fraud

A security researcher has unearthed evidence via Google and its Chinese counterpart that supports claims that several Chinese gymnasts are younger than they should be for competing.

The New York Times was probably the first to report about digital evidence that the Chinese athletes are underage.

"Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He (Kexin) and Jiang (Yuyuan) may be as young as 14--two years below the Olympic limit," … Read more

The whole Freeiphoneswap.com process (see part 1) got me worrying and thinking about fraud. And, with frustrations about the iPhone's battery common among bloggers and friends alike, you know there is a lawsuit looming out there as some plaintiff-side law firm will want to take Apple to task for allegedly misrepresenting the iPhone's battery life (both the first generation and 3G). Whether these would-be rentseekers have a claim a jury would buy will be seen.

But thinking about it, Apple says this about the iPhone's battery life:

Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G Up … Read more

The concept of corporate governance implies consistent and effective laws, methods, and metrics for governing our nation's public companies. The sad fact is that there is no such thing. It's a myth. Here's why:

People talk about the fiduciary responsibility of boards of directors. What that means, in plain speak, is that boards are supposed to:

1) Hire and fire the CEO and appoint other corporate officers 2) Compensate the CEO and other corporate officers 3) Oversee corporate strategy 4) Represent shareholders in the transparent and effective governance of the company

As an ex-officer of several public companies and as a consultant, I've been involved with lots of boards, executive staffs, investment banks, VCs, corporate attorneys, and the like. At least in my experience, boards don't operate the way they're supposed to.

Let's take the last point first. Shareholders are offered a slate of directors and a handful of issues to rubberstamp. That means they have two choices: accept or reject.

Now, let me ask you this. If your spouse or doctor says, "Here's my recommendation, take it or leave it," what do you do? That's right, you take it. Is it the best thing for you? Who the heck knows? You had a gun to your head so you nodded up and down.… Read more

Click fraud, in which advertisers have to pay for bogus clicks on text ads, dropped only a smidgen to 16.2 percent of clicks in the second quarter from 16.1 percent in the first, according to new data from Click Forensics, a company that monitors such activity.

Companies including Google and Yahoo with networks to show ads with search and on partner web sites have efforts to protect against click fraud. However, the company said Tuesday, click fraud is getting harder to counter.

"Although click fraud rates were relatively unchanged in the second quarter, we found that the … Read more

Worried about identity theft and fraudulent e-commerce sites?

BuySAFE may have something for you. The company launched a free desktop application on Tuesday called buySAFE Shopping Advisor that offers ratings on U.S.-based e-commerce sites.

The sites are rated based on whether they are using valid SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption for data transmission, whether the sites are regularly inspected for security vulnerabilities, have a published privacy policy, and whether the merchant is bonded.

The integrated browser tool also offers a portal to 3,000 shopping sites where purchases are guaranteed with a bond of up to $25,000 … Read more

Click fraud, or the act of clicking on text search ads for ill-gotten gains, is the nuisance of the multibillion-dollar search industry.

So Click Forensics, one of the largest independent click-fraud auditors, has teamed up with Yahoo to take some of the pain out of the process for advertisers that want to recoup costs associated with fraudulent clicks.

Click Forensics on Wednesday said it built software in partnership with Yahoo that lets advertisers automatically query Yahoo when Click Forensics detects click fraud in a search-advertising campaign. Called Factr, or Fully Automated Click Tracking Reconciliation, the software is a new feature … Read more

Corporate fraud didn't start with Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom and it didn't end with them, either. Fraud is rampant in the technology industry. What most employees, investors, and consumers don't realize is how much it costs them.

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people think there's some magic pile of dough somewhere that pays for companies to comply with investigations, contest charges, and remedy issues. In fact, the costs are born primarily by the corporation. That means it comes right out of shareholders' and employees' pockets. Consumers also pay, albeit indirectly.

And yes, we're talking about costs that materially impact earnings, balance sheets, and cash flow. We're talking about internal and outside lawyers, accountants, consultants, crisis PR, D&O (directors and officers) insurance, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, exit packages, and even recruiting costs to replace executives.

Of course, the biggest cost is in terms of loss of market capitalization.… Read more

On Wednesday, Verizon Business released a four-year study concluding that 9 out of 10 corporate data breaches could have been prevented, had appropriate security measures been taken. The Verizon report includes the results of more than 500 forensic investigations, including three of the largest data breaches ever reported.

Meanwhile, the Identity Theft Resource Center released its 2007 report on identity theft, offering comparisons to data it's collected over the last five years.

Verizon found that 73 percent of the data breaches were the result of outside sources, with only 18 percent from insider threats. Of the outside sources, 39 … Read more

A California man may have figured out a novel way to make money at home with little effort, but the alleged penny-pinching scheme may land him in jail.

Michael Largent, of Plumas Lake, has been indicted on nine counts of fraud for allegedly creating thousands of accounts creating a script to open up more than 58,000 online brokerage accounts at E-Trade and Schwab.com using bogus information and aliases, including cartoon characters, Wired.com reported on Tuesday.

As is customary when new accounts are linked to bank accounts, the brokerages sent "micro-deposits"--anywhere from 1 cent to $… Read more