Lori Drew allegedly used a fake MySpace profile to harass a teenager to the point of suicide, but judge says prosecutors can't use the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act against her.

Well, my dreams are coming true. This is better than eagles. A new lawsuit with Darl McBride, Stephen Norris and Bryan Cave all named as defendants by Pelican Equity. The accusation? Theft of trade secrets. No. Wait. Wait. Wait. It gets better. They are also accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. There is a God! [passes out from joy] All right. I'm kidding around. But it's true that those are the allegations, plus much more. Courthouse News reports the overview. Of course, as SCO taught us onlookers, anyone can claim anything in a complaint. That doesn't mean they are guilty as alleged. ... hahahahahaha... I haven't even read the complaint [PDF] yet, so we can savor it together, and when they file their answers, I'll surely share that with you too. No doubt there is another side to the story. I seriously can't wait. This is so funny, though, like seeing a stern family-values guy hopping a quickie flight to Argentina and getting caught at the airport, if ya know what I mean. Oh, and Rama Ramachandran makes an appearance as a defendant too, as does Robert Brazell and Talos Partners. And Darl McBride is called by a nym, in the complaint: "Skyline Cowboy". Woah. Or maybe I should say, Yahoo! They are accused of "fraud and deceit" -- if you can believe that -- and Bryan Cave of malpractice. Maybe I need to read this complaint.

Meet the Keyser Soze of malware Miscreants have developed one of most sophisticated click fraud malware applications to date.…What is your recession sales strategy?

MIAMI (Reuters) - Since 2006, U.S. taxpayers have paid nearly $155,000 to send home health nurses to inject twice-daily insulin shots for an elderly, diabetic Miami man.

An anonymous reader sends news from The Washington Post's Security Fix blog of a new Trojan horse program that takes click fraud to the next level. The Trojan, dubbed FFsearcher by SecureWorks, was among the pieces of malware installed by sites hacked with the Nine-Ball mass compromise, which attacked some 40,000 Web sites this month. The Trojan takes advantage of Google's "AdSense for Search" API, which allows Web sites to embed Google search results alongside the usual Google AdSense ads. (SecureWorks' writeup indicates that Yahoo search is targeted too, but the researchers saw no evidence if the malware redirecting Yahoo searches.) While most search hijackers give themselves away on the victim's machine by redirecting the browser through some no-name search engine, FFsearcher "...converts every search a victim makes through Google.com, so that each query is invisibly redirected through the attackers' own Web sites, via Google's Custom Search API. Meanwhile, the Trojan manipulates the victim's PC and browser so that the victim never actually sees the attacker-controlled Web site that is hijacking the search, but instead sees the search results as though they were returned directly from Google.com (and with Google.com in the victim browser's address bar, not the address of the attacker controlled site). Adding to the stealth is the fact that search results themselves aren't altered by the attackers, who are merely going after the referral payments should victims click on any

Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford is ordered to remain in jail until his fraud trial begins, as a US judge overturns a bail ruling.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Texas financier Allen Stanford, accused of a $7 billion fraud, held without bail until trial.

Iceman melts Notorious hacker Max Vision faces a lengthy prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud involving the trafficking of around 1.8 million credit card numbers and running a clearing house for cybercrime.…Offloading malware protection to the cloud

selven ws one of several readers to send in the news that Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. "Bernard Madoff's victims gasped and cheered when he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, but they walked away knowing little more about how he carried out the biggest robbery in Wall Street history. In one of the most dramatic courtroom conclusions to a corporate fraud case, the 71-year-old swindler was unemotional as he was berated by distraught investors during the 90-minute proceeding. Many former clients had hoped he would shed more light on his crime and explain why he victimized so many for so long. But he did not. Madoff called his crime 'an error of judgment' and his 'failure,' reiterating previous statements that he alone was responsible for the $65 billion investment fraud. His victims said they did not hear much new from Madoff in his five-minute statement. They also said they did not believe anything he said. As he handed down the maximum penalty allowed, US District Judge Denny Chin... [said], 'I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all that he could or told all that he knows.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US financier Bernard Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in jail for a massive fraud that robbed investors of $65bn (£40bn).

