Marc de Beaucorps, CEO of Finovox, had the pleasure of talking with Jed Layouni, Fraud Manager for the multi-installation payment solution Alma. On the agenda of their discussion: the role of private actors in securing transactions, the decryption of new fraud techniques (phishing, payment fraud, smishing, identity theft), the fight against Document Fraud, best practices for preventing and detecting fraud in your organizations, as well as compelling stories. Discover an excerpt from this new episode of Fraud Hunters.
To find out more about Buy Now Pay Later, read our article, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL): what precautions should you take?
Marc de Beaucorps:
And in all the frauds you have been able to deal with, at Alma, or before, was there one that pushed you? Because of its ingenuity or because of very complex patterns?
Jed Layouni:
There is a fairly well-known fraud, it has gone around the world a bit. They are sellers who went to Ebay, before Paypal was owned by Ebay.
They were salesmen who sold PlayStation 5 boxes. They sold the box at 500 euros. But they only sold cardboard.
Marc de Beaucorps:
Was that written in the ad?
Jed Layouni:
It was written, yes, but the product was offered with the original box and the description of the PlayStation 5.
So you buy. You get a box. The buyer is not happy, of course. The seller insists that he did spell “cardboard” in the ad.
This ambiguity that the sellers were playing on is obviously a scam, let's just say it clearly for those who have bad ideas and want to do the same thing again today.
Marc de Beaucorps:
Has it been condemned?
Jed Layouni:
Of course. He went to court several times in England and each time he was convicted.
Selling boxes is not forbidden. Selling Video Game Collection Boxes is not forbidden and it sells very well. That is not the problem. The problem is that there was deception in the ad. Cardboards were sold, of course, but the seller wrote in Arial 12.”I sell the cardboard, I don't sell the PlayStation”. However, just above it described the PlayStation.
This technique is ingenious, isn't it? To find out more about fraudsters' schemes and how to counter them, listen to our podcast now by clicking below!
