Electronic funds transfers at the point of sale (or EFTPOS) skimming is a relatively new scam that has become more prevalent over the past few years. This form of skimming involves swapping out the self-swipe point of sale terminals at cash registers, and replacing them with devices that record credit and debit card data. Fast…
Robbery as defined in Wikipedia is the crime of seizing property through violence or intimidation. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear. Robbery differs from simple theft, a break-in or burglary on its use…
You may have noticed that the Internet is expanding. Major newspapers are publishing all their content online, because the readers expect and demand it. 23 of the 25 largest newspapers are seeing declines in readership. And if people aren’t buying newspapers, advertisers won’t place ads in them. Newspapers hire journalists to investigate the issues that…
Last year around the holidays I wrote about burglars preying on churches. This year is no different. The Boston Globe reports “You know things are bad when they start knocking off churches. And judging by the number of churches knocked off recently, things are very bad indeed.” “I’m seeing levels of desperation out there I…
Twitter is now beginning to see a substantial rise in active users. A recent report found that the percentage of Twitter users who have tweeted ten or more times, have more than ten followers, and follow more than ten people rose from 21% to 29% in the first half of 2010. Spammers, scammers, and thieves…
Secure computing requires an ongoing process, as you learn about risks and then implement processes and technology to protect yourself. Without a concerted effort to defend your data, you will almost certainly by victimized by some type of cyber-invasion. JavaScript is everywhere, making the Internet pretty and most websites user friendly. Unfortunately, hackers have learned…
“Vishing” occurs when criminals call victims on the phone and attempt to lure them into divulging personal information that can be used to commit identity theft. The name comes from “voice,” and “phishing,” which is, of course, the use of spoofed emails designed to trick targets into clicking malicious links. Instead of email, vishing generally…
The Christmas shopping season traditionally kicks off on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. This also begins a time when criminals swarm the shopping malls as well as the Internet, seeking to take advantage of holiday opportunities. When shopping in stores, keep the following in mind: Employees: Seasonal employees are more likely to steal, from…
Every U.S.-based credit card has a magnetic stripe on the back. This stripe can be read and rewritten like a rewritable burnable CD, using card burners that are easily available online. The simplicity of the magstripe’s design, coupled with the availability of card reading and writing technology, results in billions of dollars in theft and…
The latest ATM scam is so brilliantly simple, it’s hard to believe that it actually works. Apparently, banks’ fraud detection systems are unable to flag nearly simultaneous transactions from the same account. This leaves bank customers vulnerable to what’s been termed a “flash attack,” in which multiple scanners use a stolen debit card number to…