New Delhi/Prague - A Czech film producer, who was detained in India las week on suspicion of assisting in illegal migration, is probably an innocent victim of a fraud, the Czech Embassy in India told CTK today.

Seven online electronics retailers operating more than 40 Web sites were fined last week for fraudulent practices, including bait-and-switch tactics.

Bernard Madoff arrives at court to be sentenced for masterminding a $50bn investment fraud.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bernard Madoff was sentenced on Monday to 150 years in prison -- the maximum penalty the judge could give him for "extraordinarily evil" crimes in Wall Street's biggest and most brazen investment fraud.

Oracle Goddess writes "As part of a project to issue ID cards for all 1.1 billion of its citizens, India has announced plans to place information on every single citizen in what will be the world's second largest citizens' database. The government believes the scheme will aid the delivery of vital social services to the poorest people who often lack sufficient identification papers. It also sees the scheme as a way to tackle increasing amounts of identity fraud and theft, and, at a time of increased concern over the threat of militant violence, to boost national security and help police and law officials. 'This could be used as a security measure by the government which leaves migrant workers, refugees and other stateless people in India in limbo, without access to public services, employment and basic welfare,' said Charu Lata Hogg, an associate fellow of the Asia program at Chatham House."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff and his wife are stripped of their wealth, as he awaits sentencing for massive fraud.

One man's quest for clues to Bernie Madoff's fraud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Swindler Bernard Madoff should spend the rest of his life in prison, U.S. prosecutors argued on Friday, citing the "unique scope and duration" of his crimes as the leader of Wall Street's biggest fraud.

malkavian writes "This community has complained long and loudly about the very one-sided approach to copyright, and the not-so-slow erosion of the public domain. On top of the corporate lobbying to remove increasingly larger parts of the public domain, there is now an growing pattern whereby works are directly taken from the public domain and effectively stolen by a single company leveraging protections provided under copyright law. The Register's article is based on a paper by Jason Mazzone at the Brooklyn Law School, which starkly details the problems that are now becoming evident as entities grab control over public domain works. The paper proposes some possible solutions, such as amending the Copyright Act. From the abstract: 'Copyright law itself creates strong incentives for copyfraud. The Copyright Act provides for no civil penalty for falsely claiming ownership of public domain materials. There is also no remedy under the Act for individuals who wrongly refrain from legal copying or who make payment for permission to copy something they are in fact entitled to use for free. While falsely claiming copyright is technically a criminal offense under the Act, prosecutions are extremely rare. These circumstances have produced fraud on an untold scale, with millions of works in the public domain deemed copyrighted, and countless dollars paid out every year in licensing fees to make copies that could be made for free.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford pleads not guilty to $7bn (£4.3bn) fraud charges at a court appearance.

Swedish telecoms equipment manufacturer Ericsson predicts fraud detection and other secure elements for mobile phones

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas financier Allen Stanford pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal criminal charges that he masterminded a $7 billion fraud.

Ministers from 18 countries back a plan to impose sanctions on countries who do not do enough to clamp down on tax fraud.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Antigua and Barbuda's government on Tuesday dismissed the country's chief financial regulator over his alleged role in the Allen Stanford fraud case, and vowed to root out further corruption "cancer" if it existed.

