Watch out, there be scammers about, warns watchdog

Grok Headline matches for Watch out, there be scammers about, warns watchdog

UK Watchdog bites mobile spam scammers

UK Watchdog bites mobile spam scammers 02/19/2004 02:06 PM
Two operations shut down under emergency procedures

EU telecoms watchdog warns over
competition

EU telecoms watchdog warns over
competition 04/15/2005 11:10 PM
TechWorld Apr 16 2005 3:42AM GMT

Government watchdog group warns of open
source expense

Government watchdog group warns of open
source expense 07/20/2004 03:05 AM
You might not think that Citizens Against Government Waste would be playing up the cost benefits of proprietary software for use by government, but the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization did just that with a recent press release.

Fair-Trade Watch Dog Warns Microsoft

Fair-Trade Watch Dog Warns Microsoft 07/09/2004 08:40 AM
Japan's fair-trade watchdog will issue a warning against U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp., which has been under investigation on suspicion of violating the country's anti-monopoly law, but the U.S. software giant will not be fined, an official said Friday. The Fair Trade Commission has decided to issue the warning against Microsoft next week, largely a symbolic move, a commission official said on condition of anonymity.

Wireless Watch 2004: UbiButton Watch
Super Clapper

Wireless Watch 2004: UbiButton Watch
Super Clapper 07/22/2004 08:11 AM

WIRELESS WATCH 2004 is going on in Japan until Friday, and there are plenty of new product demonstrations as well as those currently in development on display. This year's hot sheet includes NTT DoCoMo's "UbiButton," a device similar in form factor to a wristwatch. By detecting the shock waves in the arm created by a simple snapping of the fingers, a switch is flipped that can, for example, turn a light on and off. In other words, DoCoMo has glorified The Clapper to now be called The Snapper. Actually, I know a couple people that can't snap their fingers...what the hell are they supposed to do? [Uhm, clap? - ed] Other highlights from the convention included a working model of a Bluetooth pen, and DDI Pocket's "Jacketphone," a SD card sized PHS module. TechJapan has full Day 1 coverage, with pretty pictures.
Read - WIRELESS JAPAN 2004, Day 1 [TechJapan]

Related
Nokia's Bluetooth digital pen [Gizmodo]

Crazy TokyoFlash watch: the Pimp Watch

Crazy TokyoFlash watch: the Pimp Watch 10/31/2003 09:37 PM
New on the killer TokyoFlash watch site, the Pimp Watch -- at $129, it's a little rich for my blood, but boy, that's some sweet watch action. Link

HotJobs For Scammers!

HotJobs For Scammers! 05/17/2004 04:36 AM
We first posted about scammers (often those same Eastern European organized crime groups who are having so much fun with spam and phishing operations) using job boards like Monster and HotJobs to recruit suckers to launder money for them a year ago. Now, however, the NY Times has picked up on the story and it looks like (as these things are known to do) the scam has changed a bit. Last year, the scammers would hire unsuspecting rubes to ship packages to Eastern Europe. They would claim to be a shipping company that was hiring people in the US in their spare time to pass on the packages. Lots of people fell for it. The latest trick, though, is for the scammers to claim to be software companies in Eastern Europe looking to accept payments from US customers - and thus, in need of someone in the US to handle their "payment processing." They post these ads on the job boards and when people answer them, they're expected to receive payments into their personal PayPal account and then send the money to Eastern Europe. Of course, what happens is that PayPal/eBay eventually notices an awful lot of money going into this account and is alerted that it's from stolen credit cards. The sucker who's been passing on the money is told they need to pay it back to PayPal while the folks in Eastern Europe invest in more ads on these job boards. The article mostly focuses on the fact that those tricked are angry at the job websites for not protecting them against such frauds. Some are worried that these types of frauds may end up damaging the reputations of the job sites. While that is a risk, I still can't believe anyone would ever agree to process payments into their personal account and send it on to Eastern Europe without suspecting something was not right.

Scammers Going To Jail

Scammers Going To Jail 05/18/2004 11:52 AM
It looks like some internet scammers are finally getting some serious jailtime. A man who was caught running a phishing scam has just been sentenced to 46 months in prison. Meanwhile, the guy who conned lots of Wall Street insiders out of half a million dollars by telling them he was sellin g pre-IPO shares in Google has entered a guilty plea in the case, and now faces 51 to 63 months in jail. I have no problem putting such obvious scammers in jail for breaking the law. I do wonder, however, if the punishment really fits the crime.

