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Story:
Cancer Scamster Stilley
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — Authorities say a New Jersey woman scammed relatives and others out of cash, meals and even a wedding by falsely claiming she had bladder cancer.
Officials say in February 2011, Stilley told those close to her and posted on Facebook that she had been diagnosed with cancer. In April, she said her condition had worsened.
Authorities say supporters raised more than $10,000.
Supporters became suspicious in November 2011 when she posted that she was feeling better and believed a miracle was coming.
Her lawyer, Adam Malamut, tells the Burlington County Times that authorities have not presented him with any evidence that Stilley did anything wrong.
SafeHouse is supposed to be a place where people can anonymously expose corporate “fraud, abuse and other wrongdoing.” However, after launching SafeHouse this week, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper received a barrage of criticism for putting together a technically-weak website that can expose the identity of individuals submitting sensitive information.
One encryption analyst described SafeHouse as a “total anonymity failure,” while other experts said the website needed “basic improvements” that should have been addressed before launching.
We want your help
Documents and databases: They’re key to modern journalism. But they’re almost always hidden behind locked doors, especially when they detail wrongdoing such as fraud, abuse, pollution, insider trading, and other harms. That’s why we need your help.
If you have newsworthy contracts, correspondence, emails, financial records or databases from companies, government agencies or non-profits, you can send them to us using the SafeHouse service.
Whatever one may say of Assaange none can question his passion.
E-Mails Containing Malware Sent to Businesses Concerning Their Online Job Postings
01/19/2011—Recent FBI analysis reveals that cyber criminals engaging in ACH/wire transfer fraud have targeted businesses by responding via e-mail to employment opportunities posted online.
Recently, more than $150,000 was stolen from a U.S. business via unauthorized wire transfer as a result of an e-mail the business received that contained malware. The malware was embedded in an e-mail response to a job posting the business placed on an employment website and allowed the attacker to obtain the online banking credentials of the person who was authorized to conduct financial transactions within the company. The malicious actor changed the account settings to allow the sending of wire transfers, one to the Ukraine and two to domestic accounts. The malware was identified as a Bredolab variant, svrwsc.exe. This malware was connected to the ZeuS/Zbot Trojan, which is commonly used by cyber criminals to defraud U.S. businesses.
The FBI recommends that potential employers remain vigilant in opening the e-mails of prospective employees. Running a virus scan prior to opening any e-mail attachments may provide an added layer of security against this type of attack. The FBI also recommends that businesses use separate computer systems to conduct financial transactions.
For more information on this type of fraud and prevention tips, please refer to previous public service announcements at the links below:
Anyone who believes they have been a target this type of attack should immediately contact their financial institutions and local FBI office and promptly report it to the IC3’s website at www.ic3.gov. The IC3’s complaint database links complaints together to refer them to the appropriate law enforcement agency for case consideration. The IC3 also uses complaint information to identify emerging trends and patterns.
12/01/2010—The IC3 receives a high volume of complaints from victims of payday loan telephone collection scams. In these scams, a caller claims that the victim is delinquent in a payday loan and must repay the loan to avoid legal consequences. The callers purport to be representatives of the FBI, Federal Legislative Department, various law firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies. They claim to be collecting debts for companies such as United Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Net, and other Internet check cashing services.
One of the most insidious aspects of this scam is that the callers have accurate information about the victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, employer information, bank account numbers, and names and telephone numbers of relatives and friends. The method by which the fraudsters obtained the personal information is unclear, but victims often relay that they had completed online applications for other loans or credit cards before the calls began.
The fraudsters relentlessly call the victim’s home, cell phone, and place of employment. They refuse to provide to the victims any details of the alleged payday loans and become abusive when questioned. The callers threaten victims with legal actions, arrests, and in some cases physical violence if they refuse to pay. In many cases, the callers even resort to harassment of the victim’s relatives, friends, and employers.
