I’ve been blogging since 2008 –  I used to do so once a week to build up my online profile. Now I post about once a month. My tracking data suggest that I have a small, loyal, unsolicited following that's about the same size as my LinkedIn network. I could conclude that there's no direct, or obvious, return on my blogging investment, and that it's a waste of time.

Q: so what’s the point if my blog is more like a personal diary than a published work?

A: practice, not popularity, makes the master.

On one of my dog-walking routes I pass by an old Chinese woman who does her Tai Chi routine alone and in silence every morning. No one greets her, interrupts her, or tells her that she’s doing great. She’s a study of meditation in motion. Graceful, focused and precise. She is a master immersed in her moment. 

Four to five times a week I swim in the local community center. I see two kinds of people:

• people who are about 40-50 years of age that to keep fit and are squeezing an energetic 1/2 hour swim into their hectic daily schedule.
• older asian women. About 60-75 years of age. Like the Tai Chi Master, I see on my morning walks, these women are also inspirational examples of meditation in motion. They swim with grace, pace and intention. 

I used to confuse many of those I worked with by appearing to have a solid answer for every communications problem that they brought to me to sort out. They’ll know as much as I did - and more - if they stick with it for 40 years. A few will, most won't. 

Blogging is a mental exercise that I (continue to) use to hone my communication skills.

It forces me to think clearly and succinctly, and it affects everything else that I do. 

The masters I see in the park and in the pool encourage me to become a master as well. And to trust my heart and follow it down new, unknown paths.

Brand Equity is everything. Great R&D, production, marketing, sales and service are all needed to bring a brand to life, and make it flourish for generations. Brands like AMEX, Ford, Maxwell House Coffee are intergenerational powerhouses – and they are the ones that stand the most to lose to AI fraud because when you get burned in a brand-scam, like ordering a case of Maxwell House Coffee for 50% off with your VISA card, you lose faith in human nature as well as Maxwell House Coffee and VISA.  

WHAT CAN YOU AS A ADVERTISING AND MARKETING PROFESSSIONAL DO TO MAKE THE BRANDS YOU SUPPORT MORE FRAUD PROOF.

Hint: less online sales are better.

Visa now employes artificial intelligence to reduce fraudulent transactions as scammers also take to AI.

"We look at over 500 different attributes around [each] transaction, we score that and we create a score – there's an AI model that can do that. We do about 300 billion transactions a year," said James Mirfin, global head of risk and identity solutions. 

Fraudsters use generative AI to make their scams more convincing than ever, leading to unprecedented losses for consumers, according to a Visa report.

The company prevented $40 billion in fraudulent activity from October 2022 to September 2023 - nearly double the fraudulent amount prevented in the previous year.

Scammers use AI to generate primary account numbers [PAN] and test them consistently. The PAN is a card identifier, usually 16 digits long, but it can be up to 19 digits in some instances. 

Using AI bots, criminals repeatedly attempt to submit online transactions through a combination of primary account numbers, card verification values (CVV) and expiration dates until they get an approval response. This method, known as an enumeration attack, leads to $1.1 billion in fraud losses annually, comprising a significant share of overall global losses due to fraud, according to Visa.

To reduce the number of fraudulent transactions VISA looks at over 500 different attributes around each transaction. The transaction is then scored, and we create a score for it. Each transaction is assigned a real-time risk score that helps detect and prevent more enumeration attacks in transactions where a purchase is processed remotely without a physical card via a card reader or terminal.

Because we’re looking at a wide range of different attributes and we're evaluating every single transaction, we see new types of fraud emerging – and our model will see them and will catch them. Our AI model scores those transactions as high risk – allowing our customers to decide not to approve those transactions."

In the last five years, the firm has invested $10 billion in technology that helps reduce fraud and increase network security.

Generative AI enables fraud

Cybercriminals are turning to generative AI and other emerging technologies including voice cloning and deepfakes to scam people, Mirfin warned.

• Romance scams
• Investment scams
• “Pig butchering” – a scam tactic in which criminals build relationships with victims before convincing them to put their money into fake cryptocurrency trading or investment platforms.

In today’s global marketplace the criminals don’t sit in a market, pick up a phone and call someone. That’s far too labour intensive. They're using some level of artificial intelligence, whether it's a voice cloning, a deepfake video, or social engineering, they're using artificial intelligence to enact different types of fraud, Mirfin said. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT enable scammers to produce far more convincing phishing messages to dupe people.