Czmyt sends the excellent news that one of the US's most notorious spammers has pleaded guilty and could serve 6 years in jail. "Five individuals pleaded guilty today in federal court in Detroit for their roles in a wide-ranging international stock fraud scheme involving the illegal use of bulk commercial e-mails, or 'spamming'... Alan M. Ralsky, 64, of West Bloomfield, Mich., and Scott K. Bradley, 38, also of West Bloomfield, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and to violate the CAN-SPAM Act. ... Ralsky and Bradley also pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering, and violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Ralsky acknowledges he is facing up to 87 months in prison and a $1 million fine..."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Five individuals pleaded guilty today in federal court in Detroit for their roles in a wide-ranging international stock fraud scheme involving the illegal "spamming" to try and move pink sheet stocks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A brokerage firm and a Hollywood investment adviser that were key middlemen for Wall Street thief Bernard Madoff were hit with civil fraud charges on Monday, accused of steering new clients into the swindler's lair as he sought to keep his massive Ponzi scheme running.

Disgruntled advertisers turn anti-social Facebook is investigating reports that advertisers on the social networking site have been left well out of pocket as a result of click fraud.…Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn't work

Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, whose sprawling banking empire collapsed this year, was indicte...

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, three associates and a top Caribbean regulator were indicted on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges in an elaborate $7 billion pyramid scheme to bilk investors, U.S. Justice Department officials said on Friday.

David Hume writes "electronicmaji is reporting on the Daily Kos that the individual known as ProtesterHelp (also to be found on twitter) was attacked in Ohio for providing network security for Twitterers in Iran, setting up private networks to provide secure proxies, calling for media networks to remove the Iranians Twitterers information from their broadcast, and providing counter-intelligence services (including Basiji and Army Locations) within the Twitter community. ProtesterHelp was allegedly attacked by a group of men while walking to class in Ohio. The men, who appeared to ProtesterHelp to be either Iranian or Lebanese, drove up beside him and threw rocks at him while shouting, 'Mousavi Fraud.' ProtesterHelp further reported that his personal information has been leaked, and is currently being spread both online and inside of Iran amongst the government." Relatedly Wired is also reporting that Google and Facebook have rushed out support for Persian. This move has allowed many pro-democracy groups to connect and translate their message to a broader audience.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, three associates and a top Caribbean regulator were indicted on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges in an elaborate $7 billion pyramid scheme to bilk investors, U.S. Justice Department officials said on Friday.

To hear and support Dr Ray Hagin just go to http://wblr.com/ "Teach your children and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they posses inside. Give them a sense of pride....." I wonder would a black child fail in school if he/she choose to believe this history instead of what they're being told in school. Author: 9Sankofa9 Keywords: video2 Added: June 19, 2009

Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford is charged over a $7bn scheme to defraud investors, the US justice department says.

Controversial cricket tycoon Sir Allen Stanford has been indicted on 21 charges in relation to a £4.8 billion pyramid scheme.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, three associates and a top Caribbean regulator were indicted on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges in an elaborate $7 billion pyramid scheme to bilk investors, U.S. Justice Department officials said on Friday.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Former HealthSouth Corp Chief Executive Richard Scrushy was ordered to pay $2.9 billion on Thursday after a judge said he was responsible for a massive accounting fraud that nearly brought down the hospital chain.

I was kinda waiting for FiveThirtyEight to weigh in on this: using Benford's Law to check for fraud in the Iranian election results (here as well). Benford's law is sometimes useful in these cases, because human beings intuitively tend to distribute the first digits about evenly when they're making up "random" strings of numbers, when in fact many real-world distributions will be skewed toward the smaller digits. Both 538 pieces are skeptical that Benford's Law is applicable in this case. (thx, nick) Update: Voting fraud expert Walter Mebane has produced a paper on the Iranian election that uses Benford's Law to check the results. He's updated the paper several times since it was first published and now writes that "the results give moderately strong support for a diagnosis that the 2009 election was affected by significant fraud". (thx,scott) Update: Done just after the election, this analysis shows that the returns released by Iran's Interior Ministry during the course of the day of the election shows an unnaturally high steadiness of voting percentages. (thx, cliff) Update: Regarding the previous link, Nate Silver doesn't think much of that analysis. (thx, cliff) Tags: 2009 Iranian election   benfordslaw   iran   statistics

More protests are expected in Iran, while the top power body invites the defeated election candidates to discuss their complaints of fraud.

