Prime Time Crime
Scams & Identity theft
A German computer scientist has published details of the secret code used to protect the conversations of more than 4B mobile phone users. (BBC)
Age of cyber warfare is 'dawning'
Cyber war has moved from fiction to fact, says a report. Compiled by security firm McAfee, it bases its conclusion on analysis of recent net-based attacks. Analysis of the motives of the actors behind many attacks carried out via the internet showed that many were mounted with a explicitly political aim. (BBC) REPORT: Virtual criminology report 2009 .pdf
TORONTO - A Toronto man who pleaded guilty to sending out millions of deceptive direct mail promotions has been fined $2M - double the amount of money he made from his activities. (CP) MORE: Record fine Direct mail scammer fined
TORONTO - DataCom Marketing Inc. scammed more than 50,000 small-and medium-sized businesses in a telemarketing scheme that generated an estimated $158M between 1994 and 2005. (CBC) PREVIOUS: Deceptive telemarketing charges $158M scam worth 2 years Competition Bureau Telemarketers face jail
LONDON - The number of fraud cases reaching British courts hit a 21-year high in the first six months of this year, according to new figures from KPMG. (Times online)
Twitter followers 'can be bought'
Twitter users who lack an audience for their messages can now buy followers. Australian social media marketing company uSocial is offering a paid service that finds followers for users of the micro-blogging service. (BBC) RELATED: Companies pledge more openness about Web tracking
"By now you should have received your written note regarding your vehicle warranty expiring. This call is to give you a final opportunity to extend coverage before it is too late. Press '1' now to speak to a warranty specialist regarding your options on your vehicle." (Fox) PREVIOUS: Robocall case sheds light on industry Transcontinental Warranty Inc
New target for anti-fraud squad
MONTREAL - The Montreal-based Project COLT unit is about to expand its team as it tackles tech-savvy African-based networks that have masterminded mail fraud on a massive scale while funneling the dirty money to offshore accounts. (CTV) RELATED: Nigerian mafia may have bought data
New Jersey-based Heartland Payment Systems, which deals with credit card transactions for more than 250,000 businesses in the United States, announced in a statement that "malicious software," known as malware, had been found last week in its operating system. (CanWest)
Infections of a worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is "skyrocketing". The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008. (BBC)
SHANGHAI - Microsoft launched the "Windows Genuine Advantage" (WGA) and "Office Genuine Advantage" (OGA) tools last week to test the legitimacy of the software in China's computers. (Xinhua) PREVIOUS: Black screen of death 'Do not allow Microsoft's tyranny' Microsoft's anti-piracy attack backfires Users warned to change browser
OTTAWA - Return fraud is the return of stolen merchandise to obtain a refund, sometimes using counterfeit receipts. Return fraud accounted for 32% of all bilking, followed by credit-card fraud and the use of counterfeit money, which both accounted for 15%. (CanWest) REPORT: Fraud against businesses 2007/2008 7 tricks a con-artist will use on you
MONTREAL - John Bellini's inability to recognize the break he received from Lady Luck finds him in a Los Angeles jail facing the very real possibility of a lengthy US prison term. (Montreal Gazette) PREVIOUS: Decline of the Magis 'Pizza man' indicted
An ex government informant has been charged with one of the largest identity theft cases in history. Details from more than 130M bank accounts were allegedly stolen by Albert Gonzalez, who once worked with the US Secret Service. (Daily Mail)
EDMONTON - Police say what started as a vehicle stop to check out a stolen licence plate has led to a major bust: they reveal more than 1,000 credit cards, thousands of electronic credit card numbers and equipment used to manufacture counterfeit credit cards were recovered late last month. (CTV) MORE: 4 charged Rookie cops bust credit card ring
TORONTO - The Competition Bureau is warning that recessions are "boom times for scammers" and predicts desperate Canadians will fall into traps offering easy cash online, by phone and mail. (CP)
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration plans to create a new military command to coordinate the defense of Pentagon computer networks and improve US offensive capabilities in cyberwarfare. (Fox) MORE: Security leak first found in 2005 Computer breach China denies hacking
POINTE CLARIE, Quebec - The family of an elderly woman says a long-distance phone company took advantage of her confusion by signing her up for an expensive service she did not need, and then refusing to cancel the bill. (CBC) MORE: Convergia Networks
The man who helps people disappear
Frank M. Ahearn is the man who can help you disappear. As the world’s number one “privacy expert”, Ahearn is in such demand that his website, www.frankahearn.com with its useful subsections entitled “Keys to Disappearing”, “Offshore Information”, etc, gets up to 90 hits a day. (Times online)
WASHINGTON - Computer hackers suspected of working from Russia successfully penetrated Pentagon computer systems in one of the most severe cyber attacks on US military networks. (Telegraph UK) PREVIOUS: Cyber-attack raises concerns
Computer-security researchers at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands revealed how the smart-card technology, called MIFARE, can be hacked to let anyone with a computer and $100 worth of parts create counterfeit transit and building-access passes. (CBC) PREVIOUS: Security-chip credit card Smart card
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a restraining order that stops several sellers of scareware from continuing to trade. (BBC)
BOSTON - A US federal judge ordered a man to pay Facebook a record $873 million in damages for breaking into the online social networking site and sending its members "sleazy" junk emails. (Reuters) MORE: Adam Guerbuez Facebook wins lawsuit Spam artists safe in Canada?
