Internet news sites are abuzz with the report that a Japanese woman has been jailed after reportedly “killing” her virtual husband’s avatar after a virtual divorce. A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher was virtually married to a 33-year-old office worker in the online game Maplestory – a cutesy Korean manga-style world. Read more
(via Denis Magnusson) A Canadian court has issued an injunction against a stamp-dealer who posted threatening materials on the internet against Richard Warman, a human rights campaigner. The systematic hate campaign by one William Grosvenor included death threats, false accusations of sex with minors, photos of the victim’s home address, Read more
An interesting cybercrime and politics story came out this week. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account was hacked by a group called Anonymous and screenshots were posted in WikiLeaks. Hacking may be too strong a word, what seems to have occurred is more akin to social engineering, as the hackers admitted Read more
Hacking is back in the news. The BBC reports that hackers in the U.S. infiltrated the computer networks of several companies and stole over forty million credit and debit card numbers. What is unusual about the case is that the hackers targeted their victim’s secure wireless access points, and therefore Read more
(via The Guardian) An interesting case is taking place in the United States. Megan Meier was a 13-year-old girl from Missouri who had a MySpace page and an active web presence. She received a friend invitation from a 16-year-old called Josh Evans (16), and they exchanged messages and flirted for Read more
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