The British press is going through a feeding frenzy, as tabloids and mainstream media outlets try to outdo each other in reporting the threats posed to children online. The Daily Mail warns us that “Millions of girls using Facebook, Bebo and Myspace ‘at risk’ from paedophiles and bullies“. Even by Read more
(via Wiebke Abel and other sources) Many news sources have been carrying this story. Apparently, the United States intelligence services (who also brought you The Iraq War), are hunting for cyber-terrorists in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Apparently, those dastardly terrorists are coming to a screen near you, envious Read more
(via Rena Gertz) When the scam becomes the scam, are we faced with post-modern fraud? This one pretty much redefines chutzpah. UNION BANK PLCCOMPENSATION OFFICE UNION BANK/ UNITED NATIONS 2007 SCAM VICTIMSCOMPENSATIONS PAYMENTS.ATTN: SIR/MADAM,REF/PAYMENTS CODE: UNB/06654 $150,000 USD.This is to bring to your notice that we are delegated from the Read more
One of the surprises from my trip to Costa Rica has been the prevalence in the media of stories regarding internet fraud, phishing and other hacking attacks. Back in August the police arrested 16 individuals involved in identity theft in order to remove ¢800 million CRC (about $1.6 million USD) Read more
I’ve just received a second academic scam. My comments in green: From: un.academicawards@katamail.com [this would be more convincing if it was masked as a UN addres] UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY AWARDS COORDINATOR [actually, there is such thing as the UN University!] BRENT ADAMS (UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL GRANTS)UNIVERSITY STAFF AND UNDERGRADUATE AWARD Read more
We have all become used to identity fraud scams coming from the daughter of the late Prime Minister of Burkina Faso; or lottery winning addresses for the UK National Lottery mysteriously coming from Yahoo Hong Kong addresses. I have just received a first, which I thought I would share with Read more
Three people are being held under suspicion of murdering British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia. What makes this murder investigation different to others is that it comes with a Web 2.0 angle, as investigators trawl through Facebook and Myspace accounts in order to obtain clues. The use of social Read more
Back in August we reported on a surprisingly visionary paper from the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, which requested urgent government action against cybercrime. Last Friday Blogzilla commented that the official government response was disappointing. The government’s response has been that all is well, all legislation is Read more
USA Today reports about a man in Seattle has been arrested for conducting wide scale ID theft through P2P networks. Gregory Thomas Kopiloff used Limewire to have access to people’s personal files in order to gather financial information to be used in online fraud and ID theft. Kopiloff used this Read more
John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, has vowed to clean the Internet by “blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chatroom sex predators and cutting off terror sites.” The PM plans to achieve this by giving all Australians a free content filter. What is it about politicians and the Internet? We Read more