jason8 writes with news that two programmers who worked at Bernie Madoff's investment firm have now been indicted on charges of 'conspiracy, falsifying records of a broker-dealer and falsifying records of an investment adviser,' for their role in hiding the firm's activities (PDF) from the SEC and external accountants. Quoting Reuters: "O'Hara and Perez, employed at the firm from 1990 and 1991, respectively, were primarily responsible for developing and maintaining computer programs in the investment advisory unit at the center of the fraud. Many of the programs were run on an IBM server known as 'House 17,' according to court documents. Prosecutors said the men took hush money to help keep the fraud going and designed codes to make up fake trade blotters and phantom records. US prosecutors said the two men worked under the supervision of Madoff and his top aide, Frank DiPascali, to deceive the US Securities and Exchange Commission and a European accounting firm. DiPascali is cooperating with prosecutors, who said his information led to the arrests of the programmers and the now defunct firm's outside accountant." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Methods to prevent fraudulent orders when customers use a free, expendable e-mail service."

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand banker defrauded clients of $13 million to fund a lavish lifestyle of prostitutes, property and wine, local media reported on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A wealthy businessman who raised money for leading Democratic Party politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, pleaded guilty on Thursday to defrauding three major banks out of $292.2 million in loan transactions.

'House 17' and the secret algorithm A federal grand jury has indicted two computer programmers on fraud and conspiracy charges for developing programs used by Bernard Madoff to cook the books in his billion-dollar ponzi scheme.…Case Study: WhatsUp keeps Legoland turnstyles ringing

alphadogg writes "Zer01 Mobile — making promises of flat rate, no contract, unlimited cell phone service — made its grand entrance at the annual CTIA wireless convention about a year ago, but now the company's Web site has disappeared. The site recently began redirecting visitors to Google.com. Zer01, which was lauded for its plans in the mainstream press, aligned itself with a multilevel marketing company called Global Verge (whose founder had earlier been convicted of securities fraud), and the two companies began recruiting salespeople who paid a monthly fee to be part of a sales program. (Since then, Global Verge and Zer01 parted ways and Global Verge filed a lawsuit against its former partner.) But no mobile service from Zer01 ever materialized. Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program, although few appear to have received payment. But as late as the fall CTIA show in October, Zer01's CEO was still promising to launch the mobile service." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reclaimed the lead on Wednesday over secularist challenger Iyad Allawi in results from a March 7 parliamentary election that has been dogged by fraud allegations.

CSI UK High Street Transaction security firm Trusteer has launched a remote forensics service designed to allow banks to diagnose if a client's PC has been infected with malware following incidents of suspected fraud.…The power of collaboration within unified communications

Pickens writes "The Mercury News reports that consumers will soon be able to deposit a check by snapping a photo of it with a cell phone and transmitting an encrypted copy to their bank. Although some critics contend paperless deposits are an attempt by the banking industry to eliminate 'float,' the standard one- or two-day waiting period between the time someone writes a check and the time the money is actually taken out of their account, actually remote-deposit capture started out as a way for big companies and financial institutions to process huge numbers of checks without having to ship them around the country. 'Our customers are becoming more and more tech-savvy,' said an SVP for mobile banking at Citibank. 'We're trying to support those people on the go.' Although the process adds a new wrinkle to concerns about fraud and the privacy of financial data, banks and the technology companies helping them say they have largely overcome these concerns. Another bank SVP said, 'For many institutions struggling to raise deposits and differentiate, this is an outstanding offering they can roll out inexpensively [note: interstitial]. It's a sticky product.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Strategic communications" firms flourish in the post 9/11 media environment, straddling the line between public relations, propaganda work and private security contracting. What's up with rogue intelligence operations, contract fraud, reporters gathering intel and the shaping of news stories coming out of war zones -- and who's tracking?

"Strategic communications" firms flourish in the post 9/11 media environment, straddling the line between public relations, propaganda work and private security contracting. What's up with rogue intelligence operations, contract fraud, reporters gathering intel and the shaping of news stories coming out of war zones -- and who's tracking?