Five managers of a Kenyan government-owned petrol firm and a privately-owned company are charged with fraud in Nairobi.

"St. Louis Park Today" TV News - Wednesday, June 17 The Minnesota State Patrol raided Denny Hecker properties Wednesday, June 17, as a part of a criminal investigation. Hecker already faces numerous lawsuits that have led to judgments against him. He recently declared personal bankruptcy. The State Patrol's investigation centers on allegations that Hecker's dealerships never transferred titles or license plates to customers in numerous instances and that Hecker's company failed to pay off liens on trade-in vehicles. Customers from 15 counties have made similar complaints, including situations that allegedly involved both types of fraud. Hecker's attorneys have said the GMAC financing company - not Hecker's company - failed to make payments to the state relating to sales and trade-in payments. Author: mnsunvideo Keywords: Minnesota State Patrol Denny Hecker St. Louis Park Today Sun-Sailor Seth Rowe Added: June 17, 2009

skuzzlebutt writes "In a federal tax case reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal last week, a local businessman has been paying his employees in gold coins instead of cash or ACH, and has reportedly told them that they can only be taxed on the face value of the coinage — not the much higher market value of the metal. The United States disagreed, and brought him up on 57 counts of income tax evasion, tax fraud and criminal conspiracy. The non-authenticated comments section of the original article brought a lot of supporters out of the woodwork, including a few who thought the jury should be hung (literally, procedurally, or figuratively ... pick one). In response, the prosecution has subpoenaed the names of the anonymous commenters, citing fears of jury safety. Or something. The obvious questions of privacy and protected speech aside, for the folks that support the defendant (the newspaper is fighting the subpoena), this also brings back into the spotlight the troll-empowering nature of pseudo-anonymous, non-authenticated boards. If they want to find you, they will; is anonymous commenting still worth it, or is it just too risky for the board owners?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New York TImes reports Microsoft has filed suit against Eric Lam, Gordon Lam and Melanie Suen, of Vancouver, British Columbia. The suit comes after a year of investigative work by Microsoft in tracking down reports of click fraud. According...

hoytak writes "An expert in electoral fraud, professor Walter Melbane, has released a detailed analysis (PDF) of available data in Iran's controversial election (summary here). While he did not find significant indications of fraud, he does note that all the deviations from the predicted model are in Ahmadinejad's favor: 'In general, combining the 2005 and 2009 data conveys the impression that a substantial core of the 2009 results reflected natural political process... [These] stand in contrast to the unusual pattern in which all of the notable discrepancies between the support Ahmadinejad actually received and the support the model predicts are always negative. This pattern needs to be explained before one can have confidence that natural election processes were not supplemented with artificial manipulations.'" In related news, EsonLinji notes reports in the Seattle PI and other sources that the US State Department has asked Twitter to delay system maintenance to prevent cutting off Iranians who have been relying on the service during the post-election crisis. And if you would like to help ease the communication crunch, reader RCulpepper tips a blog post detailing how to set up a proxy server for users with Iranian IP addresses.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Canadian crackdown a first Microsoft has filed its first-ever lawsuit over click fraud, seeking $750,000 in damages from a Canada-based trio who allegedly orchestrated a massive online scam via its pay-per-click search ads.…Video - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

"In the suit filed on Monday in a U.S. federal court in Seattle against the three individuals and companies they are believed to control,..."

Security researchers urge Google to enable encryption by default on its most popular web apps, including Gmail and Google Docs, saying the search giant is putting millions of users at risk of fraud from hackers.

Microsoft has acted to stop what it says is an illegal family advertising scheme. The software giant...

Did hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really win reelection with 69 percent of the vote? Statisticians and political experts find worrying signs in the numbers, but no smoking gun that conclusively proves fraud.