How to spot a foreclosure scam

With 1-2 million foreclosures on the horizon, we are probably going to see a lot of shady characters advertise on lamp posts, classified ads, pay-per-click advertising and spam e-mails with questionable promises to rescue people in a difficult situation.Apparently, the mortgage crisis is now so bad some are saying it's likely to cause a recession.Foreclosure scams have been around for a long time, predating the current mortgage crisis. Scams rarely change very much, they tend to disappear and then resurface when there is an event that makes them...

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Operation Bot Roast II snares bot herders, worldwide!

Official FBI photo for Bot Roast II (Globe in a laptop)This morning I read that a teenager in New Zealand had been arrested for allegedly being the kingpin behind an international cyber-crime network.Because he was a juvenile when the crimes were being committed, the authorities aren't releasing his real name, but on the Internet he is known as "AKILL."The...

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American Greetings draws a line in the sand against ecard scams!

Recently, we've seen electronic greeting cards (ecards) loaded with malicious software sent out by the millions in spam e-mails. For the person, who accidentally opens one up, the end result is (probably) an unfortunate experience of one kind or another.With the holidays upon us and spam levels increasing, we will more than likely see another rash of ecard spam (scams).The unfortunate experiences range from having your system turned into a zombie (part of a botnet to send out more spam e-mails) to having all your personal details recorded with...

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Search warrant of credit card fraudster's house reveals 185,000 stolen social security numbers from the VA

(DMV photo of Kim from the OC Register)Not sure what's wrong with this picture, but it was recently discovered that a suspected gang member (Tae Kim) got himself a job as an auditor at the Veteran's Administration, despite the fact he had a criminal record, and stole 185,000 social security numbers.The stolen social security numbers were discovered...

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Dishonest Certegy employee strikes plea agreement for selling 8.5 million people's information

Certegy wasn't the largest data breach reported this year, it only compromised a mere 8.5 million people.What was troublesome -- for the people compromised at least -- was the fact that their personal and financial information was sold to entities that still haven't been disclosed. The financial information I'm referring to included checking, credit card and debit card account information.Yesterday, it was announced that the dishonest Certegy employee involved, one William Sullivan agreed to plead guilty for what is what is being termed a "reduced...

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Facebook invokes the opt-out defense when accused of privacy violations!

FaceBook, the much talked about social networking site, has received a lot of bad publicity recently.Despite their immense popularity, personal information published on the site has been used to commit everything from identity theft to abusing children.Hackers are also using the site to drop malicious software on unsuspecting visitors. This leads to even more privacy violations and in many instances, identity theft and financial crimes, also.Now they are under fire for a marketing scheme, which posts what their members just purchased all over the...

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BBC article on UK data breach suggests why we are never sure if the information is used by criminals

Now that we KNOW the loss of computer discs containing the vital statistics of 25 million children in the UK wasn't caused by one person, everyone is probably going to start arguing (whether or not?) criminals are using the information.Even worse, it's now been revealed that unencrypted discs with a lot of personal information were being sent snail mail as a routine method of transport.Mark Ward at the BBC wrote an interesting article that suggests why we often aren't sure if the information is being used. In the article, he writes:"In the fraud...

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Phishing increases ten-fold over the Thanksgiving weekend

I just got finished writing about Symantec's prediction that spam would break new records this holiday season.It appears that in one category of spam a.k.a. phishing, they were right on the money.Another computer security company (Barracuda Networks) is reporting:Barracuda Networks, Inc., the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances, reported a more than 10x surge in the number of phishing Web sites created and three times the number of phishing emails sent out in the last 24 hours. This increase in activity indicates that scammers...

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Consumers Union launches a holiday campaign against unsafe products!

Some might say that the global economy has ushered in an era of corporate irresponsibility. Daily, we discover that certain corporations are distributing goods that pose a clear and present danger to our safety.Many of us are also wondering if certain politicans have let us down on this matter.After all, how could only 15 inspectors be assigned to...

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Symantec predicts a flood of spam this holiday season!

dejaking posted this picture of the 2005 Symantec Christmas Party on Flickr. I wonder if they will be singing the "12 days of Christmas Spam" at this year's party. The words for this song (written by some creative Symantec types) are at the bottom of this post!With Black Friday upon us and Cyber Monday a few days away, spammers are preparing to flood...