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission is using GPS data collected in every cab to review millions of trips in New York City over the past 26 months and has discovered a huge number in which out-of-city rates, twice the rate charged for rides in the five boroughs, were improperly charged. The drivers' scheme, the commission says, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip when drivers flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million. Cab drivers are supposed to charge the higher rate only when they cross the border between New York City and Nassau or Westchester. 'We have not seen anything quite this pervasive,' said Matthew W. Daus, the taxi and limousine commissioner. 'It's very disturbing.' The taxi industry vigorously challenged the city's findings, saying it was unimaginable that such a pervasive problem could be the result of deliberate fraud. The commission says that 75% out of the city's 48,000 drivers had applied the higher rate at least once. Officials hope to roll out a short-term fix in two or three weeks in which an alert will appear on the backseat monitor when a cabbie activates the out-of-town rate." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An FBI report says the amount of reported damages stemming from online fraud has more than doubled to $560 million. And the No. 1 consumer online complaint concerned e-mail scammers posing as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

An FBI report says the amount of reported damages stemming from online fraud has more than doubled to $560 million. And the No. 1 consumer online complaint concerned e-mail scammers posing as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

SANTA ANA, California (Reuters) - Southern California prosecutors filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp on Friday, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.

According to the UK Cards Association, losses were up 14 percent, due partially to criminals gaining access to customer online details

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki posted mixed results in initial returns on Thursday from Iraq's parliamentary election, and a rival grouping complained of serious fraud.

Online banking losses up though A rise in online banking fraud losses took some of the shine off the overall fall in debit and credit fraud in the UK last year.…The power of collaboration within unified communications

FTC complaint alleged that LifeLock made false claims for adequately protecting customers from identity fraud and data theft.

How do you know that the sender of an e-mail that has landed in your inbox is trying to steal your m...

Fraudsters are continuing their switch from traditional card fraud to raiding online bank accounts, research suggests.

Agrees to safeguard customer data An Arizona company that sells services designed to prevent identity theft has agreed to pay $12m to settle charges it oversold their effectiveness and didn't adequately protect sensitive customer data.…Offloading malware protection to the cloud

President Obama recently announced several appointments to the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, including data visualization expert Edward Tufte, author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. The purpose of the panel is to advise the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose aim is "To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information." Tufte said on his website, "I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I'll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Several readers have mentioned the strange goods that some customers received from Newegg in place of the Intel Core i7 920 processor they ordered. Word on the problem first surfaced on TribalWar on Thursday evening. Newegg still hasn't commented on this. It's not known whether it happened as a result fraud by another Newegg customer, in shipping, or where. The "processors" are made of aluminum, and the "fans" are some kind of synthetic molded material. The "factory seal" was printed onto the box; the holographic stickers on the boxes were also faked. The first part of this video shows the bogus goods. At this writing Google News lists a handful of blogs mentioning the fakes. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Police in Togo fire tear gas at opposition supporters alleging fraud as partial results put the incumbent into a lead.

In a highly visual, hands-on display at RSA, the security firm shows tools and methods used for cybercrime and identity fraud.

One of the world's biggest cybercrime networks has been smashed, according to investigators.

Parliamentary elections in Tajikistan failed on "many basic democratic standards", international monitors say.

A ring of ticket brokers is being indicted Monday. The operators of Wiseguys, the authorities say, built an elaborate $25 million hacking-and-fraud scheme to purchase concert and sporting event tickets from Ticketmaster and others.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron chief executive Jeff Skilling lost the first half of the fight of his life when a jury convicted him nearly four years ago for committing fraud while at the helm of the once high-flying energy trader.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, mired in fraud charges, compares Italian prosecutors and judges to the Afghan Taliban.

An anonymous reader followed up on the Windows memory-leak fraud scandal, which is worth reading before you read the perpetrator's justification. "Randall C. Kennedy comes clean about his past, his relationship to Craig Barth and how it all came tumbling down. Includes an inside look at the politics of IDG and why you can never trust an IT publication that's as obsessed with page views as InfoWorld."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

tugfoigel writes "Wave of recent bank-card skimming incidents demonstrate how sophisticated the scam has become. Criminals hid bank card-skimming devices inside gas pumps — in at least one case, even completely replacing the front panel of a pump — in a recent wave of attacks that demonstrate a more sophisticated, insidious method of stealing money from unsuspecting victims filling up their gas tanks. Some 180 gas stations in Utah, from Salt Lake City to Provo, were reportedly found with these skimming devices sitting inside the gas pumps. The scam was first discovered when a California bank's fraud department discovered that multiple bank card victims reporting problems had all used the same gas pump at a 7-Eleven store in Utah."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I figured the whole "Windows-7-ate-my-RAM!"-thing would be one-item only, but apparently, it won't be. Over the weekend, the situation got a lot murkier. As it turns out, Craig Barth, the supposed CTO of Devil Mountain Software, was actually an InfoWorld blogger/editor - who has been fired from InfoWorld over all this. Someone on the web who isn't who he claims to be? Surely you jest! Update: Ars' Peter Bright has published an article about this as well.

