fraud

Reports are trickling out from Sony PlayStation Network users about recent fraudulent charges on the credit cards they used for the PlayStation service. But it can't be substantiated at this time whether the fraud is a result of the data breach at Sony, and the timing of the reports could be coincidental.

Sony warned yesterday that customer names, e-mail addresses, birthdays, passwords, usernames, and possibly credit card account information was obtained by an "unauthorized person" between April 17 and 19. As many as 75 million customer accounts are affected.

The company has not said how the breach … Read more

Small and medium-size businesses in the U.S. lost more than $11 million over the past year in online scams in which stolen banking credentials were used in fraudulent wire transfers to companies in China, the FBI said.

There were 20 such incidents between March 2010 and April 2011, affecting companies and public institutions in the U.S. that tend to have accounts at local community banks and credit unions, some of which use third-party service providers for online banking services, according to the agency. The amounts transferred at any one time ranged from tens of thousands of dollars to … Read more

Albert Gonzalez, the hacker who pleaded guilty to leading one of the largest cases of credit card theft in the U.S., is asking a judge to toss out the pleas, arguing that they were part of his assignments as a paid government informant.

"I still believe that I was acting on behalf of the United States Secret Service and that I was authorized and directed to engage in the conduct I committed as part of my assignment to gather intelligence and seek out international cybercriminals," Gonzalez wrote in a 25-page petition filed March 24 with the U.… Read more

People are finding charges on their mobile phone bills that they say weren't authorized, including mystery text services that appear out of nowhere and charge for content that people believed was free.

I was the victim of a scam recently in which $9.99 was charged to my cellular account for so-called "inspiration" text messages for which I definitely did not sign up. The phone, a BlackBerry on Sprint, is a second phone kept around for emergencies only and had not been used for about a month before the text messages were noticed.

I halted the service … Read more

A former manager at Apple has pleaded guilty in a major kickback case that could land him 20 years in prison.

Paul Shin Devine, once employed at Apple as a supply manager, admitted guilt yesterday in federal court in San Jose, Calif., on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. He was accused of taking kickbacks from Apple suppliers in exchange for information, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Devine, who worked at Apple from 2005 through 2010, sent forecasts, roadmaps, product specifications, and other confidential information to Asian suppliers and manufacturers of Apple components, according to … Read more

Alibaba.com, the largest e-commerce site in China, announced today that two senior executives had resigned after an internal investigation found a rise in fraudulent activity on the site.

Chief Executive Officer David Wei and Chief Operating Officer Elvis Lee Shi-Huei were not involved in the rise in fraud but were taking responsibility for the "systemic breakdown" in the company's "culture of integrity," Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said in a statement (PDF).

More than 2,300 fraudulent storefronts registered on the site in 2009 and 2010 as "Gold Suppliers," offering inexpensive electronics for … Read more

After a New York Times magazine article exposed his bizarre business tactic of courting the worst customer feedback possible so that infuriated buyers would leave negative commentary online, boosting his Google search results, DecorMyEyes.com eyeglass proprietor Vitaly Borker has been arrested on charges of cyberstalking, making interstate threats, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

The original story about DecorMyEyes, published on November 26, detailed the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Borker's tactics of harassing, cheating, and bullying customers, sometimes under pseudonyms and often with threats of obscenity and violence, to the point that several of them contacted the police. He … Read more

Victims of identity fraud should now have some extra help in the San Francisco Bay Area with a new grassroots organization, the Identity Theft Council.

The Identity Theft Council, which launched last week, is training volunteers at banks, credit unions, schools, law enforcement groups, and other organizations to work with consumers who have had their Social Security number, financial data, or other sensitive information pilfered. Theft of such information puts people at risk of having their names used for identity fraud.

"This is a neighborhood watch for the 21st century," Neal O'Farrell, executive director of the Identity … Read more

For the first time ever, more companies are suffering from electronic theft than from physical theft, according to the results of a poll released yesterday by risk consultancy Kroll.

The firm's fourth "Annual Global Fraud Report" (PDF) found that the amount of money lost by businesses to all kinds of fraud rose over the past 12 months to $1.7 million per billion dollars of sales from $1.4 million, a gain of more than 20 percent.

And with that overall increase came a notable shift, with electronic theft just edging out physical theft. The theft of … Read more