Posts Tagged ‘fraud’

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10 Tips for Businesses to Fight Credit Card Theft, Fraud

By Dawn in Electronic Fraud, Electronic Theft, Hacking, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Technology at October 21st, 2011 | No comments

Cyber criminals have a built-in advantage when it comes to compromising data. They make it their full time job to think about how to invent and execute a clever attack and they gravitate to pathways that offer the least resistance for the greatest payoff. Many work for organized crime syndicates. Even a disgruntled employee with high-level access to internal financial systems and passwords could compromise the security of an entire organization.

Yet most companies don’t have full-time security defense teams with the same intensity and focus on deterring hackers. So the odds of a successful breach are in the hacker’s favor. You can hire a company, including MSI Detective Services, to evaluate your systems and recommend countermeasures, including software, to protect your business against this type of fraud.

Study after study shows that failure to protect sensitive payment data from a breach leads to massive financial costs, customer defections, lawsuits and loss of reputation. But by being equipped with the latest tools and techniques, organizations both large and small can effectively prevent and deter cyber fraud. It is critical that companies arm themselves with tools and techniques that make cutting-edge fraud protection simple to use and effortless to manage. Read the full article »

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More Than 100 Arrested in Massive NYC Theft Ring

By Dawn in Crime, Criminal Background Check, Electronic Fraud, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Private Investigator, Theft Investigations at October 11th, 2011 | No comments

Bank tellers, restaurant workers and other service employees in New York lifted credit card data from residents and foreign tourists as part of an identity theft ring that stretched to China, Europe and the Middle East and victimized thousands.

In total, 111 people were arrested and more than 85 are in custody; the others are still being sought. Five separate criminal enterprises operating out of Queens were dismantled. They were hit with hundreds of charges, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, calling it the largest fraud case he’d ever seen in his two decades in office.

At least three bank workers, retail employees and restaurant workers would steal credit card numbers in a process known as skimming, in which workers take information from when a card is swiped for payment and illegally sell the credit card numbers. Different members of the criminal enterprise would steal card information online. This form of theft has become quite common.

I wonder if thorough background checks were performed before these employees were hired. Often, in these type of cases, employers learn (after it’s too late) employees had a criminal background.

The numbers were then given to teams of manufacturers, who would forge Visas, MasterCards, Discover and American Express cards. Realistic identifications were made with the stolen data. Read the full article »

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‘Sister’ Cons Woman out of $2,000 on Facebook

By Dawn in Crime, Electronic Fraud, Electronic Theft, Hacking, scam at October 3rd, 2011 | No comments

Edythe Schumacher logged onto the social networking site recently and a picture of her sister popped up immediately, inviting her into a Facebook chat.  After a bit of small talk, Schumacher’s sister – Susan Palmer – egged her on to apply for a government grant, saying she’d just received one.  For an up-front fee of $2,000, Schumacher was assured, she’d get access to up to $500,000.

Schumacher trusted her sister — and lost $2,000.

Apparently, Facebook impersonation scams have reached a new level of duplicity. Palmer’s account had been hacked, Schumacher says, by an impersonator skilled enough to pretend to be her own flesh and blood.  The fake Palmer eventually talked Schumacher into wiring $2,000 to an address in Massachusetts.

Facebook account hijacking has been around as long as Facebook itself. While it often amounts to little more than childish pranks, the theft of someone’s identity on Facebook can lead to real harm.  Imposters have successfully tricked victims into wiring money before — a common scam involves contacting friends and writing an email with dramatic claims of muggings, accompanied by desperate pleas to wire money.

After bragging about getting a grant herself, the fake Palmer urged Schumacher to contact Sgt. Chris Swecker for more details. Swecker said he was with the Federal Government Humanity & Empowerment Program. Chris Swecker is the name of a prominent FBI agent who specialized in electronic crimes during the Internet’s early years. It’s unclear whether the criminal intended to use Swecker’s reputation to aid the scam, but it’s common for computer crooks to use names plucked from online sources to fill in the blanks while composing a scam scenario.
Read more@ msn

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Solyndra Leaders Invoke 5th Amendment at Hearing

By Dawn in Criminal Background Check, due diligence, Interrogation, Investigations, legal papers, MSI Detective Services, Politics at September 29th, 2011 | No comments

Top executives from a bankrupt California solar energy company declined to testify before a congressional hearing investigating their half-billion dollar government loan. Solyndra Inc. CEO Brian Harrison and the company’s chief financial officer, Bill Stover, both invoked their Fifth Amendment right to decline to testify to avoid self-incrimination.

Solyndra Inc. received a $528 million loan from the Energy Department in 2009.

The panel’s chairman, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., compared the Solyndra loan to the Great Train Robbery in England in the 1960s. Upton faulted the Obama administration for its role in the loan, saying at a minimum the Energy Department did not complete due diligence on the company, which lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the years before the loan was approved. He called the loan “reckless use of taxpayer dollars on a company that was known to pose serious risks before a single dime went out the door.”

One does wonder why due diligence is often over-looked when “someone else’s money” is being spent – in this case it’s our tax dollars. I wonder if background checks, investigation of past fraud practices, or interrogatory questions would be asked if this were a private sector transaction. Not to say those oversights never occur, but they are less likely because it’s an investors money or a company’s money being spent and their money is not being backed by the government, as is the case in this deal. Committee leaders said the administration may have violated the law when it restructured Solyndra’s loan in February in such a way that private investors moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of default. The economic stimulus law provides for taxpayers to be ahead of other creditors in the event of bankruptcy or default.

Hiring a private investigative firm wouldn’t take much effort, such as MSI Detective Services. Our investigative services could have handled the necessary due diligence through background checks, past fraud, interviews, etc.
Read full story@ msnbc

 

 

 

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