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FBI Says Wire Fraud Scam Sending Millions To China
Trailrunner7 writes "The FBI is warning businesses about an ongoing spate of attacks that are stealing millions of dollars from companies through unauthorized bank transfers to Chinese companies. The fraudulent wire transfers are not a new tactic, but the FBI says the current round of attacks is notable in that virtually all of the transfers are going to shell companies based in China and have cost U.S. businesses $11 million. The FBI said that many of the cases it has seen involve well-known pieces of malware, such as Zeus, SpyEye and others. The amount of money the attackers try to transfer varies from $50,000 up to nearly $1 million."
I assume if your using 2 factor authentication it prevents you from an attack like this, because the attacker does not have your 2nd factor only your password?
It's hard to imagine that we still use things like checks and wire transfers. They are extremely vulnerable to fraud, the banks have made no strides to update a system they know is insecure because it's cheaper for them to let their customers suffer or eat the loss than to update to a secure system. Even credit/debit cards which are cloned all the time are easily protected by switching to smart cards instead of magnetic media, but at least in the US no changes have been made (In Canada I did see places now using smart cards for purchases).
Everyone that disagrees with me is a paid shill
"The FBI said that many of the cases it has seen involve well-known pieces of malware, such as Zeus, SpyEye and others. The amount of money the attackers try to transfer varies from $50,000 up to nearly $1 million"
Guess this is another cost to add to those Windows TCO numbers....
We said and feared something similar when Japan was on an economic rampage.
China owns a lot of US Debt. That's not the same as owning the US... not yet anyway. China has been playing a lot of dirty money games such as valuing their currency based on US currency which is a very certain way to maintain a trade deficit.
But let's not confuse "chinese government" with "chinese people." They are an interesting set. On one hand, they are the most viciously capitalistic people on the planet. On the other, they live under an oppressive government that claims to be communist but are actually just an abusive bunch of control freaks.
So some clever Chinese people realized that they are pretty much "untouchable" and have decided to perform criminal acts from across the internet. They also know they are likely not to get punished so long as they pay off the right officials in the process. It's how their game is played.
But of course some companies are on the other end of the spectrum and make mid level managers to sign off on each cup of coffee bought in airports.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Greetings,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xing Liuxian, the son of emperor Xing Liaopeng, hailing from China. Recently my father has passed away leaving a fortune of 10 billion yuan to me and my siblings, however we are unable to receive the full sum inheritance due to recent changes to tax law that would leave us with only 10%. I am seeking an intermediary overseas who would be able to assist us in exploiting a tax loophole which would allow us to inherit the full sum. For these services we would offer you 5% of the full sum, an amount equal to roughly 80 million US dollars. This is not technically illegal however it is in a legal gray area and would be embarrassing to the family if word got out, so if you are able to assist us, please keep this in the strictest confidence.
Regards,
Liuxian
liuxian@xingpalace.cn
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
On the other, they live under an oppressive government that claims to be communist but are actually just an abusive bunch of control freaks.
What's the difference?
What's the difference? Wow. Learn what "communism" is supposed to be. For most people, it is the picture of utopia. Most people are "communist" and don't even realize it. The problem is that communism has never happened in the history of the world and the promise of it has been used to overthrow governments and cultures all over the world and have invariably resulted in oppressive and abusive states like China, the former USSR, Cuba and who knows where else.
Seriously, I invite you to learn what communism is supposed to be. If you spend even a little time learning about that and about human behavior, especially from a sociological perspective, you will see pretty clearly that communism is a huge lie that can never happen because people are involved. Once you have learned those things, you will see the difference. Communism ain't what you think it is.
Dear China,
Please stop or we'll say stop again.
-Barack
I'd like more coverage of the DOJ's investigation into energy price manipulation. Specifically more news on Eric Holder's "disturbing information". We are losing orders of magnitudes more money to that that what a few phony Chinese invoices manage to squeeze out of companies with poor financial controls.
Have gnu, will travel.
Meanwhile the FBI spends more time chasing after pot heads, their dealers (because it's illegal and all), people that copy music and movies, and spy on US citizen because the FISA act says they can.
