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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.'"
"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.
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
"BPL and other tall tales spun by Willian Luke Stewart"
It came up in the BPL discussion yesterday...
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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?
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!
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