Brandy Derrick

The card reader worked. That is the part that would bother me. No error message. No frozen screen. No customer complaining that their card would not go through. The machine sat on the counter doing exactly what everyone expected it to do. Except it may have been stealing card information at the same time. That … Read more

The letter looks official. It mentions the Corporate Transparency Act, warns of penalties, and points to a form you have never seen. There is a deadline, a QR code, and a fee to make the problem disappear. That paper trail has all the props of compliance. It is also exactly where a fraud investigation should … Read more

The $545,598 Payment Change That Looked Like Routine Business The invoice was real. The contractor was real. The work had been completed, and the payment was expected. Only the destination was false. On March 13, 2026, the Town of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, issued a $545,598.30 ACH payment intended for Wildcat Contractors. The contractor did … Read more

The Route-Sales Blind Spot: Inventory Left the Truck, but the Store Never Bought It The product left the warehouse. The paperwork said it reached the stores. The cash allegedly took a different route. Police in western Pennsylvania say a former delivery driver for Stewart Snacks, LLC sold Little Debbie products for cash at flea markets, … Read more

The Slide Looked Better Than the Bank Account The first clue was not hidden in a back alley. It was sitting in the presentation deck. A founder told investors the business was growing. The revenue looked stronger than it was. The profits looked better than the records supported. The bank balance, according to prosecutors, was … Read more

The Deposit That Should Not Be There The case starts with a quiet line on a bank statement. A refund lands by ACH. The descriptor looks educational. The account receiving it does not look like a student account. There is no tuition history, no ordinary school-related activity, no sensible business purpose. Then the money moves … Read more

The receipt looked fine. It had a vendor name. A date. An amount. A description that would not raise many eyebrows inside an IT department. Uninterruptible power supply units. Battery backups. The kind of equipment a nonprofit’s technology director might reasonably buy. Except that was not what he bought. According to federal prosecutors, the actual … Read more

The debit does not look like a crime scene. It looks like a vendor charge. Maybe a marketing fee. Maybe a software subscription someone forgot to cancel. The amount is not outrageous. The name is vague, but not alarming. So it sits there. That is the danger. On July 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of … Read more

Fraud does not always start with a fake business. Sometimes the business is real. The phone number works. The vehicles exist. The customers know the name. The paperwork looks ordinary enough to pass through the system without raising its hand. That is the uncomfortable part. In a recent case out of the Eastern District of … Read more

Some fraud kicks the door in. Check fraud usually does not. It waits in the daily paperwork. It hides between deposits, transfers, overdrafts, and explanations that sound reasonable enough in the moment. One delay becomes two. One exception becomes a habit. Before long, the numbers are telling a story nobody has stopped to read. That … Read more