Chinese people scamming people here? Those 2 over there take care of it but one's on training to learn Chinese and the other is on maternity leave.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Why complain when you can bomb them? That seems like your standard foreing-policy to deal with all those half-naked, food-deprived, thirsty countries in the middle east.
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
Odd that they'd use the term "port city", as these don't sound like major transportation hubs. What's interesting is that all these places they've named are actually places on or near the border of Russia and China, in Heilongjiang Province.
Well, if you own a bunch of US debt, and steal a bunch of cash ... you get paid twice. Greed is a pretty easy motive to grasp.
And, as has been pointed out, this may not be the same people who own the debt ... when you're willing to do this kind of large-scale fraud, you're certainly not playing by any "rules" of good conduct.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
China holds approx 6% of outstanding near term treasury certificates. How you figure they own the US is a mystery.
The way things are going, I figure it's the only way the Chinese can be sure they'll get any return on their investment.
JADBP
Less money in circulation means each dollar is worth more. The Chinese are just taking money out of the country to prop up the value of the dollar as a currency. Otherwise it would end up worthless, destroying their investment. Really, the U.S. should thank the Chinese government for enabling them to pay back their debts in money that has value to them. Twice.
The juxtaposition of your post and the AC post above you - delicious.
How does it feel to be a liar with pants constantly on fire?
What's the difference? Wow. Learn what "communism" is supposed to be.
I'd rather look at what "communism" has actually been in every country where it's ever been tried: an abusive bunch of control freaks telling everyone what to do and murdering those who disagree.
I've studied political and social structures and can tell you that communism is NOT the picture of utopia-- and was never really written to be utopian. It was a reaction to the perceptions of an era gone by. Collectivism was an experiment that lead to totalitarianism, as many sociopolitical experiments often lead.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Owning US Debt is never going to be the same as the owning the US. The US will just print it and send over the worthless digital paper. Now that would be a very unpleasant experience for Americans and also unpleasant for the Chinese (though less so).
Pegging, well psuedo-pegging, their currency isn't really a dirty money game. The US controls half that game and could stop it overnight too.
Communist is a subset of control freaks - there are plenty of control freak systems that are not communism.
And you can't be stupid enough to not know that.
Well, there was pretty much always been the concept of the Vanguard.
These are the guys who ram communism down everyone's throats and act as the visionaries to make sure everyone complies with their ideals. The initial implementation pretty much requires force in order to make everyone realize the glorious days to come -- Stalin, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot are examples of this. Look at how they're remembered.
Of course, the reason it's never really worked as advertised is that you replace one set of dictators with another -- you also end up creating a new "middle" class who is comfortable and doesn't want to play, as well as a new ruling class who abuse their privileges.
Communism in the abstract is the nice, happy, utopian situation you describe ... but in order to bring it about, it requires vicious people willing to "break a few eggs". Only after it's become the norm do all of these benefits materialize (which so far, is never). Essentially, the Chinese government are the caretakers of that 'vision'.
Communism is generally implemented by a bunch of people deciding on behalf of everyone else to forcibly put it in place. It hasn't resulted in the goals yet, because it never really seems to get out of its enforcement of ideology stage.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If your system puts almost total control over property and ownership in the hands of the government then it will always result in a totalitarian regime no matter how much you want to believe otherwise.
Any system of government can be awesome if you ignore it's inherent faults and focus on what it could be if everything magically worked they way you want it to. Benevolent dictatorships have lots of advantages, except that no one is good enough or smart enough for those to be realized, and most people in power aren't even close to good. Democracy can be awesome, but it takes a lot more than mere popular vote to get there; you have to have tons of checks and balances just to prevent the worst of rights violations to occur, let alone reach it's full potential. Considering how challenging it has been to make democracy work, just imagine how much harder it would be if the state had even more centralized power. But that is exactly what communism does. If we want to increase liberty we need power to be more widely distributed not less, and removing property rights does the opposite of that.
So, excuse me if I chose to judge socioeconomic systems on reality rather than fantasy.
But let's not confuse "chinese government" with "chinese people."
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Is the Chinese government run by Albanians, or what?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I am not able to understand this. They already own USA. Then why are they stealing from something they already own? Well, chalk it up to yet another thing of deep eastern mysticism unfathomable by the shallow western philosophical materialists.
