FRANKLY SPEAKING BY FRANK LEGATO
The Human Firewall
Iwas in Las Vegas in late February , because Eilers & Krejcik Gaming always has me hand out the EKG Slot Award for the Top Performing New Mechanical Reel Core Game . This is always the one I hand out , because the folks at Eilers know I like the old reel-spinners .
The winner was Blazing 777 Triple Double Jackpot Wild Nudge from Light & Wonder , which happens to pack everything cool about old reel-spinners into one game . Sevens . Blazing , even . Multiplying wilds . Triple and double jackpots . Nudging symbols .
I wanted to play this game before I even saw it . In fact , I ’ m playing it right now , while I write this column . Really . Ask my wife .
The same week I was in Las Vegas , I managed to catch a couple of sessions at Willy Allison ’ s World Game Protection Conference , the great annual security and surveillance educational program , at the Tropicana .
( The Trop has definitely seen better days , by the way . It closes April 2 after 67 years and , I think , one refurbishment . Rest in peace .)
These conference sessions on casino scams and fraud shed a bit of light on something that had perplexed me — the scams where casino cage employees get a call from someone they think is their boss , and dutifully pack hundreds of thousands in cash into a box or sack and deliver it to a stranger off the property .
If you ’ re a devotee of this column — and hey , who isn ’ t ?— you know that I wrote about several of these scams in my September 2023 column . In fact , there was a new development in one case I wrote about , which I ’ ll get to directly .
At the conference , Christopher Hadnagy , author of Human Hacking , talked about “ vishing ,” which is hacking lingo for “ voice phishing .” It has to do with that dreaded artificial intelligence . Hadnagy explained that AI enables hackers to replicate any voice .
According to Hadnagy , scammers are using AI to break through what he calls the “ human firewall .”
OK , fine , but that human firewall appears to be paper-thin in these cases . The experts say to always question any request that seems unusual , even if it sounds like your boss .
Like , say , delivering a bundle of cash in a box to a gas station parking lot ? That happened in at least three cases last year . The feds actually made an arrest in the latest case , collaring a guy last month for scamming the Pokagon Band ’ s Four Winds Hartford casino out of $ 700,000 .
In this case , the defendant was the guy in the gas station parking lot . A casino supervisor had taken a call from someone claiming to be the Pokagon tribal chairperson , who said she needed funds to make an “ urgent payment .” The supervisor gathered $ 700,000 in cash and delivered it to — you guessed it — a gas station in Gary , Indiana .
Jesus Gaytan-Garcia was later identified as the “ official ” who met the supervisor at the gas station and took the cash . ( Oops . They have surveillance cameras in their parking lots . They should have used the restroom .) After they identified him , they searched his home and found stacks of cash with bands marked “ Hartford .” ( Oops . Maybe he shouldn ’ t have left that lying around .)
Never mind the bag man ’ s clumsiness . I ’ m looking at the paper-thin human firewall . I ’ ve been working for the same boss for the better part of three decades . I know his voice . But if he calls me and tells me to gather up a bunch of cash and deliver it to an anonymous stranger in a parking lot , my first words will be along the lines of , “ Are you high ?”
I might take money to a bank or something , but I ’ m not giving it to some shmoe standing next to a gas station dumpster .
Of course , gaming industry magazine offices don ’ t generally have drawers full of cash like casinos do . But still ...
“ Frank , this is the boss . I need you to gather half a million in cash and take it to my exwife ’ s condo . Have her put it in the cardigan sweater I left there .” “ Sure thing , boss !” This kind of thing is happening more and more . People are even running scams based on scams . The Colorado cage cashier I wrote about last September came clean that she had been lying when she said she thought a caller was her supervisor . Turns out her accomplice ratted on her for a reduced sentence . According to one press report , confronted with this , she changed her story , saying that acquaintances of her deceased ex-husband “ forced her to engage in the theft after levying threats against her family members .” Yeah , good luck with that . We need a thicker human firewall .
42 Global Gaming Business APRIL 2024