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Tech Fraud Beating Out Social Engineering
The Walking Dude writes "BBC News asked Frank Abagnale if technology is driving the old-school conman into extinction. 'Mr Abagnale really ought to know', as the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can was based on his life. He served five years of a 12 year prison sentence for check fraud before being offered a job with the FBI. 'There may, after all, be life in the old con yet.'"
"He served five years of a 12 year prison sentence for check fraud before being offered a job with the FBI. 'There may, after all, be life in the old con yet.'""
That's nothing. Bush was governor of Texas before he was offered the job of president.
"Gone is the sharp-suited, debonair, sliver-tongued fraudster who'd charm his way to a personal fortune. [...] It is the ability to read a person's blind spot, tell them what they expect to hear - and get them to tell you what you need to know."
I disagree. Now they all work in corporate america somewhere in Sales and Marketing department. Few of them even make it up to executive office. Social engineering is the template of sales and marketing.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
I'm seeding:
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3343505
"Gone is the sharp-suited, debonair, sliver-tongued fraudster who'd charm his way to a personal fortune."
Hey, BBC writer, didn't you ever hear of Enron?
We all know that wearing jumpsuits, walking in a building (greeting everyone in the way) and getting the computers you want is much easier than trying to hack into the system to get the data. Same for passwords, etc.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Nothing like having a pure boxer commentating on Ultimate Fighting.
Kevin Mitnick disagrees.
In his place: countless thousands hunched over computers, stealing bank details and exploiting technological weakness - without witnesses, and often for hire.
Everyone knows that Jews are good with money. Its in their blood.
Of course he ate the chicken- he *is* black after all.
Which of these quotes is published as fact by the BBC...
...in 1936?
...in 1956?
...in 2006?
Human prejudice is a curious thing to us aliens...
barack to the future?
Citizens, there is no need for panic. Microsoft is about to unveil the most secure O/S that mankind has ever known. No longer will script kiddes or nefarious software authors be able to take over your grandma's computer. This priveledge will be reserved exclusively by the NSA, however that is another story.
Good citiens, upgrade as soon as Vista with TPM (Trusted Computing), and DRM (Digital Restrictions) are available and the only thing left to do will be to destroy your old computer so it will never trouble anyone again. If we can get rid of passwords and rely exclusively on biometrics for user authentication the world will be even safer. Come on MS, hurry up and get Vista shipped so you can save mankind from these techno criminals!
Laugh, it's funny.....
The "technical" frauds today rely on social engineering. Phishing is a perfect example of social engineering, and many botnets get installed by tricking the user rather than by exploiting a technical security vulnerability.
Nor was Abagnale non-technical. One of his scames was so beautiful that you wish you could admire it, and it was based on manipulating the magnetic ink on a check to put the check-processing infrastructure into an infinite loop. Talk about "float", especially since there was never anything behind the check in the first place. He'd withdraw the money after his victim bank decided "well, hasn't bounced yet, must be good".
Just ask James Randi - he's been keeping track of dubious scams and claims for decades. Just read through a few of his newsletters if you ever want to be amazed at the things people will pretend they can do for money, power, or just plain delusion.
In my oppinion, healthy skepticism is something that should be taught to every school child as part of a minimal education. Knowing how to be properly, rationally skeptical is a very important skill - being either unskeptical, or holding irrational skepticism based on what you want to feel is as much a disability as not being able to read or do math. The scientific method helps if it is introduced comprehensively - but there's a LOT of scientists with doctorates that will be fooled by some of the simplest scams, then convince themselves they couldn't be fooled. Healthy skepticism is both knowing that you can be wrong, but you being wrong doesn't make someone else's extrordinary claims correct, even if it's an innocent mistake for all involved.
Especially disturbing are the constant resurgance of medical scams. People willing to try anything can be put through real hell by people willing to offer them an option that no one else will provide. The family of the dead rarely know to put any blame on a false cure, and the living often mistakenly promote as a miracle whatever was offered, so these scams can erupt almost anywhere. Add in scam artists using religion, blaming the dying for their own failed cure, and the unfounded skepticism of scientific medicine, and you can see how nasty these situations can be.