The biggest owners of the US Debt are US Citizens and companies.
http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/who-owns-the-u-s-debt-07152010/?display=wide
China only owns ~25% of the foreign holdings, which is only 23% of the debt, so basically they own ~6% of our debt.
In the infographic, the "Federal Reserve and US Intragovernmental holdings" is mostly money lent out to print money and Social Security accounts.
So the government for the past 30+ years has been spending like a drunk sailor (on wars, and corporate welfare) using YOUR social security deposits, and now wants to cut your benefits to "settle the balance". How nice of them.
I'd prefer they pay back Social Security by running a damn surplus for a few years. Start by stripping the corporate welfare and "loosened tax rates" for billionaires and other tax cheats.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I find it odd that they can't track the actual recipients of all this money. Is it government sponsored? I guess that's all I want to know.
Wow. Learn what "communism" is supposed to be. For most people, it is the picture of utopia.
Same could be said of democracy, and look how that keeps turning out. Not trying to trash democracy here, just noting that people keep fucking it up.
Yet, China directs their large number of attacks at the west, mostly America, to drain us of cash. Smart on their part.
I think of all the lovers of that on this site, mostly from the west, who do not think once about the fact that this is backed by the CHINESE GOV.. If the CIA was backing such an operation, these same ppl would be screaming bloody murder and saying that we were in an active war with somebody. Hell, I have seen ppl here support CHina's attack on the west, while being upset about the west's stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Just amazing.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Good for you. The rest of the world prefers to learn about subjects then compare and contrast them to reality. No fancy book learnin for you.
This is NOT about owning our debt. It is about owning the companies, obtain the IP, and then moving the manufacturing to your own location before you decide to hit them hard.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Exactly, it's too idealistic to be practical. Like Libertarianism (real Libertarianism, not the corporate-sponsored version that's sweeping the land).
Caveat Utilitor
Your statement is true even if every instance "communism" is replaced with "capitalism" (in the Happy Adam Smith sense) or even "democratic". The comedy here is that people seem to be under the impression that America is a Democracy with Free Markets. It really isn't, not by a long shot.
Either that or it's the first volley in a war between Nigeria and China.
So, by your own admission, the "people's democracies" of the former Warsaw pact are in fact a brilliant and shining example of democracy? As well as Democratic People's Republic of Korea?
Seriously, get your head out of your ass. PR calling things exact opposites of what they are doesn't make things whose names they usurp equal their actions. If you live in the modern times and still haven't learned this, I have a lot of land on the Moon to sell you.
Because China is at war with the west. It is not just American firms, but Western firms. That includes Canadian, Australian, UK, and all of EU. Everybody thinks that it is in China's best interest to keep us going. Nothing could be further from the truth. You always wiped out an enemies strength when possible to make it easy to invade them later. Ganghis did it. So did Napoleon and the Romans. It works wonders. The real strength of the west has been that we had a mostly diversified and distributed economy amongst us that was impossible to destabilize. Now, China is going for the heart of it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, they're run by large, multinational corporations same as every other modern country.
Caveat Utilitor
but a business can and should hire IT people who don't think the whole world begins and ends in Redmond.
We've already been over the subject of user stupidity and that every OS is as insecure as the user many times, but I wanted to note regarding that line.. Most of the time, proprietary products (be it Microsoft or other large companies that cater to businesses) are the only viable choice. For example in browsers IE is the only one that has great support for internal deployment and policies. As a home user you most likely don't care, but if you're ever needed to handle a large amount of business computers you know how much easier IE makes it. Firefox, Chrome, Opera and all are tailored for home users. It doesn't have any policy handling and deploying. Personally I use Opera and wouldn't ever touch IE, but I understand and don't just ignore the reason companies want to use it. And it's not only IE, it's also Windows and many other commercial software.
Because we all know that China is a monolithic organism masquerading as a nation of individuals?
Caveat Utilitor
Seriously, I invite you to learn what communism is supposed to be. If you spend even a little time learning about that and about human behavior, especially from a sociological perspective, you will see pretty clearly that communism is a huge lie that can never happen because people are involved.
