Tag Archives: know your customer

Amanda, Light of My Life, They Should Have Made You a Job Scammer’s Wife

This is what happens when an employment fraudster tries to recruit an anti-fraud identity professional. 

Not that she/he/they necessarily knows what I do. The message just refers to my “background information” and “the position” and “the company.”

Seems legit.

“Amanda.” https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-rodriguez-155a17378

Here’s the message.

“I am currently working as a Temporary Recruiting Assistant, assisting the company in finding a suitable candidate to fill an open position.

“After reading your background information, I believe that you have the experience and abilities that are highly qualified for this position.

“If you are interested in this opportunity, you are more than welcome to get back to me and I will be happy to provide you with more information about the position.

“Thank you for your time and look forward to your reply!

“Amanda Rodriguez

Temporary Recruitment Assistant | Administrative Support in Talent Acquisition”

I don’t know Spencer Stuart but they presumably wouldn’t hire a clown like this, even in a temporary capacity.

Here’s my reply, but the account disappeared before I could send it.

“If you are truly targeting anti-fraud identity verification product marketing professionals, your pitch itself sounds like it was written by a scammer fraudster. Even in his current condition, Kevin Mitnick wouldn’t fall for this scam.”

Know your recruiter!

Crypto Transfers Without KYC

(Imagen 4)

Have you ever played a smartphone game that gives you a teeny bit of crypto?

So little crypto that it’s not measured in Bitcoin, but in satoshis (where 100 million satoshis equals one bitcoin)?

If so, you probably didn’t have to undergo a Know Your Customer (KYC) check to verify your financial identity.

Renno and Company explains why not:

“If a virtual currency transfer of $1,000 or more occurs, the client’s identity must be verified. This step is critical in the digital currency world, where anonymity can lead to misuse.

“If there is a virtual currency exchange of $1,000 or more, identity verification is also required. This helps ensure that all exchanges are transparent and not used for illegal purposes.”

If you find a smartphone game that pays more than $1,000 a pop…let me know.

And if you want to transact crypto, StealthEX supports no-KYC transactions:

“Thanks to StealthEX you can now purchase an amount of crypto without KYC if it’s less than $700 or the equivalent of this amount in other currencies. As long as your total purchases don’t exceed $700, you don’t have to verify your identity. You can make one big purchase or several small $20, $50 or $100 transactions. StealthEX allows users to seamlessly exchange their assets across chains in minutes without the need to verify their identity.”

Yeah, $700 rather than $1,000. StealthEX is…um…playing it safe.

What is “Know Your Business” (KYB)?

I run in circles that use the acronym KYB, or “Know Your Business.” But I realize that many of you don’t use this acronym every day, so I thought I would explain it.

Let’s say that you encounter a business such as ByteDance or HiveLLM or Lorem Ipsum and you want to know more about it.

There are good reasons to understand a business before engaging with it.

“As financial institutions and other businesses have known for years, there are services such as “Know Your Customer” and “Know Your Business” that organizations can use. 

“KYC and KYB let companies make sure they’re dealing with real people, and that the business is legitimate and not a front for another company—or for a drug cartel or terrorist organization.”

Even if you’re not dealing with extremist terrorists, you may want to have a better understanding of where the business is and/or who runs the business. Remembering that the legal owner of the business may not be the one who is actually operating it. For example, the Mob Museum documents the original ownership of the late Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas:

“Miami hotelier Ben Jaffe (part owner of the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach) owned the land on which the casino would sit, but Conquistador Inc. would build and operate the resort.

“It just so happened that Conquistador’s owner, “Dandy” Phil Kastel, had a long and fruitful partnership with Frank Costello, perhaps the nation’s most infamous gangster in the spring of 1957…. And it almost goes without saying that most ‘Miami hotel men’ who came to Las Vegas in this era were more than familiar with Meyer Lansky, another famous gangland name.”

