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Tech Fraud Beating Out Social Engineering

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the is-this-good-or-bad-i-can't-tell dept.

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.'"

4 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. What? by Poromenos1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  2. He's misreading things, I believe by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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".

  3. Perhaps this link is relevent? by zcat_NZ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "BPL and other tall tales spun by Willian Luke Stewart"

    It came up in the BPL discussion yesterday...

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    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  4. Re:Old scams are definitely still alive... by tomstdenis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1. Communism is bad

    2. WMD in Iraq

    3. WMD in Iran

    4. No WMD in Israel

    5. "We're at war with terrorists" so it's ok to suspend your rights to make you safe.

    Nuff said.

    Tom [-- hates seeing neighbouring country being destroyed by lunatic security policies]

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.