A few days ago, we ran word of a report alleging that Windows 7 consumed more memory than it should, based on a report from Devil Mountain Software; a followup post linked to Ars Technica's robust deconstruction of that claim. Now the story gets weird: Fred Flowers writes The original story quoted the company's CTO, Craig Barth on the issue. Now, InfoWorld editor in chief Eric Knorr has still more to add. From Knorr's blog at InfoWorld.com: 'On Friday, Feb. 19, we discovered that one of our contributors, Randall C. Kennedy, had been misrepresenting himself to other media organizations as Craig Barth, CTO of Devil Mountain Software (aka exo.performance.network), in interviews for a number of stories regarding Windows and other Microsoft software topics. ... There is no Craig Barth.' Knorr's post goes on to say that Kennedy has been fired from his blogging gig at InfoWorld over this 'serious breach of trust,' and that his blog will be removed."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thursday, February 18, 2010 Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight felony charges. Among these were tax fraud and lying to Bush administration officials during his unsuccessful nomination for US Secretary of Homeland Security in 2004. More...

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurates a new smart card scheme for farmers designed to increase productivity and reduce fraud.

Nothing is stopping low-income families from selling laptops given to them for free by the government, a Tory MP says.

One stop shops for info theft and scareware fraud Scams which attempt to trick users into volunteering personal credentials in return for free pornography have moved over onto social networks.…The power of collaboration within unified communications

Insurer reckons new models push up fraud Apple gizmo fans are committing more insurance fraud in a move to upgrade their iPhones to the latest model, a UK insurer has claimed.…What is your recession sales strategy?

One of China's richest men, founder of the Gome electronics chain Huang Guangyu, is charged with bribery and insider trading.

These prototypes aim to combat security threats related to identity fraud, device theft and contactless payments

Admits outing Intel earnings, WiMAX plans Former Intel executive Rajiv Goel has pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy and securities fraud in connection with the Galleon insider trading case. Goel is the tenth person to plead guilty in the case, which the FBI and the US attorney's office in Manhattan call the largest hedge fund inside trading case in US history.…What is your recession sales strategy?

A former Intel executive pleads guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud by providing confidential information in the Galleon Group insider-trading case.

Feng shui master Tony Chan is bailed amid allegations he forged a will to win the estate of Asia's richest woman, Nina Wang.

Complex fraud lies behind emissions permissions attack Phishing fraudsters have extended their net beyond harvesting e-banking credentials via a scam that resulted in the theft of 250,000 carbon permits worth over €3m.…Offloading malware protection to the cloud

In the last couple of weeks we have seen a series of articles in our mainstream media about "bill shock". A "bill shock" happens when you travel overseas and get a surprisingly large bill on your mobile usage. I do not have sympathy for people who claim "bill shock" because people know there are roaming charges involved when you travel. When you arrive in another country both Vodafone and Telecom send SMS warning users of different costs for voice and data connections. You signed a contract that says you have to pay for roaming costs. I don't like the mobile data roaming costs as anyone else. I think our telcos simply make as much as they can - it's unbelievable a mobile operator in the U.S. can give their customers 5GB of mobile data for a fixed price, but charge visitors something that (adding up the margins) comes to $10/MB. The mobile data roaming prices are a joke. But there's something else that local companies will have worry more and more with the adoption of VoIP solutions - the old telephone fraud. Just to give you an idea, a company has a digital PBX. For some reason it's not completely secure and some crooks find it. These people then enter their own configuration in this digital PBX and create a "company" to sell cheap calls to China, Korea, South Africa. They sell some calling cards around and publish their "access number". Callers buy these cheap services, call the access number and after the dial tone enter the number they wish to call and get connected - all

A key suspect in a multi-billion dollar South Korean pyramid scheme is arrested in Seoul, according to reports.

By Kullervo There is some hostility to mysticism out on the Hellenic Internet, mostly as a reaction to and a bulwark against the real and perceived mystical excesses of modern New Age and Neopaganism. But I think it gets taken much too far. It’s one thing to be skeptical about other peoples claims of mystical experience, especially when the content of the claimed experience is self-serving or at odds with a traditional understanding of the gods. Those kinds of claims need to be carefully examined, because the potential got fraud, abuse, and just plain silliness us unfortunately high. But to have a default position of hostility is to take it too far. It’s not that hard to quickly evaluate mystical claims and discount the ones that don’t add up or that clearly have more to do with getting attention or seeking status than with real experiences of the gods’ presence. If nothing else, context–both the context of tradition and lore as well as the context of the person’s behavior–tells you all you need to know.