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Gift card due diligence 101

According to most statistics, the buying public spent approximately $100 billion on gift cards last year. Because of their popularity, gift cards are used to commit fraud fairly frequently, also.Retail criminals use fraudulent credit cards, debit cards and checks to buy large amounts of gift cards. Since a lot of sites exist, where anyone can sell these cards, criminals can turn them into cash fairly easily.Shortly after the much talked about TJX data breach -- where 90 million personal and financial records were compromised -- a group was caught...

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Too good to be true employment opportunities

Patrick Jordan (Sunbelt blog) did a nice post about a huge problem that frequently occurs on the dark-side of the Internet. The problem, I'm referring to is people being recruited (some might say duped) to assume the risk involved in collecting the proceeds of Internet crime.With all the fraud occuring on auction and e-commerce sites -- criminals need...

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DOJ is the latest badge of authority phishermen are using to net victims

This is the DOJ banner used in the screenshot of the phishy e-mail Websense is reporting. Please note, in this instance, I merely copied it right from the DOJ website. With minimal knowledge, just about anyone can do this with any picture from a website.Apparently, Websense deserves credit for discovering a Trojan downloader pretending to be a e-mail...

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One Bot herder facing 60 years is a small dent in the overall problem!

(Screen shot of botnets for rent courtesy of the Mind Streams of Information Security Knowledge blog)While John Schiefer a.k.a. "acid and "acidstorm," is facing 60 years in prison and $1.75 million in fines for operating a botnet, the problem isn't likely to disappear anytime soon.Schiefer was part of a hacker group known as Defonic, who gained a lot...

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Truston Identity Theft Services recognized as a 2008 Hot Companies Finalist

There are very few identity theft protection services that I TRUST one-hundred percent. The reason for this is most of them require that a victim, or even someone who wants to protect themselves from identity theft, provide them with all their personal information.Some of them even require that you furnish them with a power of attorney, which is even...

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U.S. China Commission Report reveals serious issues that need to be dealt with!

Reports of the Chinese hacking into government systems are nothing new. Along with the constant reports of substandard products being put on our shelves, there is little doubt that the Chinese pose a threat to our safety in a LOT of different ways.The U.S. China Commission has just released a disturbing report, which indicates some alarming evidence that the Chinese might be a threat to our National security.The first concern is what appears to be a growing capability to target satellites. I got the following directly from the report, which was...

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Former Nevada State employee claims he was fired for revealing data breach

(Photo courtesy of wazzywooze at Flickr)It never ceases to amaze me how a lack of information security translates into official statements that no one is aware of any identity theft that has occurred.With as many people, we know have been compromised, and accounting for episodes like the one below where we probably aren't sure, who really knows?The...

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Digital gangsters can buy everything they need to commit fraud right on the Internet!

There is a lot of technology with questionable applications being sold on the Internet. Of course, this is merely my opinion, but I have my reasons for believing this.Robert McMillan, IDG News Service wrote an INTERESTING article about spyware being sold on eBay that has questionable applications.From his article:Think your wife may be cheating on you? Wondering who your boss might be talking to? "Learn the truth. Spy today."So reads an ad for "Bluetooth Spy Pro-Edition," one of nearly 200 mobile phone spyware products currently listed for sale...

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Major cybercrime and identity theft group smashed in NYC

It appears that the Manhattan District Attorney and the United States Secret Service have dealt a significant blow to a Internet crime ring dealing in stolen credit card information, cybercrime and identity theft.The New York/New Jersey Electronic Crimes Task Force and a host of other agencies assisted in the investigation, also.From the DANY press release:Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the indictment of seventeen individuals and one corporation on charges related to global trafficking in stolen credit card numbers,...

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Botnet owner faces 60 years in prison and a $1.75 million fine

Until recently, botnet owners seemed to be able to trash people's systems without having to face very many consequences. And in a lot of instances, more than a system gets trashed when it is compromised by a botnet owner.Friday, the Central California U.S. Attorney's office announced the prosecution of one of these botnet owners. Of interest, the botnet owner, John Schiefer admitted to compromising up to 250,000 computers with malware (malicious software).In the first prosecution of its kind in the nation, a well-known member of the “botnet underground”...

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