More on Scammers Abusing TTY Services

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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 /.)

Abusing Morality and Law

Abusing Morality and Law 06/09/2004 12:58 AM

Washington Post: Legalizing Torture. The Bush administration assures the country, and the world, that it is complying with U.S. and international laws banning torture and maltreatment of prisoners. But, breaking with a practice of openness that had lasted for decades, it has classified as secret and refused to disclose the techniques of interrogation it is using on foreign detainees at U.S. prisons at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a matter of grave concern because the use of some of the methods that have been reported in the press is regarded by independent experts as well as some of the Pentagon's legal professionals as illegal. The administration has responded that its civilian lawyers have certified its methods as proper -- but it has refused to disclose, or even provide to Congress, the justifying opinions and memos.

The Bush administration believes that law -- domestic and international -- is what the Bush administration says it is. Now we have lawyers' justification for torture, but under a less harsh name. I keep wondering what so-called conservatives would be saying if Bill Clinton had asserted such sweeping powers in this and other ways, or had consistently stiffed the Congress and American people with secrecy and arrogance. My guess is they'd be insisting that the law, or maybe even national honor, should mean something. Not this crowd.

FTC cracks down on MS-abusing pop-ups

FTC cracks down on MS-abusing pop-ups 11/07/2003 04:23 AM
USA Today Nov 7 2003 3:25AM ET

SitePoint: Using and Abusing Your Images
in PHP

SitePoint: Using and Abusing Your Images
in PHP 11/26/2002 10:18 AM

Abusing the command line

Abusing the command line 04/09/2004 04:08 PM

If you're running OS X, try this:

say -v Kathy `curl --silent http://api.technorati.com/getinfo?username=simonwillison | grep '<inbound' | sed -e 's/ <//' | sed -e 's/inboundblogs>/Simons blog has /' | sed -e 's/<\/inboundblogs>/ inbound blogs and /' | sed -e 's/inboundlinks>//' | sed -e 's/<\/inboundlinks>/ inbound links/'`

Your computer should read out to you my Technorati inbound blogs and inbound links, extracted from the Technorati web API. Parsing XML using sed is a nasty trick I picked up from this O'Reilly article; speaking the output of a command using the 'say' and the backtick shell operator was my moment of inspiration for the day.

Other News: Abusing Google

Other News: Abusing Google 08/04/2004 10:03 AM
Google searches reportedly link to databases of confidential credit card details and other personal information.

O'Reilly: Using and Abusing Directories
in PHP

O'Reilly: Using and Abusing Directories
in PHP 01/10/2003 08:50 AM

Abusing Amazon Images

Abusing Amazon Images 06/05/2005 11:21 PM
A gentleman named Nat Gertler has gone to astounding lengths to figure out the variables in the Amazon image URLs. And since I love a little URL hacking, I wanted...

Using and Abusing Amazon.com: SOAP and
PHP

Using and Abusing Amazon.com: SOAP and
PHP 11/08/2002 09:09 AM

U.S.: troops cleared of abusing
reporters

U.S.: troops cleared of abusing
reporters 05/20/2004 12:58 PM

"G.I.'s Are Accused of Abusing Iraqi
Captives"

"G.I.'s Are Accused of Abusing Iraqi
Captives" 05/03/2004 09:24 AM

Virgin Accuses Apple of Abusing Monopoly

Virgin Accuses Apple of Abusing Monopoly 08/06/2004 01:00 PM

Yahoo, Apple and Google are Abusing your
Trust

Yahoo, Apple and Google are Abusing your
Trust 06/17/2005 03:45 PM

Spammers Start Abusing Cell Phones

Spammers Start Abusing Cell Phones 07/11/2004 10:58 AM

U.S. Soldier Charged with Abusing Iraqi
Prisoners

U.S. Soldier Charged with Abusing Iraqi
Prisoners 05/07/2004 09:52 PM
Reuters via Wired News May 8 2004 1:48AM GMT

Marine Guilty of Abusing Iraqi Prisoners
(AP)

Marine Guilty of Abusing Iraqi Prisoners
(AP) 09/02/2004 11:34 PM
AP - A Marine reservist was found guilty Thursday of dereliction of duty and the abuse of prisoners last year at a makeshift detention camp in Iraq, but cleared of assaulting a 52-year-old Iraqi man who later died there.

U.S. Soldier Confesses to Abusing Iraqi
Prisoners (Reuters)

U.S. Soldier Confesses to Abusing Iraqi
Prisoners (Reuters) 05/19/2004 07:29 AM
Reuters - An American soldier confessed on Wednesday that U.S. guards abused Iraqi detainees at the notorious Abu Ghraib jail in a scandal threatening to undermine President Bush's bid for a second term.

Suspect admits abusing boys for Internet
shows

Suspect admits abusing boys for Internet
shows 09/25/2004 07:18 AM
Bradenton.com - Sat Sep 25, 10:13 am GMT

PETA video shows KFC supplier abusing
chickens

PETA video shows KFC supplier abusing
chickens 07/20/2004 07:51 PM

U.S. Soldier Charged with Abusing Iraqi
Prisoners (Reuters)

U.S. Soldier Charged with Abusing Iraqi
Prisoners (Reuters) 05/07/2004 08:32 PM
Reuters - A U.S. soldier photographed holding a naked prisoner on a leash at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was charged on Friday with abusing prisoners, military officials at the North Carolina base where she is stationed said.

Report: 4,450 priests accused of abusing
youths since 1950 (USATODAY.com)

Report: 4,450 priests accused of abusing
youths since 1950 (USATODAY.com) 02/17/2004 08:52 AM
USATODAY.com - Nearly 4,500 Catholic priests allegedly sexually abused thousands of children and teens from 1950 to 2002 - 4% of all 110,000 U.S. priests in "active ministry," CNN reported Monday.

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

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.

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.

16 scammers fined £1.3m

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

Microsoft goes after Scammers

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

BT cuts off dialler scammers

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

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.

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.

Scammers use Gmail invit

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

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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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...

Microsoft Sues 117 Scammers

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

Artists Against 419 Takes On Scammers

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

Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers

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

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.

Police warning to internet scammers

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