Ryan Fenton
Considering Conmen and the ACTORS in the movie that misleadingly portrayed a conman...
First, relating experience with cheques as opposed to a bank draft;
Here is my reasoning: a Cheque is a demand, same meaning of language as in the age-old strategy game. If the instrument say "Pay to", then it is a Cheque. If it says "Pay to the order of" then it is a draft subject to certain conditions for its redemption. A cheque is a verry scarry instrument: their emphasis is used in societies where gold and silver (hard currencies) are the dominating form of lawful money. Cheque means NOW! If it is advertised on the face as a "CHECK", but says "Pay to the order of..." in controlling words, then it is just a typical ignorance and deception of the institution that cafted such dishonorable intrument.
Second,
Silver and gold are still their own value, while US dollar (read that distinction, not Dollar but dollar), there is thought that US Currency is debased from its original lawful money and moved into the realm of speculation; only the people controlling the measurements will control the market. A Dollar is still gold or silver, they just attract speculation of US DOLLARS counterfeit-origin in COLUMBIA. Studying history, one act of terrorism to fear of war has caused currencies debased to speculative credit and confidence-building schemes have caused more tragic loss and abandonment than any other event under war. The conman represented in the movie "Catch me if you can" wasn't arrested on cheque fraud, because all his instruments were drafts being advertised as cheques--if anything, he was arrested for impersonating an office of trust and securities fraud.
Looking at that FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM Inc, the money-supply has been discontinued from being reported by their own libel to claim that the M3 reports had no effect on controlling inflation.
That thief in the movie is nothing compared to the pain and suffering caused by that FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM; it being neither a Federal Reserve, and neither a bank -- it's a corporation, and the original charter was quieted. The original Federal Reserve issued Federal Reserve Certificates, not those FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES. A FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE is a non-promisory non-redeamable note drawn on a private bank, administered in admiralty jurisdiction as a claim against the United States. The way the Constitution is subverted is by moving foreign currency into the realm, averting from the activation of the original of a public trust.
A quick question that most people could barely comprehend... How do you suppose there ever became a distinction between a US State and an American state? Money determines the lineage an office is chartered to. Every office since about 1871 has been UNITED STATES everything, and America is layed dormant.
without prejudice
"BPL and other tall tales spun by Willian Luke Stewart"
It came up in the BPL discussion yesterday...
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\u262D = \u5350
Why nickel and dime people with simple cons, when a good con man can quintuple his earnings all while pulling down a government paycheck, health plan, paid for car and phone?
_ Assembly )
5 50980.htm
Like in Pennsylvania, the legislators had a secret 2:00 AM meeting to vote themselves all massive raises in pay and benefits. And here is the sweet kickback deal sealer - all the judges get pay raises too. What judge would overturn a multi-tens of thousands of dollars pay raise against himself?
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_General
And that is just the cream off the top - making deals, invisible contracts, after office 'insider consultant' positions, that's the real grease on the wheels of the American 'just-us' system.
Get rid of 'em Poly-tick-ians:
http://www.pacleansweep.com/
Upcoming election:
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/14
Not that voting matters in Pennsylvania - twice the city of Pittsburgh put 'new stadiums' up for vote - twice the massive construction project was voted down, NO by the people, NO for the people, NO way said the people. The government said 'forget you, who the hell are you peasants anyway?' and built themselves two brand new stadiums, and blew up the old Three Rivers Stadium - still owing millions on it!
(Oh and now they are evicting families with children, widows, and senior citizens out of their homes because they can't pay the tripled property taxes to pay for the millionaires playground stadiums. )
Real con-men always are on the side of the law - if you write the rules - you can do whatever the hell you want to do.
Ken Lay certainly had his fingers all over Cheney, but even worse, Enron basically gave the job of CA governor to Schwarzenegger. Sit down some time and watch "Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room". Little birdies have told me it is, uh, "readily available" for download.
..or just fire up a google search. Or Check out the PBS Frontline special, Blackout.
Basically, think "Iran Contra arms-for-hostages" scandal, only instead of Regan, President, and arms...think Schwarzenegger, CA Governor, and the CA power grid- which Enron was have an absolute joy shutting down (yes, shutting down.)