Microsoft goes after Scammers

Microsoft goes after Scammers 04/03/2005 03:56 PM
About Apr 3 2005 7:45PM GMT

New IE bug may be scammers best friend

New IE bug may be scammers best friend 12/10/2003 01:13 AM
ZDNet Australia Dec 10 2003 0:24AM ET

16 scammers fined £1.3m

16 scammers fined £1.3m 04/01/2005 11:17 AM
Premium rate watchdog acts

More on Scammers Abusing TTY Services

More on Scammers Abusing TTY Services 04/15/2004 01:00 PM

Text scammers fined £450,000

Text scammers fined £450,000 05/24/2004 10:32 AM
'Justice has been done' says UK e-minister

Baiting 419 Scammers For Sport

Baiting 419 Scammers For Sport 11/17/2003 04:17 AM
There have been an increasing number of "filler" stories from reporters who need something to write about and notice a 419 scam email in their inbox and decide to write the scammer back. Either these reporters don't realize that this article has been written 100 times before, or they just don't care. However, a group of other folks have decided that instead of using the experience to write up an article, they're going to do their best to publicly humiliate 419 scammers. It's turned into something of a sport for many - who create elaborate personas and stories in order to scam the 419ers themselves. Of course, they're trying to trick them out of their dignity, rather than their money.

BT cuts off dialler scammers

BT cuts off dialler scammers 06/30/2004 11:09 AM
Pull the plug first, ask questions later...

Nigerian Scammers get Busted

Nigerian Scammers get Busted 07/01/2004 01:58 AM
According to ABC News, the old Nigerian money scam is alive and well. Even with a major raid by the Nigerian government, there are still Nigerian “Kingpins that remain untouchable. The best defense against this sort of scam is in my opinion, a combination of common sense and education on the subject.

Spammers, Miscreants, Scammers, Etc

Spammers, Miscreants, Scammers, Etc 12/30/2003 01:23 AM
How on earth are we supposed to be able to believe anything we see on the internet, including message coming from our ISP’s, Friends, FAMILY ? Scammers, and Spammers have take over nearly every type of communication we have, including...

Artists Against 419 Takes On Scammers

Artists Against 419 Takes On Scammers 05/02/2004 07:46 PM

Nigeria Arrests 419 Scammers

Nigeria Arrests 419 Scammers 07/06/2004 01:42 PM

Nigeria arrests 500 suspected email scammers: Nigeria finally took some action on 419 scammers. I hereby retract this post.

Nigeria's agency against economic and financial crime said Monday that it had detained more than 500 suspects and seized property worth more than $US500 million from suspected fraudsters.

[...] The EFCC had demonstrated its resolve and commitment by arresting many previously "untouchable 419 kingpins", said Ribadu, a former senior police intelligence officer.

Although the identities of those in EFCC custody are not formally revealed, observers noted that they included legislators, lawyers, politicians, bankers and public functionaries.

A couple points to note here. First, look at the type of people arrested: lawyers, legislators (!), politicians, etc. Nice. Second, they seized $500 million? 419 scamming was evidently going well for these folks.

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Scammers use Gmail invit

Scammers use Gmail invit 09/15/2004 02:59 PM
Techzonez Sep 15 2004 6:44PM GMT

Microsoft Sues 117 Scammers

Microsoft Sues 117 Scammers 04/02/2005 08:31 PM
CIO Today Apr 3 2005 12:49AM GMT

Scammers target Westpac customers

Scammers target Westpac customers 11/02/2003 10:55 PM
ZDNet Australia Nov 2 2003 9:29PM ET

Police warning to internet scammers

Police warning to internet scammers 02/07/2005 02:02 AM
ONE News Feb 7 2005 5:54AM GMT

Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers

Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers 11/16/2003 03:58 PM

Nigerian Scammers Claim Another Victim

Nigerian Scammers Claim Another Victim 12/24/2003 03:46 PM
A Florida newspaper ran a story yesterday about a local retiree who fell hard for a 419 scam. The story goes into depth on the methods used to play on the ...