Some fraudsters instruct victims to fax a statement agreeing to pay a certain dollar amount, on a specific date, via prepaid visa card. The statement further declares that the victim would never dispute the debt.
These telephone calls are an attempt to obtain payment by instilling fear in the victims. Do not follow the instructions of the caller.
If you receive telephone calls such as these, you should:
Contact your banking institutions;
Contact the three major credit bureaus and request an alert be put on your file;
Contact your local law enforcement agencies if you feel you are in immediate danger;
Fraudulent Notification Deceives Consumers Out of Thousands of Dollars
11/29/2010—The IC3 continues to receive reports of letters and e-mails being distributed pursuant to prize sweepstakes or lottery schemes. These schemes use counterfeit checks that bear legitimate-looking logos of various financial institutions to fool victims into sending money to the fraudsters.
Fraudsters tell victims they won a sweepstakes or lottery, but to receive a lump sum payout, they must pay the taxes and processing fees upfront. Fraudsters direct individuals to call a telephone number to initiate a letter of instructions. The letter alleges that the victim may elect to take an advance on the winnings to make the required upfront payment. The letter includes a check in the amount of the alleged taxes and fees, along with processing instructions. Ultimately, victims believe they are using the advance to make the required upfront payment, but in reality they are falling prey to the scheme.
The victim deposits the check into their own bank, which credits the account for the amount of the check before the check clears. The victim immediately withdraws the money and wires it to the fraudsters. Afterwards, the check proves to be counterfeit and the bank pulls the respective funds from the victim’s account, leaving the victim liable for the amount of the counterfeit check plus any additional fees the bank may charge.
Persons may fall victim to this scheme due to the allure of easy money and the apparent legitimacy of the check the fraudsters include in the letter of instruction. The alleged cash prizes and locations of the financial institutions vary.
Tips to avoid being scammed:
A federal statute prohibits mailing lottery tickets, advertisements, or payments to purchase tickets in a foreign lottery.
Be leery if you do not remember entering a lottery or sweepstakes.
Beware of lotteries or sweepstakes that charge a fee prior to delivering your prize.
Be wary of demands to send additional money as a requirement to be eligible for future winnings.
If you have been a victim of this type of scam or any other cyber crime, you can report it to the IC3 at http://www.IC3.gov. The IC3 complaint database links complaints for potential referral to law enforcement for case consideration. Complaint information is also used to identify emerging trends and patterns to alert the public to new criminal schemes.
Imagine getting an e-mail from the FBI. What would you do? Chances are you’d respond to find out what’s up. And bad guys who pretend to be FBI agents are counting on that.
Sierra Smith, who lives in the Seattle area, says it was very scary when she got an e-mail from “Special Agent John Edward.” The message said two trunks containing $4.1 million were confiscated at JFK airport and a document inside had her name it.
Smith replied and asked to see credentials. The follow-up e-mail had an attachment with an FBI badge and a picture ID. In a follow-up e-mail she was asked for $850 to resolve the matter.
Smith didn’t send the money. Instead, she did something very smart. She contacted the FBI office in Seattle and was told about the scam.
This is what’s known as an imposter scam. The Federal Trade Commission says a growing number of scams now involve some sort of impersonation. In fact, imposter scams are now No. 6 on the FTC’s list of Top Ten Complaints for 2010. The commission received more than 60,000 complaints about imposter scams last year.
How is it that an organisation with systems has not been able to notice a false product being distributed ,deposits received, receipts issued and accounted for?
Do people not check transaction details against receipts issued?
Or these people have a sophisticated Software which does not need to check the receipts issued against inflow?
Even if a receipt book was maintained by the accused,is it possible to keep the same safely over a long period of time?
Again did not the depositors visit the bank even once?
How is it they have not blurted out the ‘Scheme’ to the bank staff or their friends about their wonderful investment?
One thing is sure-we need not bother about fine prints(conditions apply);
The normal document may not also be original.
