New IE bug may be scammers best friend
Grok Headline matches for New IE bug may be scammers best friend
1st Workshop on Friend of a Friend,
Social Networking and the Semantic Web
1st Workshop on Friend of a Friend,
Social Networking and the Semantic Web
06/21/2004 01:50 PMCall
for papers, come for the party or just come and hang out.
You can't be a decent standard if you don't have a
conference.
Topics
The FOAF (Friend of a Friend) project explores a unique combination
of themes from social networking, search engines, knowledge
representation and software development. FOAF was designed as a
practical experiment that would highlight the technical, social and
business challenges raised by the next generation of "Semantic" Web
technology. Over the past few years, the FOAF developer community has
been working on standards-based techniques for publishing and
harvesting machine-readable descriptions of people, the links between
them, and the things they create and do. The working assumption of the
project is that such techniques will underpin the deployment of the
next generation of Web technology, W3C's "Semantic Web". The FOAF
project was created in the expectation that these machine-readable
descriptions will grow, as the Semantic Web platform matures, to cover
companies, organisations, documents, groups, products, file sharing
and many other aspects of life, both online and off. The time has come
to evaluate these assumptions in the context of the opportunities and
challenges presented by the rise of FOAF and the Semantic Web.
Social networking is a recent topic gaining much interest and
publicity. Social networking sites are community sites where users can
maintain an online network of friends or associates for social or
business purposes: whether looking for a job, reconnecting with old
friends, moving to a new area, or dating. Most of these sites are
based on a centralised architecture: all users' descriptions are
stored in one big database. There is, however, growing user and
business interest in portability between such sites, and for
sophisticated "single sign-on" mechanisms that reduce the need for
data re-entry, while allowing users to manifest different aspects of
themselves in different contexts. FOAF-based import/export allows such
sites to address user demand for control of "their" data; however,
many deployment, privacy, authentication and engineering issues have
not yet been fully explored. To what extent do mechanisms such as FOAF
change the environment they attempt to describe? How can the
visibility of personal data be restricted to certain audiences? How
can businesses make money when their customers can migrate to new
services with increased ease?
This workshop on FOAF, social networking and the Semantic Web
provides a first chance to discuss the unusual combination of
perspectives - academic and scientific, engineering, social, legal and
business - drawn together by these trends. The workshop aims to bring
together for the first time researchers interested in the effects,
analysis and application of social networks on the (Semantic) Web as
well as practitioners building applications and infrastructure. The
workshop will also try to give a snapshot of current developments, as
well as setting a roadmap for the future of both FOAF and social
networking - especially in the context of the Semantic Web.
Topics of interest for full papers include, but are not limited to
the following:
* Social network metadata standards
* Trust issues in social networks
* Profiles of FOAF, subsets, mapping to other vocabularies and
formats
* Federated digital identity, single sign-on (decentralized
identity management)
* Business models for the Semantic Web (life after banner
advertisements)
* Integration with desktop and mobile applications (chat, IM, P2P,
Bluetooth, address books, RSS/Atom)
* Privacy, etiquette and best practice issues for aggregators
* Infrastructure for social networking
* Applications of online social networking
* Knowledge management with social networks
* Mathematical analysis of social networks
* Exchange of social network information
* Applications of online social networks
* Shared annotations
* Use of digital signatures and encryption with RDF/XML
* RDF-based search engines, data harvesting and syndication
* GUIs (browsers, editors) for FOAF and Semantic Web data
* Formalisms that address practical problems of heterogenous
changing data
* Pragmatics of sharing data schemas across subtly different
datasets
[it's
the danbri and Libby show!]
HotJobs For Scammers!
HotJobs For Scammers!
05/17/2004 04:36 AMWe 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.
16 scammers fined £1.3m
16 scammers fined £1.3m
04/01/2005 11:17 AMPremium rate watchdog acts
Microsoft goes after Scammers
Microsoft goes after Scammers
04/03/2005 03:56 PMAbout Apr 3 2005 7:45PM GMT
Scammers Going To Jail
Scammers Going To Jail
05/18/2004 11:52 AMIt 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.
Scammers use Gmail invit
Scammers use Gmail invit
09/15/2004 02:59 PMTechzonez Sep 15 2004 6:44PM GMT
Spammers, Miscreants, Scammers, Etc
Spammers, Miscreants, Scammers, Etc
12/30/2003 01:23 AMHow 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...
Baiting 419 Scammers For Sport
Baiting 419 Scammers For Sport
11/17/2003 04:17 AMThere 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.
Nigeria Arrests 419 Scammers
Nigeria Arrests 419 Scammers
07/06/2004 01:42 PMNigeria 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.
Click here to comment on this entry
BT cuts off dialler scammers
BT cuts off dialler scammers
06/30/2004 11:09 AMPull the plug first, ask questions later...