Ireland Cracks Down on Online Scammers

Ireland Cracks Down on Online Scammers 09/23/2004 05:20 AM

Online Vigilantes Still Scamming The
Scammers

Online Vigilantes Still Scamming The
Scammers 06/17/2004 07:33 PM
Last summer we wrote about the new "online sport" of spam baiting, where people would bait Nigerian 419 scammers into doing time wasting and embarrassing things partly for fun, and partly to keep them busy from scamming others. It appears that the practice has only grown over time with people spending an awful lot of time trying to mess with scammers. Some have even claimed to have gotten money out of the scammers. What's interesting is that some law enforcement officials are happy with the online vigilantes, since they often provide the detailed info needed to track down the scammers. Others, though, warn that most of the people behind these scams are part of fairly violent organized crime groups, and getting involved with them in any way could be quite dangerous.

419 scammers start working the phones

419 scammers start working the phones 01/26/2004 08:32 AM
Hello, I'm the Son of the Late Head of State

Software To Catch Nigerian 419 Scammers

Software To Catch Nigerian 419 Scammers 06/07/2004 01:56 PM
If you've ever received an email from Nigeria asking for a small sum of money in order to get millions, you know what the 419 scam is. (Or you're still waiting for a lot of money that hasn't quite shown up yet.) The '419' comes from the Nigerian criminal code section against fraud, and to prevent the scams, Nigeria is looking into using software to help track down the scammers by scanning emails for keywords. This brings up plenty of privacy issues over who determines which keywords are used and what is done with the flagged emails. And while this proposal is probably better than passing a completely new law that would probably be ineffective, the enforcement against this scam may be a bit late as scammers have modified their scams and moved to places other than Nigeria. So scams are here to stay, and although one would hope that public education could take away the incentives for scammers, there's a sucker born every minute.

Protecting yourself against moving
company scammers

Protecting yourself against moving
company scammers 06/24/2005 06:20 PM
Mark Frauenfelder: More than a few people I know have told me horror stories about moving companies ripping them off when they've moved to a new house or apartment. Their stories are similar: the moving company loads your stuff on the truck(s) and then it tells you to pay a lot more money than the written estimate. Movingscam.com is an information clearing house about moving company scammers, with tips for finding honest movers.

One thing I should point out, is that the bids from these companies that I have seen often quote you by cubic footage not by weight. If you get a quote that is priced by cubic footage, that should raise a red flag right away. The reason for this is that if they charge you by weight, they have to provide proof of the weight of your belongings at no charge to you. Current laws regarding the moving industry do not cover moves based on cubic feet.

Once the movers show up and most or all of your things are in their truck, they will hit you with the real price of the move. By then it's too late. Your things are on their truck, and they won't get anything off of it without full payment in cash. They will tell you that if you don't pay up, that they will take the truck and sell everything you own to cover the contract. In my case, I put down a $150 deposit, and was told before the movers showed up that the rest of the $1869 would be due on delivery. When the movers showed up, the price jumped to $5012.50, and the movers demanded half of that on the spot or else there wouldn't be a delivery!

Link(via Sensible Erection)

German dialler scammers hijack
signatures

German dialler scammers hijack
signatures 06/30/2004 06:02 AM
The Register Jun 30 2004 9:59AM GMT

Scammers use Gmail invite as phishing
hook

Scammers use Gmail invite as phishing
hook 09/15/2004 01:41 PM
Fake e-mails sent to Gmail account holders attempt to garner addresses and passwords.

UK targets scammers in month-long
campaign

UK targets scammers in month-long
campaign 02/01/2005 09:18 PM
Psst...wanna cheap iPod? Legit, honest

Other News: Credit Card Scammers Caught

Other News: Credit Card Scammers Caught 07/09/2004 10:12 AM
Apple Security snags a couple of juvenile credit card scammers.

Scammers Send Fake Invoices While Bosses
Are Away

Scammers Send Fake Invoices While Bosses
Are Away 06/21/2004 03:59 PM
Apparently, the new popular scam in Europe these days is to send companies fake invoices for accessing internet "directories." The scammers are hoping that with so many people on vacation over the summer, people won't check around carefully, and will simply cut checks. The amounts usually aren't all that high, either, making it less likely that an accounts payable person will carefully check over the invoice. Isn't this why companies use purchase order systems?