From Truthout.org: More important, however, Schwarzenegger still wont respond to questions about why he was at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills two years ago where he, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk bond king Michael Milken, met secretly with former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay who was touting a plan for solving the states energy crisis. Other luminaries who were invited but didnt attend the May 24, 2001 meeting included former Los Angeles Laker Earvin Magic Johnson and supermarket magnate Ron Burkle.
While Schwarzenegger, Riordan and Milken listened to Lays pitch, Gov. Davis pleaded with President George Bush to enact much needed price controls on electricity sold in the state, which skyrocketed to more than $200 per megawatt-hour. Davis said that Texas-based energy companies were manipulating Californias power market, charging obscene prices for power and holding consumers hostage. Bush agreed to meet with Davis at the Century Plaza Hotel in West Los Angeles on May 29, 2001, five days after Lay met with Schwarzenegger, to discuss the California power crisis.
At the meeting, Davis asked Bush for federal assistance, such as imposing federally mandated price caps, to rein in soaring energy prices. But Bush refused saying California legislators designed an electricity market that left too many regulatory restrictions in place and thats what caused electricity prices in the state to skyrocket. It was up to the governor to fix the problem, Bush said. However, Bushs response appears to be part of a coordinated effort launched by Lay to have Davis shoulder the blame for the crisis. It worked. According to recent polls, a majority of voters grew increasingly frustrated with the way Davis handled the power crisis. Schwarzenegger has used the energy crisis and missteps by Davis to bolster his standing with potential voters. While Davis took a beating in the press (some energy companies ran attack ads against the governor), Lay used his political clout to gather support for deregulation.
Please help metamoderate.
Now they all work in corporate america somewhere in Sales and Marketing department.
And politicians?
Perhaps You should consider conspiring with a Logician and Grammarian.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Ken Lay certainly had his fingers all over Cheney..."
Eeeiwue. Could have done without that image.
Ah, well, they could have been bunk-mates in the woods, I guess:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove
This Okie seems to get it- unlike some other Oklahomans, namely the City Manager of Tuttle...
My school did an excellent job with this. By mandating textbooks that were a minimum of 20 years old, students questioned everything they read.
"Carter is President of the United States? What? What is a "Skylab? How is the Cold War going?"
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
I agree with you. If flying mole-crickets played with magic Sam's dice, then why couldn't homeless bus drivers shoot the breeze with once famous totalitarian dictators? Brilliant reasoning! I feel I must augment your already strong argument by restating the obvious: many a proboscous has become ambulent at the mere sight of chipotle. But I digress. Very well constructed and compelling argument you make. I couldn't help but notice that you made several references to Roosevelt's plot to obtain hard currency from the Ewoks? Very clever indeed. Why, you even took into account Professor Lubarsky's Spatial Concordance Corollary, where he unambigously redefines many previously held canards. This was some groundbreaking stuff, n'est ce pas? Well done, sluggo!
blah blah blah
There are various mnemonic tricks to remember, but here's an easier one, use a variation on the one time pad, one that will never run out beause of it's commonality and ability to be tweaked in plain sight.
.45.....that's good security too...
For example we'll use a simple common book code, then the randomness can be as simple as date/time to as many places as you need. You need password A to change on such and such a date and such and such a time, say by 10 AM and you can pick something easy, call it 29 seconds.
Date is month day year, translated into book code it might be 5 th month (chapter 5) 13th day(page 13) year (you can add the numbers, 2+0+0=6=8) eighth word, or skip the zeroes, second line and eight word on the line on that page. However you want to run it, just pick a "recipe" and stick with it. You can throw out the ends and just keep the middle letter or letters, or alternate case and use most of the word, just drop the first letter or the last letter so you never use complete words, always a no-no. Take the hours minutes and seconds when you do the PW change and use that for the numerics, interject them between the letters. You now have a really long password hard to even dictionary attack against, but easy to remember because it is written down in plain sight, printed in the book. All you have to remember now is your particular recipe about how to do it, that's it! Now, all you have to do is not get caught using the book, and never let on that you use a book for the passwords. If someone sees you using the book, big deal, just every month use a different book! It's a book you need to study for some reason, or some novel you are reading..whatever, it's hiding in plain sight. You can add one more extreme bit of randomness, pick a single digit at random every month,. and add that digit to every step of the "password recipe". Say you pick six this month, in the original example we had month 5 or chapter five, you add six, makes it chapter 11 to start at. See? It's not perfect but it makes a real nice PW that is really easy to remember because you don't have to remember it, just look it up quickly. One password recipe will give you a HUGE variety of passwords, and is easy to lookup if you need to, and looks innocent as you do it. At home it won't matter much, but it beats using sticky notes for security, but it is as *handy* as sticky notes are.