With less than three seconds of audio, Cybercriminals can clone your voice, according to the U.S. based identity and access management company Okta. The voice clone can be used to trick your family members into thinking that you’re in trouble and need money, or trick banking employees into transferring funds out of your account.

Generative AI tools have also been exploited to create celebrity deepfakes to deceive fans, said Okta. Cybercriminals using generative AI to commit fraud can do it for a lot cheaper by targeting multiple victims at one time using the same or less resources, said Deloitte's Center for Financial Services in a report.

"Incidents like this will likely proliferate in the years ahead as bad actors find and deploy increasingly sophisticated, yet affordable, generative AI to defraud banks and their customers," the report said, estimating that generative AI could increase fraud losses to $40 billion in the U.S. by 2027, from $12.3 billion in 2023.

Earlier this year, an employee at a Hong Kong-based firm sent $25 million to a fraudster that had deep-faked his chief financial officer and instructed to make the transfer.

Chinese state media reported a similar case in Shanxi province this year where an employee was duped into transferring 1.86 million yuan ($262,000) to a fraudster who used a deepfake of her boss in a video call.

A few of my friends’ kids are graduating from Uni or College and will be starting the first of many jobs aligned with their chosen career path soon. Most will keep to their path for the next 20 or 30 years. Just as I did. Just as their parents did.

It reminds me of the Canadian Seniors who leave their homes in cities and towns all across Canada, converge and then head south on a handful of interstate highways in the fall. When they get to Florida, Arizona or Texas, they “fan out”, find their own special place and “do their own thing”. Golf, Pickle-Ball, Fishing, Seminars, etc.

Instead of being a “team player” retirement celebrates soloists.

When you’re employing three generations: 20 \ 40 \ 60-year-old employees it’s very important to understand their life-style stages because what motivates them varies greatly – regardless of their position and income.  

My mother, who was born in 1921 and lived through the insanity of WWII in Germany, frequently told me that "reality often alters the course of our lives and puts an end to our dreams and plans. But, when one door closes, another usually opens just when and where you lease expect it to do so. You have to have faith and keep your eyes, ears and heart open."  

Henry and Barbara Wehrmann in 1956. 

Obituary  ::  Barbara Julian Wehrmann 

My sister Barbara Julian Wehrmann was born on July 18, 1953 to Julia Franziska Wehrmann (nee Bendzko) and Heinrich Wilhelm Wehrmann, in Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. She was their fifth child and quickly became her father’s favourite.

Her older siblings included Petra Elizabeth, Heinrich Maxamillian, August, and Martin Alexander.

The Wehrmann family emigrated from Bremerhaven, Germany on November 28, 1954 and immigrated to Quebec City, Qc. Canada on December 10, 1954. Their first home in Canada was an apartment at 221 Agusta Ave., in Toronto’s Kensington Market District. From there the family moved to 18 Garden Ave. in 1956, and then to 66 Pine Crest Rd. in the High Park District in 1963.

From there Barbara graduated from Annette Street Public School, Humberside Collegiate, The University of Toronto, and Freiburg University, Germany. In her spare time she studied holistic health and became a highly accomplished Reiki Master.

Her first apartment was at #29 Jane Street – right across the hall from her best friend Rita. A few years later she bought her forever home at #73 Brookside Ave.

Barbara met her life-partner Boris Mario Kaminsky in the summer of 1973 while they both worked in a Toronto photo finishing lab.

Boris, the son of Ivan and Irina Kaminsky, was born on September 11, 1950 in Zagreb, Croatia, grew up in Brazil, and immigrated to Toronto in the early 1970’s.

Barb and Boris celebrated their son Michael's birth on May 26, 1992.

Barbara spent the majority of her career teaching English and German in private schools, corporate offices, and in the Berlitz School of Languages, both in Canada and Germany.

She was her parent’s primary care giver and co-ordinator for ten years.

On July 17, 2024, one day before her 71st birthday, Barbara was diagnosed with stage four lung, liver and intestine cancer.

She died two weeks later on July 30, 2024.

Her life-partner, Boris, died less than a year later on April 29, 2025. 

Barbara was predeceased by her parents, Julia and Heinrich Wehrmann as well as her older brother Henry. 

She will be remembered and missed by her son Michael, his wife Tiffany, remaining sister and brothers; Petra, August, Martin and Frank, as well as their partners, extended family, friends and neighbours.

At Barbara’s request, there was no funeral or a celebration of life.

PEACE     LOVE     UNDERSTANING

Obituary  ::  Barbara Julian Wehrmann