fraud
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Venmo lost a lot of cash due to payment fraud
Venmo apparently had a good reason for disabling web payments and temporarily shutting off instant money transfers -- it was losing money hand over fist. The Wall Street Journal has obtained documents indicating that the PayPal-owned service took a 40 percent larger than expected operating loss ($40 million) in the first quarter of 2018, and payment fraud played a major factor in that financial blow. Where Venmo had expected dodgy transactions to represent 0.24 percent of its activity, the numbers shot up to 0.4 percent in March.
Police arrest alleged Russian hacker behind huge Android ad scam
Police in Bulgaria have arrested an alleged Russian hacker who may be responsible for a huge Android ad scam that netted $10 million. The individual identified as Alexander Zhukov is a Saint Petersburg native who's been living in Varna, Bulgaria, since 2010 and was apprehended on November 6th after the US issued an international warrant for his arrest, according to ZDNet.
Ticketmaster buys a blockchain company to guard against ticket fraud
Ticketmaster will soon have another way to fight bogus ticket sales: by hopping on one of the biggest tech bandwagons of 2018. It's acquiring Upgraded, a company that melds blockchain's distributed trust with encrypted barcodes to minimize the fraud you sometimes see with paper-based or PDF tickets. You'll have a clearer sense of when a concert pass is legitimate, while event holders will have more of a grip on where their tickets are going.
Facebook accused of lying about video stats error for over a year
Facebook is guilty of lying to advertisers, according to a new lawsuit. Back in 2016, online marketing agency Crowd Siren sued the social network for inflating its metrics -- now it claims Facebook knew as early as 2015 that it was over-reporting figures. The marketing agency has also thrown in fraud claims and a request for punitive damages in an amended complaint, filed this week.
Chinese fraudsters scammed Apple out of free iPhone parts
Apple's warranty policy was badly abused by fraudsters in China back in 2013, according to a report from The Information. In an elaborate scheme, rings of thieves would purchase iPhones and immediately return them to Apple's Store in Shenzhen, claiming they were broken. In reality, they had removed valuable components and replaced them with fake parts and even gum wrappers. After receiving the replacement phones, the teams would sell them off, while using the stolen components in refurbished iPhones. Those would then be sold off in smaller cities.
Elon Musk settles with SEC over fraud charge
Elon Musk's SEC drama is over almost as soon as it begun -- the entrepreneur has settled with the SEC over the securities fraud charge for his tweets about taking Tesla private. He'll get to keep the CEO position and won't have to admit guilt, but he'll have to step down as Chairman and let an independent person take that position. He won't be eligible for that position for three years, the SEC said. Tesla will also have to appoint a total of two new directors, create a committee of independent directors and establish "additional controls and procedures" for Musk's communications. Both Musk and Tesla will pay $20 million each in penalties, all of which will go toward "harmed investors."
Tesla reportedly faces DOJ investigation over Elon Musk tweets
It looks like Tesla is in more hot water over Elon Musk's tweets that the company might go private. Bloomberg reports that, according to two people familiar with the matter, the Department of Justice is investigating Tesla because of the CEO's statements. In August, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking his company private, adding that funding had already been secured. Musk later announced that Tesla would remain a publicly traded company for the time being.
eBay now verifies the authenticity of luxury watch sales
eBay's Authenticate program now covers more than high-style handbags. The online shopping giant now verifies the authenticity of luxury watch sales from more than 30 luxury brands, including Audemars Piguet, Breitling, Patek Philippe and Rolex. Sellers who pass muster will receive an "authenticity verified" badge that makes clear the watches they sell are the real deal. That's rather important when watches like Audemars' Royal Oak or Patek's Nautilus can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars.
FTC investigates $700,000 crowdfunding campaign for fraud
The FTC hasn't publicly investigated crowdfunding fraud outside of one case, but that doesn't mean it's inactive. The Verge has learned that the Commission is investigating Doug Monahan's crowdfunding campaigns for the iBackPack, a smart backpack that included a mobile hotspot, battery pack and connectors. Monahan raised over $700,000 between Indiegogo and Kickstarter in 2015 and 2016, but hasn't shipped the backpack in question. Supporters only ever received pre-release accessories, and the Kickstarter campaign's last news update was in March 2017.
Square sellers no longer need signatures for card payments
Square Cash is continuing its crusade to make the business of parting with your hard-earned money a little less painful. It's just announced that it's cut down EMV transaction time on Square Reader for contactless and chip even further, to just two seconds, compared to the average eight to 13 seconds. The process uses a new "dip transaction flow" that prioritizes the parts of a transaction that are critical to security, which means less time standing in line, waiting for your card info to churn through to the issuer.