Another point is , because of IVRS ( automatic recording)system, one hardly finds a human being to answer you.( by the way how is it that none of the investors made an even a casual inquiry at the bank?)
This makes all the more easy for fraudsters who know Software to manipulate records.
NEW DELHI: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has ruled out any systemic failure in the muti-crore fraud at Citibank and said that precautions are being taken to ensure that such cases are not repeated.
“There are regulations and all other precautions are being taken. But if there is an individual misdemeanor, that has to be acted on. Law will take its own course of action,” Mukherjee told reporters.
The alleged fraud was detected at Citibank’s Gurgaon branch. An FIR for cheating and forgery against a bank employee and three others was lodged on Tuesday and 18 accounts, with about Rs4 crore deposits, were frozen subsequently.
The fraud is said to be a handiwork of Shiv Raj Puri, a relationship manager at the branch, who allegedly sold investment products to high networth clients claiming that they would generate unusually high returns. He also allegedly routed the fund garnered from HNI customers to stock market through brokerage firms like Religare Securities.
Citibank India spokesperson said, “We recently initiated an investigation into a certain set of suspicious transactions based on documents forged by an employee involving a few accounts in our Gurgaon branch,” the spokesperson said. “Identified suspicious transactions have been isolated and we are providing full assistance to the authorities in their investigations.”
New Delhi: A huge banking fraud has been uncovered at the Gurgaon branch of Citibank that saw a bank employee fraudulently diverting an estimated Rs.400 crore from 20 accounts of high-networth clients. Citibank has already lodged an FIR with the police and begun internal investigation into the fraud.
“We recently initiated an investigation into a certain set of suspicious transactions based on documents forged by an employee involving a few accounts in our Gurgaon branch,” a Citi India spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. According to sources, an employee, Shivaraj Puri, used to seek deposits from high-networth customers in lucrative schemes. However, he used to transfer the funds to some other accounts.
Funds amounting to Rs.400 crore belonging to about 20 customers, according to sources, were transferred to fictitious accounts.
The employee involved is suspected of selling investment products to clients claiming that these would generate unusually high returns.
It has been alleged that the employee also showed a forged notification of market regulator SEBI for garnering funds from customers.
The flagship branch that Citibank opened in New York’s Union Square today is a bit different from banks in its other locations.
Instead of picking up a paper brochure, patrons can use one of the six interactive sales walls with touchscreen capabilities to learn more about bank services. Instead of using deposit envelopes, they can use enhanced-image ATMs to deposit checks without them. And instead of waiting for business hours to speak with a customer service representative, customers can use a 24/7 video chat station in the ATM lobby.
The digital components of the 9,700-square-foot branch are based on technologies pioneered by Citibanks in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Some features of the new bank seem more suited for a cafe or a airport lounge than a bank. Customers can access free Wi-Fi (in a private seating lounge if they are Citigold customers), and “media walls” display news, weather, and information about Citibank. Atmosphere Proximity, Citi’s digital agency, also designed a chip with the bank’s social media team that accesses a special Foursquare feed. Whenever a certain amount of people check in to the branch, an “internal marketing screen” shows which users are inside the branch at that very moment.
A new form of the scheme may bilk advertisers while seeming to result in real sales.
Click fraud, that perpetual bane of online advertisers, is usually hard to detect in the moment, but easy to spot after the fact. That’s because, unlike real clicks, sham clicks performed by automatic click software or human fraudsters pump up an advertiser’s pay-per-click fees but never generate sales.
But on Tuesday, Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman revealed what he says is a new form of click fraud that accomplishes what online fraud watchdogs might have once thought impossible: a scam that not only simulates valid clicks on a Google ( GOOG – news – people ) ad sold to an advertiser, but seems to result in a real customer who spends money on the advertiser’s site.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/12/google-click-fraud-tech-security-trafficsolar.html?partner=alerts
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