Sunday 17 September 2017
Phone scammer stung by ABC radio presenter
Tuesday 1 August 2017
And so the spotlight hovers over Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and NSW Regional Water Minister Niall Blair......
In an effort to wrest back control of the situation Prime Minister Turnbull has reportedly
ordered the Murray Darling Basin Authority to conduct an allegedly ndependent basin-wide review into compliance with state-based regulations governing water use. The review report will be presented to the December 2017 Council of Australian Government (COAG) meeting.
Monday 10 July 2017
Would you trust these men with your personal health information? Part Two
Friday 2 December 2016
Former Queensland LNP politician found guilty of fraud
CITATION:
|
Hockings v Queensland Retail Traders and Shopkeepers Association (Industrial Organization of Employers) [2014] QIRC 037
|
PARTIES:
|
Hockings, John Norman
(Applicant)
v
Queensland Retail Traders and Shopkeepers Association (Industrial Organization of Employers)
(Respondent)
|
CASE NO:
|
B/2013/18
|
PROCEEDING:
|
Application to re-open proceedings
|
DELIVERED ON:
|
19 February 2014
|
HEARING DATES:
|
12 and 26 April 2013
30 May 2013
|
MEMBER:
|
Deputy President Bloomfield
|
ORDERS :
|
1. Matter No. RIO/2012/155 be re-opened on the Commission's own initiative.
2. Orders in Matter No. RIO/2012/155, issued on 10 September 2012 and formalised on 5 December 2012, be vacated.
3. Mr Scott and Mrs Emma Driscoll be referred to the Queensland Police Service for investigation.
4. Mr Scott Driscoll be referred to the Speaker of Queensland Parliament for possibly misleading Parliament.
|
Wednesday 10 September 2014
Is PayWave picking your pocket at the checkout?
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Attorney-General George Brandis and his bravura performance as Pot-Kettle-Black
Saturday 25 May 2013
Fracking PsyOps. Yesterday America, today New South Wales?
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Saffin encourages increasing awareness of identity fraud
Wednesday 24 August 2011
John Xavier Berlin jailed for fraud - history of child sex-offences revealed in court
Today's Examiner gives Berlin much more attention than he'd ever like. Berlin is front-page material, gets more coverage on page 5 and is also the subject of an opinion piece written by the paper's chief-of-staff. Topping things off is a front page photograph of Berlin.
Wednesday 3 August 2011
More on identity theft - a warning about a so-called ATO website
The email states:
"Subject: Please submit your tax refund
After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund . Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to process it.
See your refund status by downloading attachment."
The email's attachment leads to a webpage that looks very much like an official ATO page, but it's not! The page seeks tax file numbers, date of birth and other personal details.
Details about the sender of the email are linked to the e address info@stout-associates.com
Saturday 30 April 2011
Advance Australia the Plastic
I was having a yarn with a local shopkeeper the other day when he remarked that most of his over-the-counter sales involved plastic.
I was rather surprised, being addicted to the feel of a roll of readies myself, but it was an observation borne out by the Australian Crime Commission’s latest report this year:
“Card transactions have continued to increase substantially over the past decade.
For example, during that period credit card transactions have increased from 42.8 million to 118.8 million per month.
Australians spend A$17.8 billion per month on credit cards and A$11.3 billion per month on EFTPOS transactions, and they withdraw A$12.4 billion per month from ATMs……
More than 657 000 cases of card fraud on Australian issued credit and debit cards were reported in Australia during 2009.
The value of credit card fraud was estimated at 57.15 cents per $1000 transacted in 2009. The value of debit card fraud during that year was estimated at 9.43 cents per $1000 transacted.”
Thursday 26 November 2009
Be prepared for the Twelve Scams of Christmas
Bluddy 'ell it's almost December.
What do those scouts say? Be prepared......
With the festive season starting to gear up and thoughts of present buying beginning to creep into idle moments, it was probably timely that someone passed these emails on to me as examples of what may come down Teh Netz and land on your PC to snatch up your hard-earned readies, raid your credit card or wreck your home computer:
Xmas Promotion
From: Microsoft Award (cleohfn@bellnet.ca)
Sent: Friday, 20 November 2009 10:22:20 PM
To:
£750,000.00 has been award to you,send us your Names/Tel/Country to slyvester_howard@gala.net. Tel: +44-70-24-030-541
read and reply now
From:united state postal inspection service (uspostal@noreply.com)
Sent:Sunday, 22 November 2009 10:43:51 PM
To:
1 attachment delivery.doc (26.0 KB)
Here's a reminder from McAfee by way of CNet News:
- Charitable phishing scams: Marcus warns consumers to be wary of e-mails that appear to be from legitimate charities. Not only will they take your money and deprive charities of needed funds, but they will also steal your credit card information and identity.
Fake invoices from delivery services: During this period, scammers will send out fake invoices and delivery notifications appearing to come from Federal Express, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service or even the U.S. Customs Service saying that they were unable to deliver a package to your address. They ask you to confirm your address and give them credit card information to pay for delivery.
Social networking friend requests: Bad guys take advantage of this social time of year by sending out authentic looking friend requests via e-mail. Marcus recommends that you not click on those links but sign into Facebook and other services and look for friend requests from the site itself. Clicking on a link could install malware on your computer or trick you into revealing your password.
Holiday e-cards: Be careful before clicking on a holiday e-card, especially if it's from a site you haven't heard of. This is a way to deliver malware, pop-ups, and other forms of unwanted advertising. Some fake e-cards will look like they come from Hallmark or other legitimate companies, so pay close attention and make sure it's from someone you know. If you're going to send an e-card, be sure you're dealing with a reputable service lest you risk infecting yourself and your friends.
Fake "luxury" jewelry: If you see an offer for luxury gifts from companies like Cartier, Gucci, and Tag Heuer at a price that's too good to be true, it probably isn't true. These links could lead you to malware and take your money or merchandise that will probably never arrive (or be fake if it does). Some of these sites, according to McAfee, even display the logos of the Better Business Bureau.
Practice safe holiday shopping. Make sure your wireless network is secure and be sure you're shopping on sites that are secure. Though it isn't an iron clad guarantee, you should look for the lock icon in the lower right corner of your browser and make sure the Web page starts with https. The "s" stands for "secure."
Christmas carol lyrics can be dangerous: Bad guys know that people are searching for holiday related sites for music, holiday graphics, and other festive media. During this time, they create fraudulent holiday related sites.
Job search related scams: With the unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, there are plenty of job seekers looking for work. Beware of online offers for high paying jobs or at-home money making schemes. Some of these sites ask for money up front, which is a good way for criminals not only to steal your "set up fee" but misuse your credit card too. Marcus said that some "get rich quick" sites are all about money laundering, asking you to accept an inbound financial transfer and pay them.
Auction site fraud: McAfee has observed a rise in fake auction sites during the holidays. Make sure you're actually going to eBay or whatever site you plan to deal with.
Password stealing scams: Criminals use low-cost tools to uncover passwords, in some cases planting key logger software to record keystrokes. Once they get your passwords, they gain access to bank accounts and credit card accounts and send spam from your e-mail accounts.
E-mail banking scams: A common type of phishing scam is sending out official looking e-mails that appear to come from your bank. Don't click on any links but type in your bank's Web address manually if you need to access your account.
Files for ransom: Hackers use malware to gain control of your computer and lock your data files. To access your own data you have to pay them ransom.
Update:
On the SCAMwatch radar this month:
Overcharged bank fees scam
November 2009: SCAMwatch is warning consumers about hoax offers of assistance to reclaim overcharged bank fees.
Bogus anti-virus alerts
November 2009: Scamwatch is warning consumers to be wary of bogus security software or 'scareware'.
Travelling to the USA?
November 2009: SCAMwatch is warning all prospective travellers to the United State of America to be wary of unauthorised third party websites.
Comcover non-refundable loan email
November 2009: SCAMwatch is warning about an email from Comcover that offers a non-refundable loan
Steer clear of sports investment schemes
November 2009: SCAMwatch is warning you to be very careful if you think you can improve your odds with the aid of sports ‘investment’ opportunities.
Thursday 20 August 2009
A case of the biter bit, but few are chortling over AFP intelligence fiasco
I was watching ABC Four Corners last Monday when this little comment came up:
"ANDREW FOWLER: The site was called root-you.org, and for the last two weeks the Australian Federal Police in cooperation with the South Australian Police have run the perfect sting.
I did idly wonder if there would be a cyber response and thought - "Naw, won't happen".
Then it well and truly did and F-Secure has links to this not so funny episode of counter-hacking, which was the almost inevitable result of all that televised bragging by the boys in blue (this also saw police computer files of actual bank, building society and corporate credit card details exposed to the view of at least one other hacker).
Some of the hacker chatter {A little **** covers words which offend those bluidy filters}:
"After the authorities FINALLY posted their little "ohhh, we have been monitoring this website", we finally said "Enough is enough, we are sick of these f**ks acting like they are hackers, lets see what they really know".
So After writing another FTP report yesterday.. I decided I would move on to getting control of r00t-y0u.org. See what the authorities know about server maintenance.. and how secure they can make stuff.
Lo and behold, their server was windows! I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of this, but I soon moved on. After visiting a 404 page, I instantly noticed that they were using Xampp. Those lazy f***s
can not even just install apache, and php themselves. So instead, they download some application to do it all for them.
Figures.
Now, of course.. they were just SO F***KING SMART, that they left the MYSQL password BLANK! After screwing around with their database, I dumped a vulnerable query into a php file, thus giving me full access to their servers.
After taking a look at the r00t-y0u database, lookie what we find.
User: "h1t3m" (Administrator)
Email: macrobber@gmail.com
These dipsh*ts are using an automatic digital forensics and incident response tool.
They can't do sh*t all themselves, because like I have said before, they have no skill. Anyways, after looking on their win32 machine for a while, I noticed some really awkward stuff. They have credit cards, and bank accounts all on a seperate drive (G:\)."