Artists Against 419 Takes On Scammers
Artists Against 419 Takes On Scammers
05/02/2004 07:46 PMText scammers fined £450,000
Text scammers fined £450,000
05/24/2004 10:32 AM'Justice has been done' says UK e-minister
Microsoft Sues 117 Scammers
Microsoft Sues 117 Scammers
04/02/2005 08:31 PMCIO Today Apr 3 2005 12:49AM GMT
More on Scammers Abusing TTY Services
More on Scammers Abusing TTY Services
04/15/2004 01:00 PMNigerian Scammers get Busted
Nigerian Scammers get Busted
07/01/2004 01:58 AMAccording 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.
Ireland Cracks Down on Online Scammers
Ireland Cracks Down on Online Scammers
09/23/2004 05:20 AM419 scammers start working the phones
419 scammers start working the phones
01/26/2004 08:32 AMHello, I'm the Son of the Late Head of State
Protecting yourself against moving
company scammers
Protecting yourself against moving
company scammers
06/24/2005 06:20 PMMark 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)Software To Catch Nigerian 419 Scammers
Software To Catch Nigerian 419 Scammers
06/07/2004 01:56 PMIf 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.
Online Vigilantes Still Scamming The
Scammers
Online Vigilantes Still Scamming The
Scammers
06/17/2004 07:33 PMLast 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.
Police warning to internet scammers
Police warning to internet scammers
02/07/2005 02:02 AMONE News Feb 7 2005 5:54AM GMT
Watch out, there be scammers about,
warns watchdog
Watch out, there be scammers about,
warns watchdog
03/23/2005 12:46 PMIf it's too good to be true...
Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers
Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers
11/16/2003 03:58 PMNigerian Scammers Claim Another Victim
Nigerian Scammers Claim Another Victim
12/24/2003 03:46 PMA 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 ...
Scammers target Westpac customers
Scammers target Westpac customers
11/02/2003 10:55 PMZDNet Australia Nov 2 2003 9:29PM ET
Scammers Send Fake Invoices While Bosses
Are Away
Scammers Send Fake Invoices While Bosses
Are Away
06/21/2004 03:59 PMApparently, 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?
Other News: Credit Card Scammers Caught
Other News: Credit Card Scammers Caught
07/09/2004 10:12 AMApple Security snags a couple of juvenile credit card scammers.
Law Professor With Three Doctorates
Tricked By Nigerian Scammers
Law Professor With Three Doctorates
Tricked By Nigerian Scammers
01/06/2005 07:34 PMIf 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.
German dialler scammers hijack
signatures
German dialler scammers hijack
signatures
06/30/2004 06:02 AMThe Register Jun 30 2004 9:59AM GMT
UK Watchdog bites mobile spam scammers
UK Watchdog bites mobile spam scammers
02/19/2004 02:06 PMTwo operations shut down under emergency procedures
TTY services used by Nigerian
credit-card scammers
TTY services used by Nigerian
credit-card scammers
04/10/2004 03:46 AMTTY 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 /.)
Nigerian scammers 'exploit tsunami
tragedy'
Nigerian scammers 'exploit tsunami
tragedy'
01/04/2005 11:30 PMZDNet Australia Jan 5 2005 2:46AM GMT
Dear New York Craigslist Powerbook
Scammers
Dear New York Craigslist Powerbook
Scammers
05/28/2004 02:09 PMI hate you.
Signed,
Brokenhearted in Brooklyn
Apple
Powerbook G4 17' 1.33Ghz/1Gb/80Gb Hdd/SuperDrive - $1250
Apple
Powerbook G4 17' 1.33Ghz/1Gb/80Gb Hdd/SuperDrive - $1250
Apple
Powerbook G4 17' 1.33Ghz/1Gb/80Gb Hdd/SuperDrive - $1250
Scammers Show Up Quickly Following
Tsunami Tragedy
Scammers Show Up Quickly Following
Tsunami Tragedy
01/03/2005 06:04 AMWe 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.
Scammers use Gmail invite as phishing
hook
Scammers use Gmail invite as phishing
hook
09/15/2004 01:41 PMFake e-mails sent to Gmail account holders attempt to garner addresses
and passwords.
Online Merchants Beat Back Scammers
Online Merchants Beat Back Scammers
09/22/2004 12:08 PMUK targets scammers in month-long
campaign
UK targets scammers in month-long
campaign
02/01/2005 09:18 PMPsst...wanna cheap iPod? Legit, honest
Court Pulls Plug on SMS Lottery Scammers
(Reuters)
Court Pulls Plug on SMS Lottery Scammers
(Reuters)
05/11/2004 10:50 AMReuters - Two Chinese men have been jailed for
using cell phone text messages to swindle money from
subscribers by telling them they had won lottery prizes, Xinhua
news agency said in a report available on Tuesday.
Nominet wins UK domain scammers case in
Australia
Nominet wins UK domain scammers case in
Australia
09/23/2004 05:22 AMDodgy invoices
Grok Description matches for New IE bug may be scammers best friend
GrokA matches for New IE bug may be scammers best friend
New IE bug may be scammers best friend