SAN JOSE - The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide dropped drastically today after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations allegedly engaged in spam activity was taken offline. (Washington Post)
MORE: Spam down 75%
OTTAWA - The CRTC was accused of going after small fry telemarketers rather than the big fish after publicly naming and fining a Toronto weight-loss clinic and roofing and masonry firms for violating the national do-not-call list. (Toronto Star)
CRTC urged to stop tele-hackers
CRTC national do-not-call list
TORONTO - A recent out-of-court settlement provides a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever sent an email saying malicious things about someone, especially if untrue. (Toronto Star)
NEW YORK - The Department of Justice announced the indictment of 11 people whom they say stole millions of credit and debit card numbers from major retailers in the nation's largest case of identity theft. (Fox)
Mayor gets back keys to network
SAN FRANCISCO - Mayor Gavin Newsom met with jailed IT administrator Terry Childs Monday, convincing him to hand over the administrative passwords to the city's multimillion dollar wide area network. (PC World) PREVIOUS: Access Denied Story behind San Francisco's rogue admin
Judge refuses to release hacker
CALGARY - Ehud Tenenbaum, 29, arrested last week on a provisional warrant before he could post the required $30,000 bail, was refused release on Friday relating to even more serious allegations in the US. (Calgary Herald) PREVIOUS: Police arrest hacker moments after bail grant $1.8M hacking theft
Man charged with possession of Ontario holograph
OTTAWA - A 56-year-old Ottawa man is facing counterfeit-related charges after sheets with Ontario's holographic design were found at Ottawa's airport. (CP) PREVIOUS: Province improves licence security
A stunning 15 million Canadians were repeatedly targeted by mass-marketing fraudsters in the past year and one million were victims, a major study commissioned by Competition Bureau Canada has found. (Ottawa Citizen)
The e-mail message addressed to a Booz Allen Hamilton executive was mundane - a shopping list sent over by the Pentagon of weaponry India wanted to buy. But the missive turned out to be a brilliant fake. Lurking beneath the description of aircraft, engines, and radar equipment was an insidious piece of computer code known as "Poison Ivy" designed to suck sensitive data out of the $4B consulting firm's computer network. (Business Week)
Lost data discs 'endanger protected witnesses'
LONDON - Hundreds of people in police witness protection programmes have been put at risk by the loss of millions of child benefit records. The missing data discs are understood to contain both the real names and the new identities of up to 350 people who have had their identities changed after giving evidence against major criminals. (Telegraph UK) PREVIOUS: Data on 25M lost in post
SEATTLE - On just two groups of servers, in just a few months, federal investigators found more than 200 million spam messages linked to 27-year-old Robert Alan Soloway. (Seattle PI) PREVIOUS: Man's arrest could reduce spam Vancouver man who 'owns the Internet'
WASHINGTON - AOL believes a renegade Internet spammer buried gold and platinum on his parents' property in Massachusetts and wants to bring in bulldozers to search for the treasure and satisfy a $12.8 million judgment it won in federal court. (CBS/AP) PREVIOUS: Return of the 'Kosher Nazi'
PARIS - The Church of Scientology in France has been found guilty of defrauding its followers and its leaders have been handed fines and suspended prison sentences. However, the court did not ban the organization’s activities in France. (AFP)
Celebrities lead charge against Scientology
SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. yanked paid advertisements linked to some 20 search terms that online criminals had hijacked to steal banking and other personal information from Web surfers looking for the Better Business Bureau and other sites. (AP) MORE: Hackers hijack Google Adwords
They have infected perhaps 100 million computers with viruses, turning the PCs around the world into an army of willing criminal assistants known as “bots.” (MSNBC) PREVIOUS: Virus gang warfare spills onto the Net Is your computer a criminal?