Of course you can use a password generator and just keep them on a USB key that you always carry with you along with your
You can fight technology with technology, but people will remain as gullible as ever. If anything social engineering is the only viable path today as the technology providing the security is very good and only getting better.
A good conman would make the victims feel bad if he was arrested.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
But were you hunched? For all *I* know, you have perfect posture!
By the way, is my money still good if it went through the wash?
barack to the future?
To me and many others I know, the recall was not at all about the power crisis; It was about the 30+ billion dollar deficit that Davis repeatedly lied about during his re-election campaign. The power crisis was the result of bad planning by several different administrations over a long period of time. The deficit was a different matter and could have been at least curtailed by the Davis administration.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
And psychopaths? Wait, that's not an occupation... OR IS IT ? (in Stephen Fry's best storytelling voice)
If you want to make your quick buck, become the President/CEO or CFO. Th you raid the shareholders capital, the pension fund and the corporate bank accounts directly. Actually with derivatives, you don't even have to raid the bank accounts (well, until you lose)!
See my journal, I write things there
What the banks do by sending an incomprehensible 6-page legalese to customers that even lawyers can't make sense of so that by default they can sell your details; how friggin' disgusting!
You can read a pleasingly detailed yet short account of frank abignales cons here.
Frank's story is incredibly interesting and entertaining. Theres no way he would get away with some of his daring escapes today, such as posing as the fbi official when he was completely surrounded. Goes to show how much people have learned from this sort of activity, which is probably more of a contributing factor than technology. Any new form of payment or communication introduces new flaws which for a time only the cleverest can think to exploit, just with the interweb we see something so radically new and different that laws and security experts struggle to keep up.
see http://007google.com/SocialEngineering.aspx
Social engineering, or con game, whatever you call it: read this week's The New Yorker for an article about some twit from Concord MA who got sucked all the way in. He's headed to jail for his part in kiting bad checks for the Nigerians. And yet he still believes there is a real person behind the e-mails, just waiting to get out of Nigeria with a gazillion dollars.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
The below regulating code on all contracts that include them, is Uniform Commercial Code; Article 2, Part V, 2-501
Airline services are misleadingly designated as to trasnport passengers and cargo, and the "passenger" clause in the manner of contract for the alleged "passenger" becomes a breach of contract when the alleged "passenger" enters among the crew or is asked for assistance by the crew! Otherwise, a passenger is secured as a person for the performance of the contract to sit idle among the cargo as though goods subject to casual tennancy as to prevent them from expiring; ie, Airline services only see the passengers (people re-declared as passengers) as nothing more than living-stock with attached cargo (baggage). Even if the verry instrument, such as a receipt, were tendered as Identification then it would be as though that paperwork was the applicable party to the contract while the man (having sold his trademark name as collateral for a dodgy mid-air pleasure-service) is at risk of lien for any dishonor or accessories accepted and agreed by the creature whose ear is attached to that collateral Identification of his name. Another way to look at the process would be to think of the tendered Identification as a private trust to a private service, to incorporate and administer the value (man) while the shipment is in-route. There is evidence of this same administered service in "general delivery" services from postal agencies qualified for a street address (street is internationaly defines as "an in-land waterway attached to a port of entry") such are enumerated parcels and properties (most of everything that isn't patent through the general post or an general post-office).
There looks to have avered from answering for what a man colluded to offer, for what he was not trusted to administer or convey as collateral, such as Identification in the form of a trade-able name; yet there is no theft because the services rendered are simply recalibrated to acknowledge that a lien is placed on the nameless true-part with interest regardless whether he tenders as FRANKLIN or GRANT or JACKSON or HAMILTON or LINCOLN or WASHINGTON or "John Q. Doe"...