Law Professor With Three Doctorates
Tricked By Nigerian Scammers

Law Professor With Three Doctorates
Tricked By Nigerian Scammers 01/06/2005 07:34 PM
If anything is clear, it's that the details of this case are not made clear by the AP article about it. However, it appears that a Miami law professor with three doctorates (they don't say what those doctorates are in) was clearly duped in part of a Nigerian scam. The professor continues to disclaim all responsibility saying he was tricked by "the Nigerian government," when it's pretty clear that the tricking was done by scammers who were probably not associated with the government. It also doesn't explain why the professor didn't question why the Nigerian government apparently needed him to deposit a $1.68 million check into his personal account and wire the money on to them. The guy was obviously suckered by the promise of an easy $200,000 (like all other Nigerian scam victims) and tossed any skepticism right out the window. What's not clear from the article, however, is how this scam really worked. It involves Penske, the trucking company, who apparently sent out a $1.68 million check to buy trucks. It's not clear where that check went. That's not explained. Instead, somehow, somewhere, a new, counterfeit check, in the same amount, went from Penske to this professor, starting the process. Penske is now suing Fleet bank and a credit union for letting this happen -- but there are plenty of other questions about how this all happened in the first place. It sounds like someone took the original check for the trucks and altered it, or copied it, replacing the truck company with the professor. If so, then Penske shouldn't be going after the banks, but whoever altered the check and those who ran the scam.

Scammers Show Up Quickly Following
Tsunami Tragedy

Scammers Show Up Quickly Following
Tsunami Tragedy 01/03/2005 06:04 AM
We haven't mentioned the tsunami tragedy here because it's really not a tech story -- and while some have tried to stretch some other stories to create tech stories about the tsunami, most seemed sort of pointless. Like everyone else, we've been following the stories, but saw no reason to spend too much time on them here. You don't come here to read about tragedies like that. However, one thing that is related to technology, in the aftermath of the tsunami is just how many cruel hoaxes and scams are being played on people following such a terrible tragedy -- mostly using the internet as a shield. It's amazing just how sick some people can be that they would respond to such a situation in this manner. There's the one guy who for who-knows-what-reason thought it made sense to make up stories telling those looking for missing friends and relatives that those people had died in the tsunami. Then, there are the more expected scams, such as those putting up websites asking for donations to aid the victims of the tsunami, but who have no affiliation with the charities they claim they represent. Along similar lines are spammers asking for donations, in a combined spamming/phishing run. Meanwhile, there are some completely unsubstantiated rumors that identity thieves are descending on the dead bodies of tsunami victims to see what material they can steal for the sake of identity theft. It certainly makes you question what is wrong with these people. As horrifying as an event this has been, it's good to see that it's brought out the best in many, many people around the world. It's truly unfortunate that a few folks seemed to go in the other direction.

Online Merchants Beat Back Scammers

Online Merchants Beat Back Scammers 09/22/2004 12:08 PM

TTY services used by Nigerian
credit-card scammers

TTY services used by Nigerian
credit-card scammers 04/10/2004 03:46 AM
TTY relay services are phone-banks staffed by operators who take text messages from the TTY terminals used by deaf people and read them aloud into telephones. This lets deaf people order pizzas, and otherwise interact with the hearing telephony world.

Recently, TTY systems have gone web-based: instead of using specialized TTY hardware, deaf people can use a chat interface in a browser window to interact with the operators.

This fact has not escaped Nigerian credit-card scammers. These folks are piping the output of Babelfish and other machine-translation services into the chat interface and directing the operators to place calls to merchants, directing them to ship goods paid for with stolen credit card numbers to mail-drops.

Merchants stand to lose big if they fall for the ruse - callers often try to order more than $10,000 worth of expensive equipment. People who legitimately use the service fear businesses will stop taking their calls, thinking they are fraud artists...

The only possible beneficiaries are the successful scammers - profiting from free phone calls intended for deaf people - and the four phone companies that provide Internet relay service. They are paid for the calls by the minute.

Link (via /.)
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Watch out, there be scammers about, warns watchdog

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