Unfortunately for Costello, people soon knew HIS business:

“On May 2, 1957, while entering a New York apartment building, Costello was shot and wounded by Vincent “the Chin” Gigante on orders from rival Mafia boss Vito Genovese. Written on a piece of paper found by police inside Costello’s coat pocket was the exact gross win from the Tropicana as of April 27, 1957 — $651,284, less $153,745 in markers (loans to players), with the proceeds from slot machines at $62,844. The note mentioned $30,000 for “L” and $9,000 for “H,” likely money to be skimmed on behalf of Costello’s underworld partner Meyer Lansky and perhaps for Mob-connected Teamsters union boss James Hoffa. It was a big national news story.”

It’s best to know your business BEFORE it’s splashed all over the media.

Know Your Political Influencer

In an article with a clickbait title, Newsweek reported on the indictment of Massachusetts state Representative Christopher Flanagan on various fraud charges. One of the allegations:

“Beyond the five wire fraud counts, the grand jury also indicted him on one count of falsifying documents related to a campaign flier. The mailer from “Conservatives for Dennis” endorsed Flanagan….[He attributed] “the source of the Mailer to a false persona, ‘Jeanne Louise,'” whom he created for the endorsement….In October 2023, he admitted to OCPF that Jeanne Louise “was fake” and he was the source of the mailer.”

There is so much effort to identify voters. What about identifying the sources of political endorsements?

Does your company have a solution to this? I can help you tell your story. Go to https://bredemarket.com/cpa/.

(Picture from Imagen 3)

Jobseekers and Know Your (Fill in the Blank)

I’ve noticed that my LinkedIn posts on jobseeking perform much better than my LinkedIn posts on the technical intricacies of multifactor identity verification.

But maybe I can achieve both mass appeal and niche engagement.

Private Equity Talent Hunt and Emma Emily

A year ago I reposted something on LinkedIn about a firm called Private Equity Talent Hunt (among other names). As Shelly Jones originally explained, their business model is to approach a jobseeker about an opportunity, ask for a copy of the jobseeker’s resume, and then spring the bad news that the resume is not “ATS friendly” but can be fixed…for a fee.

The repost has garnered over 20,000 impressions and over 200 comments—high numbers for me. 

It looks like a lot of people are encountering Jennifer Cona, Elizabeth Vardaman, Sarah Williams, Jessica Raymond, Emily Newman, Emma Emily (really), and who knows how many other recruiters…

…who say they work at Private Equity Talent Hunt, Private Equity Recruiting Firm, Private Equity Talent Seek, and who knows how many other firms.

If only there were a way to know if you’re communicating with a real person, at a real business.

Actually, there is.

Know Your Customer and Business

As financial institutions and other businesses have known for years, there are services such as “Know Your Customer” and “Know Your Business” that organizations can use. 

KYC and KYB let companies make sure they’re dealing with real people, and that the business is legitimate and not a front for another company—or for a drug cartel or terrorist organization.

So if a company is approached by Emma Emily at Private Equity Talent Hunt, what do they need to do?

The first step is to determine whether Emma Emily is a real person and not a synthetic identity. You can use a captured facial image, analyzed by liveness detection, coupled with a valid government ID, and possibly supported by home ownership information, utility bills, and other documentation.

If there is no Emma Emily, you can stop there.

But if Emma Emily is a real person, you can check her credentials. Where is she employed today? Where was she employed before? What are her post secondary degrees? What does her LinkedIn profile say? If her previous job was as a jewelry designer and her Oxford degree was in nuclear engineering, Emma Emily sounds risky.

And you can also check the business itself, such as Private Equity Talent Hunt. Check their website, business license, LinkedIn profile, and everything else about the firm.

But I’m not a business!

OK, I admit there’s an issue here.

There are over 100 businesses that provide identity verification services, and many of them provide KYC and KYB.

To other businesses.

Very few people purchase KYC and KYB per se for personal use.

So you have to improvise.

Ask Emma Emily some tough questions.

Ask her about the track record of her employer.

And if Emma Emily claims to be a recruiter for a well-known company like Amazon, ask for her corporate email address.

(Image from Microsoft Copilot)

Know Your…Passenger

(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

OK, here’s another “KYx” acronym courtesy Facephi…Know Your Passenger.