The same can be said for Libertarianism. Both belief systems are based on fundamental misunderstandings of human nature: communism is founded on the notion that workers are somehow less corrupt and greedy than the rich and the despised middle class, libertarianism on the concept that humans will somehow behave at all times, in regards to all decisions, in a thoroughly rational manner, based strictly on their own self-interest, particularly where money is concerned. Both are utterly laughable ideas. The first would qualify as charmingly naive, were it not for the millions persecuted, imprisoned, and killed by so-called "communist" regimes that were, at best, merely industrial-grade authoritarianism dressed up in socialist clown suits. (Since there never has been - and never will be - a Libertarian paradise on Earth, the Libertarian delusion actually does qualify for the "charmingly naive" sobriquet.)
Greed and selfishness are permanent features of human nature. Any political theory that denies that fact is predestined to fail. Likewise, humans are stubbornly irrational critters, prone to making decisions for silly, provably-wrong, and/or strictly emotional reasons that wind up being completely contrary to their personal self-interest. And any political theory that studiously turns its pretty head away from THAT fact is, likewise, doomed from the git-go to fail hilariously.
Check out my novel.
And these corporations, they're run by what, martians? See, it still makes no difference. All we are seeing is how power evolves. Humans are just the medium, not really in any direct control.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Doesn't seem like such a big deal. Just the 77 million stolen accounts from PSN could be worth about that already.
So is this just another China = bogeyman propaganda piece?
11 million is just a rounding error compared to how much the Federal Reserve, investment bankers etc have taken from the US people.
The way I get it (and I am not expert) is that Communism is simply the political extension of commune or communal. That is where people work and live together for the common good. I think ideologically it simply means that the rights of the state supersede that of the individual. So far as an ideal goes, its pretty darn good, in principle.
In practice however Greed, and Power tend to get in there and mess about. Where everyone is supposed to be "equal" there tends to be large inequity. China saw that the state managed economy of the USSR didn't really work that well and was really just a huge deck of cards that eventually came down. So they merged Capitalism which seemed to be working for the west at the time with Communism. While it does seem to be sort of working at least from a growth perspective, they basically get the worst from both systems. Lack of any political rights as per a democracy and escalating fiscal inequality among the population. Right now it is working as they hold the hope carrot of a better life out there for the masses. However as soon as they figure out that they have no power politically, and no hope fiscally, I think the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan. How long that will take or will they adjust who knows. Of course people could say that about some western countries right now also.
I've believed Communism would be the best form of government... but Human Nature makes that impossible. So, we'll settle for second best, such as a Republic or Democracy, where at least a mass of human nature can hopefully cancel out the evil.
But what would happen to shares of the deceased? Your idea fails to account for this.
how is babby formed?
Totalitarianism cannot occur in a laissez-faire capitalistic market, by definition.
If I bought up all the water companies in your nation, who would stand up to me? I would expect any resistance to my rule to "dry up" in three days or so.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
That's such an accurate blanket statement that it should be on a bumper sticker or a tattoo.
Totalitarianism cannot occur in a laissez-faire capitalistic market, by definition.
True, but only insofar as the moment that totalitarian rule starts, it ceases to be a laissez-faire state. There is nothing in laisse-faire capitalism that prevents bad actors from destroying the system, because such measures are called "regulations".
The problem with communism as it's been tried so far is that it hasn't been democratic. Totalitarian communism is just as bad, and bad for the same reasons, as totalitarianism capitalism. What the world needs is democratic communism.
FWIW, Bakunin forsaw the problems with Marxism well before it was ever applied. He famously said "freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice and that Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality". He was right on both counts.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
China is not stealing from USA. Thieves and scammers are stealing from people and businesses.
/* No Comment */
A difference of five seconds. Brilliant!
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
What's the difference with the US? Except that the US Government owes China and the US values it's currency based on oil and by forcing other economies to use it.
The US-ians are also viciously capitalistic, they'll even forgo Universal Health Care as long as it doesn't impact them. They live under an oppressive government that claims to be democratic but are actually just an abusive bunch of politically incestuous control freaks.
So some clever US people realized that they are pretty much "untouchable" and have decided to perform criminal acts across it's own and other economies. They also know they are likely not to get punished as long as they pay off the right officials in the process. It's how their game is played.
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People use the wrong terminology for things all the time. Consider what the term "hacker" has come to mean in contrast to its original meaning.