Police bust telemarketing fraud ring
MONTREAL - Police have dismantled an international telemarketing fraud ring that allegedly targeted thousands of seniors, mostly in the US but also in Canada. (CTV)
www.reddotcampaign.ca spells out a simple two-step process to block junk mail
The Bi-national Working Group on Cross-Border Mass Marketing Fraud in its report on Identity Theft identifies the following means of theft:
Physical Methods
Mail Theft
Theft from Residences and Personal Spaces
Electronic Methods
Misuse Of Personal Data in Business Transactions
Phishing, Spoofing and Pretexting
Theft from Company or Government Databases
The report also deals with the scope of Identity Theft:
In the United States, identity theft-related complaints reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) increased from 86,212 in 2001, to 161,836 in 2002, to 214,905 in 2003 -- an increase of nearly 250 percent. In the first two quarters of 2004, the FTC received an additional 130,217 identity theft complaints. This means that the average number of complaints that the FTC received per week has consistently increased: more than 1600 per week in 2001, more than 3100 per week in 2002, more than 4100 per week in 2003 and more than 5000 per week in the first half of 2004.
In Canada, the PhoneBusters National Call Centre received 7629 identity theft complaints in 2002 from Canadians reporting total losses of more than CAN$8.5 million. In 2003, PhoneBusters received 14,526 identity theft-related complaints from Canadians, reflecting reported losses of more than CAN$21.8 million.
Statistics gathered by PhoneBusters in 2003 and the first half of 2004 indicate the largest number of complaints surrounding identity theft relate to credit cards or false application for a credit card (32 percent) and cell phones or false application for a cell phone (10-12 percent). Similarly, the FTC reports that in 2003, 33 percent of identity theft victims reported that their identifying information was used for credit card fraud and 16 percent of victims reported that their identifying information was used for fraud in ordering phone service. Cell phones accounted for 10.4 percent of this total while landline phones accounted for 5.6 percent. Due to challenges categorizing the statistical information, law enforcement in both countries has reason to believe that actual instances, particularly of credit card "takeover", may actually be much higher.
More Information on Identity Theft
MONTREAL - RCMP announced the arrest of eight people and charged five with fraud in the most high-tech debit card fraud ring in Canada. RCMP Inspector Stéphane Bonin said fraudsters looked out for vulnerable pin pads that weren't bolted to counters, and then unhooked their wires, and replaced them with phony ones. (Montreal Gazette)
CALGARY - Four men, all from Quebec with suspected ties to organized crime groups in Eastern Canada, have each been charged with one count of possession of instruments for forging or falsifying credit cards. (Calgary Herald)
Ottawa missed chance to deport criminal
Data theft worse than first reported
'Good guys' show how easy it is to steal ID
Credit card leaks continue at furious pace
New scam uses counterfeit checks
Scam artists target online checks
BC a global centre for fake ID
Tens of thousands of identities stolen
Thieves after more than your credit card
Trio linked to debit-card scams
How credit-card data went out wireless door
Thousands affected by BC debit card scam
Shocked retailers tighten up on debit card use
Report: ChoicePoint previous identity theft
Bank of America Security Lapse
California sets fines for spyware
The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California. From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. (BBC)
If you have not installed Spybot or AdAware think about doing so. It’s free. – Chris
Digital crooks hone craft of 'phishing'
Anti-spam plan overwhelms sites
Spoofing' a growing fraud problem
Mounties charge teenage virus suspect
International police nab virus suspects
'Sasser' teen released other worms
Teen 'confesses' to Sasser worm
Man sentenced to 14 years for ID theft
150 cyber criminals caught in web snare
For a more complete list
For a more complete description of scam letters: