Items tagged with fraud
For years, Apple has featured solid marketing about its devices and App Store, leading people to believe it was the safest software ecosystem around. However, we are continuing to learn that the marketing does not always match the truth, and the App Store may not be as safe as people tend to think. In fact, one developer believes that fraudulent activity on the App Store could be measured in the billions, not millions. Kosta Eleftheriou is an app developer and self-proclaimed professional App Store critic going after the fraud and issues allegedly ignored by Apple. He recently found hidden casinos inside kid’s games, inappropriate games rated for ages four and up, as well as abundant fleeceware....
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Android users who think the apps they download on the Google Play store are safe and secure would be wrong in many cases. Malware and other fraudulent apps often run rampant within the Google Play Store. Now a new report claims that seven apps from Cheetah Mobile and one from Kika Tech that have a combined 2 billion downloads via Google Play are part of a massive ad fraud scheme. The two companies are related; Kika Tech reportedly had a significant investment from Cheetah in 2016. The ad fraud scheme was outed by research firm Kochava, and according to the researchers, these fraudulent apps could have stolen millions of dollars. Cheetah and Kika combined claim they have 700 million active users...
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Yesterday, we reported that OnePlus had a potential serious security breach on its hands following reports from dozens of customers that they had experienced fraudulent activity on their credit cards after purchasing phones from the company's website. Security firm Fidus researched the issue and found that a small vulnerability in OnePlus’ credit payment processing platform on the website could be ripe for attack. "Card payments are handled by CyberSource, the processing form is still hosted on the OnePlus infrastructure," said Fidus. "If an attacker had write access to this page, JavaScript could have been inserted to compromise data entered into CyberSource’s payment form on the...
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Most computer enthusiasts are at least familiar with the name Newegg as one of the places to go for all the computer hardware you might need when building up a new PC. Newegg Inc., the parent company operating Newegg.com, has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges the company was involved in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded South Korean banks out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the suit, Newegg consipred with a South Korean hardware manufacturer called Moneual in the Ponzi scheme. Moneual is the alleged mastermind of the entire scheme that ultimately aimed to allow it to use phony orders placed via Newegg and another computer wholesaler, ASI Corp., to gain new financing from banks.The...
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AT&T and the FCC are butting heads, but for once, it is not over net neutrality. AT&T has been fined $7.75 million USD for indirectly participating in a directory assistance billing scam. Affected customers are expected to receive $6.8 million of these funds while the remaining $950,000 is a fine that will go to the United States Treasury. AT&T essentially allowed third-party scammers to charge customers $9 per month for a non-existent “directory assistance service”. FCC Chief Travis LeBlanc remarked, “Today’s settlement ensures that AT&T customers who were charged for this sham service will get their money back and that all AT&T consumers will enjoy greater protections against...
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Not even a week ago, we wrote about a new Kickstarter project for the creatively-named Anonabox - a small box that aims to keep you anonymous online. Overall, the product looked like it had potential. On one hand, it's incredibly small, and on the other, it uses the Tor network to anonymous traffic. What's not to like? As it turns out, there's quite a bit to not like about it, so much so that Kickstarter took the rare path of pulling the entire project, a move that it says is permanent. This comes hot-on-the-heels of many days of skepticism, especially via a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) that was posted this past Tuesday. Ultimately, the Kickstarter project gave the impression that the hardware...
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If you’ve read this site even casually lately, you know that crowdfunding is here in force. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo offer entrepreneurs, startups, and otherwise unfunded techies with a prototype and a dream the chance to engage the world and excite backers to front some money for their projects. It’s a powerful, grassroots way to both gauge the potential success of a given product and raise cash in the meantime. Of course, like any new technological or financial paradigm, crowdfunding has also created some problems. PayPal, after some public flogging due to its freezing of a few campaigns’ money, has openly acknowledged that its payment platform is not equipped...
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Uncle Sam doesn't like it when you try to pull one over on him, and that's something Hewlett Packard had to go and find out the hard way. After standing accused of offering kickbacks to systems integrator companies in exchange for recommending HP products to U.S. agencies, the OEM has agreed to fork over $55 million to put the whole incident in their rear view mirror, the Justice Department announced this week. "Contractors must deal fairly with the government when doing business with federal agencies," said U.S. assistant attorney general Tony West. "As this case demonstrates, we will take action against those who seek to taint the government procurement process with illegal kickbacks." The...
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Google rolled out a new security feature for Gmail that can alert you when it thinks someone else may be using your account. By using the IP tracking feature that Google launched in July 2008, the new security feature will display a warning if it detects that your account has been accessed from two different geographic regions within a short timeframe. Although the new feature isn't remarkably accurate (in the US it only displays which state you are in), it can prove useful if an attack comes from across the country or from overseas. Since there are plenty of legitimate reasons for accessing an account from multiple locations, Google doesn't lock you out of the account. Instead, it simply displays...
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The New York State Supreme Court issued a ruling today against Dell and Dell Financial Services (DFS), finding the company guilty of "fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices." The ruling is the end result of a lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General, Andrew M Cuomo, in May 2007. After the ruling, Cuomo issued a statement saying that Dell and DFS essentially used "a bait and switch that left thousands of people paying for essentially no service at all." He also said: "We have won an important victory that will force Dell to live up to its responsibilities and pay back its customers for profits that were pocketed but not deserved."...
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Hacker Safe? We're guessing that applies only to web sites, not securities fraud.One of the researchers behind ScanAlert, the "Hacker Safe" certification company McAfee recently acquired, is facing fraud charges in Indiana.Brett Oliphant, whose title had been vice president of security services before the Napa, California, company was acquired by McAfee in January, is facing 11 counts of securities fraud in transactions that allegedly brought in more than US$1.215 million.Oliphant and his brother Bryan were charged in December. Their trial is set for Nov. 18 at the Elkhart County Superior Court in Indiana.ScanAlert built technology for auditing and then certifying Web sites as "Hacker Safe."...
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Federal regulators continue to come down on hard on corporate executives they believe are involved with misrepresenting investors and analysts. The latest group to get collared were 8 executives from AOL Time Warner who are being charged with inflating the company’s online advertising revenue by more than $1 billion between 2000 and 2002.“Four of the executives have agreed to settle the civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a total of roughly $8 million in fines and returning allegedly ill-gotten gains. They are David Colburn, Eric Keller, Jay Rappaport and James MacGuidwin, who was controller of the media company. The other three were in its business affairs...
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One of the more endearing paths to celebrity in the Online age has been the viral video. From the Numa Numa dance to Tron guy, we like to see quirky and obscure things rocket to the front of the line for Internet attention. It seems to appeal to our instincts to root for the little guy against the giant. There seems to be a problem developing in the process: It's faker than your average prOnstar's boobs.There are tens of thousands of videos uploaded to YouTube each day (I’ve heard estimates between 10-65,000 videos per day). I don’t care how “viral” you think your video is; no one is going to find it and no one is going to watch it.The members of my startup are hired guns – our clients...
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