News and blogs for the counter-fraud community
Ransomware is the extortion-driven malware epidemic sweeping the globe. There are a large and growing number of Ransomware programs all with variants being created on a daily basis in order to evade anti-malware tools. As with WannaCry, the designs may increasingly use worm-like capabilities, allowing the malware to spread automatically and rapidly. Most Ransomware infections begin with either inadvertent … Read more
In the spring of 1873, London was agog with news about a group of American fraudsters who had attempted – and nearly got away with – one of the most audacious frauds in history. Known as “the great forgeries upon the Bank of England”, they had carried out the ultimate daylight robbery. Over a three month … Read more
So, with Red Nose Day just a week away, I thought I might resurrect #FunnyFraud, our micro-blog on the amusing side of fraud. Before you all scream at me “but fraud is a serious topic”, just hear me out for a moment… yes, fraud is very serious. However if you can’t laugh at the ridiculousness … Read more
So it seems that there is a “day” for everything… Kiss a Ginger Day, National Strawberry Ice Cream Day… even as I write this I note that it is National Chocolate Cake Day. Mmm, chocolate cake… I digress. So. Jan 28th is Data Privacy Day. Woooo! Let’s raise a glass to that, send a card … Read more
The only thing I can’t work out is the exchange rate from “Pounds Sterly” to Aussie dollars – Anyone know? What amazes me is not that these emails are still doing the rounds but rather that there are still individuals that fall victim to these scams…. As an industry there must be more that we … Read more
My daughter is applying for her first driving licence. This is quite emotional for me for two reasons; firstly, it seems like only yesterday I was picking her up from nursery and secondly because the Driving Licence Application Form states that a Birth Certificate is no longer accepted as sole proof of identity. That’s because of me…
So, today I checked my mail and found the usual selection of spam and phishing emails. Although most get caught by filters from my ISP or via installed internet security there are always a few that slip the net. There was one such case that caught my eye and, although I knew it was a … Read more
Earlier this year I was again asked to host the BBC London Comic Relief event for Red Nose Day. This time, instead of having well known radio and TV presenters being mentored and performing, members of the public had been asked to volunteer. When the auditions were taking place, one of the questions that kept … Read more
OK so a few weeks ago the UK National Fraud Authority (NFA) finally released the Annual Fraud Indicator (AFI) for 2013. This is the annual report that attempts to quantify the overall cost of fraud to the UK economy and every year since the first report (2010) the quantity and quality of the estimate has … Read more
The following has been reproduced with kind permission from Jeffrey Robinson In the weeks following the release of “Secrecy for Sale” – the eBook version of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) brilliant look at tax evasion and the role of the offshore world – the Internet, Facebook and Twitter (especially Twitter) went semi-hysterical with … Read more