fraud

Think of the worst thing you have ever swallowed. Haggis, perhaps? Maybe pig's ear? Arguments you have swallowed don't count.

You see, I want to get you into the appropriate mood for the story of Florin Necula. Necula seems to have gotten himself into a bothersome situation with the upstanding members of our Secret Service.

According to the Smoking Gun, they thought he might have been involved in an ingenious, if somewhat illegal, technological exercise, whereby he and several co-defendants used card readers to gain magnetic-strip information from cards that had been inserted into ATM machines.

The agents arrested him and took him to a Secret Service office in Brooklyn. U.S District Court filings allege that peculiar things ensued there. The most peculiar involved one of the pieces of evidence--a Kingston flash drive.

Agent Joseph Borger (no relation to Lucretia) said that Necula "grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed."

I have never swallowed a flash drive. I imagine it to be worse than swallowing, say, a sock. At least the sock would go soft, whereas the flash drive would surely scratch the epiglotis.

Once you've swallowed it, however, I imagine your insides don't make like a happy pinball machine. In Necula's case, the flash drive seems to have become the camel that was unable to pass through the eye of a needle. … Read more

Four men accused of using a network of computers and automated software to buy up online tickets to concerts and sporting events and selling them at a profit were indicted on fraud, conspiracy, and computer hacking charges, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

They allegedly made more than $25 million by re-selling more than 1.5 million of the "most coveted tickets" to performances by Bruce Springsteen, Hannah Montana, Bon Jovi, Barbara Streisand, and Billy Joel; shows including Wicked and The Producers; sporting events such as the 2006 Rose Bowl and 2007 Major League Baseball playoff games at Yankee … Read more

An unknown number of current and former employees of credit reporting firm Equifax received W-2 forms in the mail with their Social Security numbers visible through a window on the envelope, CNET has learned.

Equifax became aware of the problem on January 19 and informed employees in a letter dated January 27, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNET.

Specifically, some of the tax forms mailed by Equifax's payroll vendor through the U.S. Postal Service had the Social Security number in a Control Number field, which was partially or fully viewable through the return address … Read more

Chip-and-PIN readers can be tricked into accepting transactions without a valid personal identification number, opening the door to fraud, researchers have found.

Researchers at Cambridge University have found a fundamental flaw (PDF) in the EMV--Europay, MasterCard, Visa--protocol that underlies chip-and-PIN validation for debit and credit cards.

As a consequence, a device can be created to modify and intercept communications between a card and a point-of-sale terminal, and fool the terminal into accepting that a PIN verification has succeeded.

Read more of "Chip and PIN is broken, say researchers at ZDNet UK.

London police are setting up two specialist teams to deal with aspects of e-crime and ticketing fraud surrounding the 2012 Olympic Games.

One of the teams will be dedicated to tackling e-crime related to the Olympics, such as attempted hacks on computer systems and fraud aimed at sponsors and prospective visitors. The other will focus on the prevention of ticketing fraud and other physical crime and will investigate ticketing Web sites. Recruitment is under way for the Olympics e-crime team, which is already investigating Web sites suspected of being set up to launch phishing attacks.

The computer systems at the … Read more

Google is taking legal action to stop companies from allegedly using the search giant's name to trick people into paying for supposed work-at-home kits advertised online and in e-mails.

The company filed a lawsuit on Monday in federal court in Salt Lake City against Pacific WebWorks and other, unnamed defendants alleging trademark infringement and dilution, unfair competition, federal cyberpiracy, and violation of consumer sales practices. The lawsuit can be amended to add the names of additional defendants as they are uncovered.

"This action seeks to stop a widespread Internet advertising scam that is defrauding the public by misusing … Read more

Web shoppers are a suspicious lot. That's the conclusion of a recent poll conducted by Zogby International and funded by Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance. The survey found that 63 percent of online shoppers abandoned a purchase due to security concerns.

Among the reasons given for failing to complete the transaction were sites that asked for too much information, uncertainty about how their personal data would be used by the site, and lack of faith in the site's security. These are all valid concerns.

CNET News reporter Greg Sandoval describes recent Congressional hearings on bogus online loyalty programs … Read more

RSA FraudAction Research Lab has uncovered the workings behind a recent re-shipping scam in which U.S. residents were used as mules to send goods purchased with stolen credit card numbers overseas.

The operation began a year ago and received applications from more than 1,900 people, though only 33 people were "hired," according to an RSA FraudAction Research Lab blog post on Thursday.

Laptops, iPods, iPhones, Nokia smartphones, digital cameras, Sony PlayStation 3 devices, and DJ equipment were among the items shipped to addresses in Russia and Belarus. RSA estimates that more than $36,000 worth of … Read more

For the last decade or so, Internet service providers have been dealing with requests to block access to pornographic or copyright-infringing Web sites, or in China, ones that dare to criticize the government.

Now a U.S. House of Representatives bill is taking the unusual step of requiring Internet providers to block access to online financial scams that fraudulently invoke the Securities Investor Protection Corporation--or face fines and federal court injunctions.

The House Financial Services Committee approved the legislation on Wednesday by a 41 to 28 vote.

If you've never heard of the SIPC, you're not alone. … Read more