Police expose SIM card hijacking ring
There's a good chance you've had to ask your carrier for a SIM swap, whether it's to replace a faulty card or to switch to another size (say, from micro SIM to nano SIM). Crooks, however, are increasingly abusing those swaps to steal from unsuspecting cellphone users. Florida police have arrested Ricky Handschumacher on grand theft, money laundering and unauthorized computer access charges after law enforcement across the country discovered evidence of a fraud ring that relied on SIM hijacking.
The first ‘blockchain baby’ is here
When you read the news that they put a baby on the blockchain, your reaction makes you one of two types of people. Either you think, Mon dieu, is there anything the magical fairy dust known as blockchain can't solve? Or you think: Surely, this is child abuse. For the past few years, techies have frothed and proselytized over the potential salvation of blockchain, the tech behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. So it's hard to even know what babies and blockchain could even have to do with each other. Typically, outside of grifter circles, blockchain is associated with vaporware, shady fraudulent ICOs or solving things that aren't suited at all for blockchain's "distributed ledger" system. Oh, and largely solving things that aren't even problems.
SEC charges Fyre Festival founder with fraud
The SEC announced today that it has filed fraud charges against three men behind the disastrous Fyre Festival. Billy McFarland, two companies he founded -- Fyre Media, Inc. and Magnises, Inc. -- his Chief Marketing Officer Grant Margolin and independent contractor Daniel Simon were charged with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws and all three men have agreed to settle the charges. The SEC said in a statement that with assistance from Margolin and Simon, "McFarland induced investors to entrust him with tens of millions of dollars by fraudulently inflating key operational, financial metrics and successes of his companies, as well as his own personal success."
Fraudster caught using OPM hack data from 2015
Way back in 2015, the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was electronically burgled, with hackers making off with 21.5 million records. That data included social security numbers, fingerprints, usernames, passwords and data from interviews conducted for background checks. Now, a woman from Maryland has admitted to using data from that breach to secure fraudulent loans through a credit union.
Elizabeth Holmes steps down as Theranos CEO as DOJ levels charges
CNBC is reporting that Elizabeth Holmes has stepped down from her position as CEO of Theranos and the Department of Justice has indicted her on alleged wire fraud. Both the company and Holmes have been embroiled in scandal following reports that the blood tests it claimed to be working on weren't actually effective. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes and Theranos with fraud.
FCC implements a 'clear ban' on surprise phone bill charges
The FCC has been willing to tackle surprise phone bill charges for a long time, but now it's more explicitly forbidding the practice. The regulator has approved rules that include a "clear ban" on cramming, or slapping customers with unauthorized charges on phone bills. The activity was already illegal, the FCC said -- this mainly "reaffirms" the agency's authority to crack down on bad behavior.
Amazon return policy abusers sentenced to nearly six years in prison
Three individuals have just received lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in a scam that defrauded Amazon out of $1.2 million. Erin and Leah Finan, a couple living in Indiana, pleaded guilty last year to running the scheme. For two years, the Finans ordered over 2,700 electronic items from Amazon including GoPro digital cameras, Xboxes, smartwatches, tablets and laptops and then reported them as damaged. Once Amazon replaced the products, they would sell them to a third person -- Danijel Glumac -- who then sold them to a buyer in New York. In all, the Finans are said to have made around $750,000 running the scam while Glumac made approximately $500,000.
The SEC made a fake cryptocurrency to show you how ICO scams work
HoweyCoin, a new digital currency, was launched today through a pre-initial coin offering and the team behind it said it would be "the cryptocurrency standard for the travel industry." The HoweyCoin website offers a number of investment levels as well as various discounts depending on when you invest. However, when you click the "Buy Coins Now!" button, it takes you to an SEC website warning you of the strategies used by ICO scammers.
NYPD says 'Skim Reaper' device could curb ATM fraud
Skimming costs US consumers more than a billion dollars a year. The practice, which sees devices illegally installed on ATMs and gas station pumps to "skim" credit card information from unsuspecting users, can affect everyone. Even cybersecurity expert Patrick Traynor, who's now come up with a solution that could end the nefarious crime for good.
US charges Ex-VW CEO with fraud over Dieselgate scandal
Volkswagen's former CEO Martin Winterkorn has been formally charged with conspiracy and wire fraud in US federal court over the corporation's diesel emissions-cheating scandal. It's part of a probe into the company's efforts in the so-called Dieselgate fiasco that revealed the German automaker had installed software that faked favorable results on vehicle emissions tests.