Four Corners transcript
Pic from Google Images
Wednesday 17 June 2009
Phishing lures received this week
St. George Group
Dear Customer,
Due to recent account takeovers and unauthorized listings, St.George Bank is requesting a new account verification procedure. From time to time, randomly selected accounts (seller and/or buyer) are placed under an advanced updating process based on merchant accounts/bank relations and on-file credit cards. St.George Bank may also request in an email message scanned/faxed copies of one or more photo ID's. Your account confirmation may go wrong if your credit card/bank account has expired, or if you have changed/replaced your credit card without letting us know about the change.
An email one doesn't reply to!
If this is the case, your access may be restored when you return to your normal sign on method.
For immediate access, you are required to follow the link below to secure your personal account informations.
https://ibanking.stgeorge.com.au/InternetBanking/welcome.jsp?loginattempt=max&resetid=emailID29953291
Thank you for helping us protect your account.
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Church of Scientology on trial in France on charges of organised fraud
The so-called church is accused of targeting vulnerable people for commercial gain.
France, which categorises Scientology as a sect, has previously convicted several individual Scientologists of fraud over the past decades – most notably its science fiction-writing creator, L Ron Hubbard, in 1978.
The Guardian reports that the case stems from the testimony of a French woman who filed an official complaint against the organisation in 1998.
Lawyers for Aude-Claire Malton claim Scientologists preyed upon her at a time when she was "very psychologically fragile", pressuring her into spending €21,000 (£18,000) – her life savings – on products including "purification packs" and vitamins.
The investigating magistrate in charge of bringing the case against the church, Jean-Christophe Hullin, said the church, which has been glamourised by Hollywood members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, made a profit by placing individuals in a "state of subjection". The organisation, he argued, is "first and foremost a commercial business" whose actions reveal "a real obsession for financial remuneration".
Saturday 21 February 2009
Another low-life email scam
In our electronic global village it won't be long before this email surfaces again in Australia.
According to Network World on Monday:
"You've been let go. Click here to register for severance pay. " With the economy in the state it is in now, people are afraid for their jobs and criminals are taking advantage of that fear, said Rubinoff. A common tactic includes sending an email to employees that looks like it is from the employer. The message appears to relay news that requires a quick response.
"It can be an email that appears to be from HR that says: 'You have been let go due to a layoff. If you wish to register for severance please register here,' and includes a malicious link."
No one wants to be the person that causes problems in this economy, so any email that appears to be from an employer will likely elicit a response, noted Rubinoff. Lares' Nickerson has also seen cons that use fake employer emails.
"It might say, 'In an effort to cut costs, we are sending W-2 forms electronically this year,'" said Nickerson"
* Eight other scams are here.
Sunday 11 January 2009
2009 Internet scams, hoaxes and threats and the NSW North Coast
ScamBusters also has a similar top ten list:
Currently in Australia a phishing email is doing the rounds which falsely alerts the recipient to an Australian Tax Office refund.10. Travel and vacation scams. Travel scams have always been around. But this year we expect to see more Internet-based ruses like bogus offers of cheap airfare and event tickets. The huge Olympic Games Internet tickets scam of 2008 was just the start.
9. Phony auction and classified sales. Yes, eBay, Craigslist, etc. scammers continue to reel in the victims. Despite attempts by the sites themselves to clamp down on the con artists, we expect the tricksters to re-double their deception efforts.
8. Investment and pump and dump scams. We've broadened this category after reporting on a number of failed or phony investment schemes that have cost victims tens of millions of dollars.
7. Work at home and job scams. With unemployment on the rise and the growing popularity of working from home, we think this scam will become more prevalent in 2009.
6. Grandparent, family tragedy and death threat scams. These are extremely common scams where people ask for money by claiming a relative is in trouble or that a murder contract has been taken out. Mostly, they come by phone but increasingly are seen in emails.
5. Viruses and spyware.
4. Nigerian scams, again with lots more new twists.
3. Lottery scams. You've won! New ones are appearing from Canada, the Caribbean, inside the US and from the Far East.
2. Economy related scams. We predict huge growth in loan- and credit-related scams, but foreclosure scams may ease slightly as pressure eases on banks. We'll see.
1. Identity theft and phishing. Despite tougher counter-measures, this scam is still way too easy for the criminals.
Surprisingly, by last Wednesday morning this scam was not yet posted on the ACCC-managed Scam Watch .
Australians reportedly lost up to a billion dollars in these scams in 2006-07, but what is more worrying is that identity theft is often being used for purely malicious ends in email attacks mounted as 'payback' for some form of personal disagreement.
There is some evidence that emails of this sort may have be sent from the NSW North Coast over the last 6-12 months.
So, if you receive an email with content or language that appears out of character for the named sender:
- First, contact the sender directly (not via email reply link) and attempt to verify the suspect email;
- Secondly, contact the local police if the email is fraudulent as identity theft can be an offence under Australian law if it involves stealing, fraud, forgery, uttering, computer hacking and misuse, or personation.