows quality. They have so much depth in their team, having 6 different players scoring a touchdown in this game. After impressive games every single week, my sporty armadillo prediction: the Lions are my early Super Bowl champion pick. 

I believe this is the year of the Lions (note, I am not referring to the Chinese Zodiac). Even the unexpected can happen.

Learn more about RPost’s PRE-Crime service to pre-empt the unexpected cybercriminal impersonation schemes.

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