thefts

Evidence can be a menace.

You think you've gotten away with something, and then that moment comes along when you suddenly remember that perhaps you've left a clue.

This thought may (or may not) have crossed the mind of an alleged cell phone thief.

As the New York Post reports, police in the Bronx feel sure that what happened is that a certain man -- whose picture they now have -- robbed a 27-year-old woman of her gadget.

He then allegedly used it to take a quite fetching picture of himself smoking pot.

This would not be the … Read more

Identity thieves are more active than ever. In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 2 million consumer complaints overall, and for the 13th consecutive year, identity theft was the most-common complaint category: 369,132 ID-theft reports were added to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network in the year, an increase of more than 30 percent from 2011.

Last week the FTC released its 2012 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book (PDF). According to the report, the fastest-growing category of identity theft relates to government documents and benefits: complaints in this category increased 46 percent from calendar-year 2010. Credit-card fraud (… Read more

Smartphones are so common now that it's easy to forget criminals will steal them if you give them the opportunity.

Apple device thefts in New York have gotten so bad that the New York Police Department created a team dedicated to recovering stolen iDevices, the New York Post reported today.

The team works with Apple to obtain ID numbers -- known as International Mobile Station Equipment Identity numbers -- for devices to help track down the stolen goods.

The number of thefts of such devices in the city soared last year, according to a report from the NYPD. The … Read more

While cyberattacks and hacking seem to be constantly making headlines these days, identity fraud is also on the rise.

A new report by Javelin Strategy and Research shows that identity fraud has increased for the last three years in a row -- affecting more than 5 percent of U.S. adults. In 2012, 12.6 million people were identity victims.

According to Javelin, identity fraud is up 4.9 percent from 2011 and 4.35 percent from 2010. The firm said that scammers are increasingly gaining access to people's personal information and accounts through data breaches and malware attacks.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Clouds and strife: Building the world of BioShock Infinite.

- The bootleg games of Nairobi's Diamond Plaza.

- Leaked video appears to reveal Google's touch Chromebook.

- Someone forgot to pay their bill at MichelinGuides.com, now Michel in Guides.

- The FBI's official tips to avoid being sexually extorted online.… Read more

Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most anticipated game launches of 2013, but right now, its actual release date is the subject of debate in the gaming business.

Take-Two Interactive, the company publishing Grand Theft Auto V, announced last week that the title will launch September 17. Soon after, gamers and analysts speculated if the launch delay (the game was supposed to be available in the spring) could have something to do with Take-Two planning to deliver the title to next-generation consoles.

Speculation abounds that either Microsoft or Sony -- or both -- could launch their next-generation consoles … Read more

Say sayonara to a spring release date: Developer Rockstar Games has announced it pushed back the release date of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V to September 17 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

A Rockstar blog post noted the violent open-world adventure game "needs a little more polish to be of the standard we, and more importantly, you require." … Read more

Kensington has launched a system called Proximo that it promises will alert people when items like keys and iPhones are lost or stolen.

The Proximo kit consists of an iPhone app, a key fob for a keychain, and a third device to track something else like a backpack or car, the company announced at CES. If the items get too far apart -- people can specify the exact distances, which are measured wirelessly using BlueTooth -- they sound an alarm.

The fobs and app each come with buttons that triggers an audible alarm from a paired device to help locate … Read more

This rule applies in business, just as it does in love: when someone does you wrong, find their weak spot.

This is something that 27-year-old Nadav Nirenberg of Park Slope in Brooklyn apparently understands so well. Or at least his crazy story suggests he does.

As the New York Post tells it tells it, you see, he left his iPhone 4 in a cab on New Year's Eve. 2013 was still in its infancy when he supposedly learned that someone was using the phone to find dates.

How did he know? OKCupid began to send him alerts. So he logged on to the site and saw that he had apparently sent messages to girls -- when he knew he hadn't.

Men, though, are weak. Flatter them and their knees go weak, their tongues emerge, and their brains function according to highly unscientific principles.

So, according to the Post, Nirenberg created a female profile, with a picture of an alluring lady, and set about seducing, well, himself.… Read more