If you want to see communism in action (not "communism"), look at the kibbutz system in Israel. You'll find a distinct lack of totalitarianism and murder.
I think ideologically it simply means that the rights of the state supersede that of the individual. So far as an ideal goes, its pretty darn good, in principle.
Until you are the individual whose rights get superseded. It can only sound good to you if it is other people's rights getting superseded but not yours and if you are a selfish arsehole totally lacking in compassion. Unless of course it is only the BAD people whose rights get superseded and they deserve it and it won't affect you because you are one of the GOOD people, in which case it differs little from a theocracy.
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You must admit though, that at a theoretical level anyway, Communism (minus the whole Atheism thing) is fairly harmonious with Christian values and the GOP is pretty close to the antithesis.
Heh, maybe -- how would I know for sure? :D
No seriously, the point is that corporations are not strictly speaking run by humans, but by committees.
Caveat Utilitor
Not to worry. Those dollars are coming right back to you good citizens. As a loan, to pay for our Medicare. It's all part of the circle of incompetence.
Speaking of which, would someone who's knowledgeable on the matter care to comment on the Chinese/US exchange rate mechanism?
I mean, the Chinese can say that "Henceforth the yuan will be worth X". But how can you make people obey that?
Or does Chinese government just print/destroy money as required to maintain the exchange rate? If so, it's really hard to discern what the difference between that, and the Fed's "quantitative easing" (basically, "printing" money) is.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Ah well, not like Microsoft will bear any liability for the system compromises for the "secure" software it sells.
Unlike, say OSX, Linux or BSD where you get an unlimited liability guarantee free with every piece of software you install.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
On the other, they live under an oppressive government that claims to be communist but are actually just an abusive bunch of control freaks.
What's the difference?
It's always great to hear insightful and interesting comments from experts in political philosophy.
In the meantime...
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Totalitarianism cannot occur in a laissez-faire capitalistic market, by definition.
Only if it's a laissez-faire capitalist doing the defining.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
People use the wrong terminology for things all the time. Consider what the term "hacker" has come to mean in contrast to its original meaning. If you want to see communism in action (not "communism"), look at the kibbutz system in Israel. You'll find a distinct lack of totalitarianism and murder.
Or look at the Mondragon co-operatives in Spain, not absolutely egalitarian, but close enough, and a practical and successful economic model.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I guess I meant from an ideological perspective.
First supposedly in Communism there is no, Bad or Good people all are equal as that is the whole point. The ONLY bad people would be those that refuse to participate in Communism, hence some of the strife caused.
However, yes if you are the guy that gets his rights taken away, it sucks, but supposedly it is for good reason for the greater benefit for all, and thus worthwhile.
The classic harsh example might be: You have to be killed, but in being killed you save 10,000 people. Sucks to be you, but great for many. As Spock would say the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Now the tricky part that always goes along with this is at what threshold of "rights transfer" from individual to state is "acceptable". To put it in the previous simplistic example, lets say your death would only save 10 people, would that be sufficient for the state to make that choice? What about only one really important person (which isn't supposed to work that way). I think the bottom line is that it give the state some pretty crazy power, and anyone who has it gets a bit drunk with it, and certainly never wants to relinquish it, or have anything apply to them. Having an economy based on a ponzi scheme doesn't help either. Anyway its an ideal, how it is implemented is something else entirely.
No, it is not inexplicable. This place is full of script kiddies who have access to both the scripts and the limited know-how required to run the botnets. They also have two other things that are required and that most people forget: 1) they have absolutely no morals and no interest in anyone besides their immediate family.
2) they have a good stack of easy money from their family who are proud of their offspring and their "business acumen"
Chinese message boards are packed with people who consider anything western to be fair game for anything they want to do. You are sheep for the fleecing to these kids. I lived on this little island off the coast near Shanghai where the NYT reported on some kiddies who were holed up in a concrete box 1 room apartment just slamming away at networks in the west trying to bust in and grab anything. And they were pretty skilled. The kids where I live now are less skilled, but perfectly happy to stay up all night and rake in a thousand dollars (almost 10 times minimum MONTHLY wage here) from one simple mistake on somebodies part in the US.
There is no reason for them to stop. The government is run by their parents. It is up to you to protect yourself.
Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.