And this is a critical one, and has been critical since…well, about September 11, 2001.

I saw Steve Craig’s reshare of the Facephi press release, which includes the following:

Currently, passengers must verify their identity at multiple checkpoints throughout a single journey, leading to delays and increased congestion at airports. To address this challenge, Facephi has developed technology that enables identity validation before arriving at the airport, reducing wait times and ensuring a seamless and secure travel experience. This innovation has already been successfully tested in collaboration with IATA through a proof of concept conducted last November.

More here.

The idea of creating an ecosystem in which identity is known throughout the entire passenger journey is not new to Facephi, of course. I remember that Safran developed a similar concept in the 2010s before it sold off Morpho, MorphoTrust, MorphoTrak, and Morpho Detection. And I’ve previously discussed the SITA-IDEMIA-Indico “Digital Travel Ecosystem.”

But however it’s accomplished, seamless travel benefits everyone…except the terrorists.

Behind “No KYC” Crypto

This ad displayed in a smartphone game I was playing and linked to a downloadable app in Apple’s App Store. Possibly Google’s and Samsung’s official stores offer this app also.

You know, the authorized places to get apps—for our own protection.

So what’s the big deal about “no KYC” apps? CoinLedger explains. Note: this post is constantly updated to reflect regulatory changes. The text below was captured this morning.

“KYC stands for Know Your Customer. This refers to a set of standards and regulations that allow financial institutions to verify a customer’s identity. KYC laws were originally put into place to protect against money laundering and terrorist activity. 

“Exchanges that abide by KYC policies will ask you for information like your name, address, and a copy of government-issued ID upon signup….

“MexC is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2018 and headquartered in Seychelles. 

“You can get started using the platform with no KYC. However, MecX does require KYC for certain types of transactions, such as crypto-to-crypto and derivative trades. 

“For years, MexC was one of the most popular no KYC exchanges in the United States. However, MexC stopped offering services to US customers in 2023. Trying to get around this restriction with a VPN may lead to you losing access to your crypto.”

People for Sale

News about iProov. According to Metropoler, the company discovered a dark web group in Latin America. 

The group is

“amassing a substantial collection of identity documents and corresponding facial images, specifically designed to defeat Know Your Customer (KYC) verification processes. Rather than traditional theft, these identities may have been obtained through compensated participation, with individuals willingly providing their image and documentation in exchange for payment.”

To uncover such fraudulent activity, a mere government ID to selfie comparison is not enough, since both are from a real person. You need more sophisticated checks such as liveness detection, which iProov offers. You can find iProov’s ISO 30107-3 Presentation Attack Detection Level 2 confirmation letters on iBeta’s page.

But why?

Why would anyone sell their identity, either legitimately (to the World ex Worldcoin folks) or illegitimately (to this dark web outfit)?

Sadly, desperation. If you have a basic need to eat, who cares who is using your ID and what they’re doing with it?

A3ML: When Regular AML is Not Good Enough

As some of you know, AML stands for Anti-Money Laundering. It ensures that money given to Johnny Angel doesn’t end up in the hands of Vladimir Putin. This impacts financial institutions:

“Banks had to follow government regulations (know your customer, anti-money laundering, know your business), even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.”

But AML goes far beyond banks because of its national security implications. Which means the military has to get involved.

Therefore DARPA has entered the picture, with its Program Announcement (posted on SAM as DARPA-SN-25-23) for something DARPA calls “Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering,” or A3ML.

Uh, what? GovTribe explains:

“The program seeks to develop sophisticated algorithmic methods that can analyze financial transaction graphs and detect suspicious patterns more effectively than existing manual processes. This initiative represents a significant shift towards proactive and predictive financial crime detection methodologies.”

Of course, the introduction of the word “predictive” raises alarm bells, based upon activities outside of banking. At best, police potentially waste a lot of time investigating every single broken tail light. At worst, Muslim lawyer Brandon Mayfield becomes a suspect for a crime he didn’t commit.

Hopefully the people pursuing A3ML can minimize bias.