Such are the Scope of a Rule, in "any unauthorized signature is wholly inoperative as that of the person w
without prejudice
You may be a legal student or a lawyer with enough time to post on Slashdot. You invoked many legal tenents (idem sonans, etc) and managed to write some of the densest prose I have ever lain eyes upon. You have to understand, though, that your attemps to elucidate your point did little to that effect. I have no idea what you are saying. I'd say you have a bright future writing very very very very long legal documents for an HMO or a Mortgage Banker. I was simply, in a lighthearted manner, point out that your post almost looked like a troll. Either that or you need to find a nice site for Law enthusiasts. No offense, just...wow...if you understand this stuff great, but not all of us care enough to decipher the UCC. I'll just hire you if I ever need to. That is, assuming you are not some 15 year old dweeb with too many pimples and way too much time on your hands. Unless you wanna cut my grass.
blah blah blah
I'm just a man on the Land, trying to figure everything out in common words without being a lawyer. They don't like me in the corporate County, so...
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My point is that for the purposes of modern Airline services, any that challenges and coerces the use of an SSN or supposed "Driver License", such as making an offer of service based on a prior debilitating contract of an unrelated matter. Then, to the effect of Sign or Signature, is again violating the public trust by moving in a manner far from the politic. Looking through the law of nations, where it defines there to be body politic alongside a body corporate; there is a presumption that the people are layed dormant for the appearance of a corporation to act in a mode not acceptable by the people; and just like any sign on a road it is an act of commercial speech, not protected by law, and is a mere suggestion like pants or a-dress. Are the people for sale, or is the purpose of Airline travel to trademark all our luggage as a sale-able item in case someone decides to buy while in transit?
It is only honest to proceed in an Airline service no different than a Bus or a Parcel service, yet it is been gandered proprietarily and monopolized to an unethical extent. To get out of the loop to sell the legislatively-created artificial person (think legal name), then consider the difference between the true name and the shared name; a legal name is defined as a religious/true name and a surname/sirname appended onto. This brings to effect that any accusation made to JOHN QUINCY DOE would evidence a corporation with an artificial person (transmitting utility is the legislated/John Quincy Doe) only if not bound down to defer it as John Quincy dba JOHN QUINCY DOE; correctly done, then the accusation would need to be made in the character of John Quincy. As we all know, that would comply with the fact that such unrelated account and membership numbers are owned by the institution that created them.
To mispresent anyone's name in any character than correct English grammar, would be libel and immediatly needs to be moved back into the district Court (Admiralty jurisdiction).
Looking at the "Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims" (here), as provided by Congress, would reveal that all seizures and wage garnishments on Land (think compelled and de-facto legislative forms) are to be filed in the district Court! Any alleged "notice of levy" or advertized seizures not filed in Admiralty/district Court, are implied an equity Court dispute (issue a Quo Warranto, and if no contract is exhibited then there is fraud).
My intent of the post is to show that there is no such act as "theft" while in commerce, because everyone knows who is carrying someone else's property (that was sold by incrimination) and the buyer simply forgot to pay or get a proper receipt. Commerce is the medium many insurgents in the District of Columbia use
without prejudice
According to a foreign corporation known as FOOD AND DRUG ADMINSITRATION, a "cure" is defined as "any substance advertised to cure a disease." Therefore, under that FDA, there is no applicability to cure Rumsfeld's disease. Would it be someone else's intent to make Rumsfeld's disease more situated on the host, as would cement is cured to a stable medium? There is only an imbalance, where one may freely admit to be easy about an herbal or natural remedy to return one's good health.
I just use an American Heritage Dictionary, of an early Year in the 1800's, a Holy Bible, and then there's the commoners emphasis on Bouvier's work. Most people don't know that there hasn't been any law since 1842, a state of emergency since implemented by George Washington's first treasons, and there has been a verry rigid code implemented since 1871 by the dishonourable Union States rebellion.
Oh well, people would rather mortgage their houses, and sell their name, rather than work for a day to get a share of stock used to insulate their wages and speculations.
without prejudice
Principle of Least Privilege Whitepaper - MalcomVetter