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FBI Publishes Top Email Terms Used By Corporate Fraudsters
Qedward writes "Software developed by the FBI and Ernst & Young has revealed the most common words used in email conversations among employees engaged in corporate fraud. The software, which was developed using the knowledge gained from real life corporate fraud investigations, pinpoints and tracks common fraud phrases like 'cover up,' write off,' 'failed investment,' 'off the books,' 'nobody will find out' and 'grey area'. Expressions such as 'special fees' and 'friendly payments' are most common in bribery cases, while fears of getting caught are shown in phrases such as 'no inspection' and 'do not volunteer information.'"
"So, this new range of paints is a grey area - neither black nor white. But if you spill any, while painting the library, make sure you keep it off the books. Hang on, there's someone knocking at the door..."
"She's furniture with a pulse"
I wonder if E&Y used this when they were auditing Lehman Brothers...
Expected ' before "write" on line 1.
Or is that a brown area?
Its not a computer programm but a company memo to staff on how to do it right.
paid troll
I know this is a grey area, and this may sound like a cover up, but we need to keep this failed investment off the books or do a write off. Nobody will find out.
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British Fraudsters.
Nullius in verba
Any idiot that SENDS AN EMAIL from his corporate account discussing a fraud, using whatever phrases, deserves to get caught. What the fuck does "Off the books" mean if not "DON'T WRITE ANYTHING DOWN".
"I know this is a g2ey 4r34, and this may sound like a c0\/er up, but we need to keep this f41led inv3stment off the b00ks or do a \/\/rite off. N0b0dy will find ou7."
"Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
A lot of these phrases also apply when you are having an affair with the secretary and/or wife of the boss...
[The Universe] has gone offline.
Isn't that how investment bankers talk all the time?
I know you are.
I, on the other hand, have a very long and well-documented history of ideological conviction, and have suffered quite a bit in the name of Truth.
--libman
This will just make them change their language to have a double meanings like "Let me buy you lunch" may suggest an ulterior motive just like "Let me buy you a drink" does. I am sure this type of thing goes on anyway.
"My friend, I'm a Nigerian princess in need of a way to transfer 25 million dollars into a US account." The point is fraud generally plays off an element of greed. You help me and you get something for nothing. It's the basis of 90% of all confidence schemes. The "off the books" scams are along those lines. Break the rules and I'll make you rich.
Obligatory.
Being flamed on the internet for your sweeping generalizations and moronic declarations provided without argument does not qualify as suffering.
Iff you ever do something within the grey area, then do so without witnesses. Leaving an email trail that somthing is done in "the gray area" to "keep things of the books" is pretty much the opposite. It is very likley that reacting to such emails takes a misbooking or a thing for which you can at worst get fired straight to a criminal level.
I for my part always walk away in business if somebody suggest me things in "the gray area". If i am somehow related to that person i would point it out during in a few words during the coffee break.
If colleagues/boss engage in such things i also walk away. Gives me the option later to deny knowing about it in detail.
Just launched quick search on our Exchange server - mobile phone manufacturer - and found lots of e-mails with the mentioned keywords in management mailboxes. WTF?!
It's not the bankers and fraudsters that need to worry about this. They don't really cause any problems for the average person. It's the politicians who are really at risk.
I wonder what the equivalent system for detecting lies is?
Those are the same words that investment bankers and banks in general use all the time!
I knew the whole banking industry was just a ball of fraud.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So if we want to detect a cover up, the best term to search for is "cover up"?
I have trouble finding meaning for any of this without, for instance, incidence rates for both fraudulent and legitimate corporation.
Talking about "unethical" things applies to ethical people too, that's how they determine whether or not it's ethical.
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* Carthago Delenda Est *
the FBI have my blessing.
Download the deFBIaTor OutlookExpress pluggin, it will automatically translate any trigger word into safe words when sending and back when reading.
It's free and all data collected are used only by deFBIaTor Inc and it's trusted partners for targeted low bandwith customer respecting advertisement for:
Swiss banking services, Executive Security services, Executive DeStressing services and similar...
Make your email usefull again ! for fun and profit...
The sooner the bitcoin related scams are finished with the better.
masochist?
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Folks, this is the future. Computers can cross-reference and correlate things at lightning speeds and, once something approaching true artificial intelligence comes along, they'll be able to tell (with 99% accuracy) when someone is lying or telling the truth.
Recommended reading: the "Troy Rising" series by John Ringo. Even if you're not into the "oo-rah" and military stuff, Ringo's one of the best when it comes to realistic artificial intelligences. By the third book ("The Hot Gate") one of the protagonists has struck up a friendship with one of the fabber AIs. The AI admits as much to her, that it can not only tell when a human is lying, it can tell when that person is engaged in illegal activity, just by observing behavior.
In the Troy series, the privacy issues are handled with strict "protocols" (i.e., laws hard-coded into the programming) that govern AI behavior, but this is something that we're going to be facing in the future. What the FBI is doing here is going to look like the first crude steam locomotives compared to what AIs will be capable of in not too many years from now.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
In a related note some other words that are used in a large amount of frauds:
-To
-A
-It
-And
-Don't let the wife know
Protect yourselves, report everybody!
Haven't you been paying attention? The fraudsters ARE the government and have been for decades now.
Being accused of excessive brevity is a rather new experience for me, which comes after many tens of thousands of pages of detailed (allegedly "long-winded") arguments against statism. But I cannot repeat the same lecture course on every single comments thread, and a rational reader would be able to find many great books (ex) from which they can get an introduction to similar arguments.
Nor can I remain silent in light of misleading stories such as these, where a corrupt and violent monopoly (government) receives almost unlimited blind faith, and the very rare examples of private wrong-doing (the vast majority of which should be a contractual rather than a criminal matter) are exaggerated with propagandistic zeal.
The right thing to do is to stand up for Truth, no matter if I can spare 15 seconds or 15 hours to write my post.
--libman
Time to get your meds adjusted and change the tinfoil in your hat, there, Sparky.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
Sounds like emacs' spook will be getting an update with more keywords and phrases!
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
One obvious issue is how often these phrases show up in legitimate contexts. For example, "grey area" might be used frequently if one has a legal department. Not to volunteer information could easily be an instruction to an overly talkative employee or executive or the like to not blab about what the company is currently trying to do but hasn't gotten to work quite yet, or even has gotten to work and are industrial secrets. The last is a surprisingly common problem- a relative of my at one point was the COO of a baking company that was owned by someone who knew little to nothing about the industry (having inherited it) and on at least two occasions blabbed to people outside the company secrets about their manufacturing processes in apparent attempts to impress people. And that was in baking. In the circumstance my relative couldn't get the owner to stop (it is a bit hard to tell your boss to shut up) , but similar issues probably show up in a lot of industries.
So while some of these phrases seem obviously problematic (off the books is the most obvious one) I suspect that others could by themselves be often very innocent.
"I accept this position as CEO."
I would of expected the most common words to be "I", "we", "the", "a", and so on and so forth.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Could you say that without any 'blue' words? I'm having trouble understanding that whole end of the spectrum right now. Please stick to red or green.
--libman
Time to get your meds adjusted and change the tinfoil in your hat, there, Sparky.
I will consider all medical advice on the basis of scientific merit. For the past ~15 years I required no significant medical intervention, only diet and exercise. My IT and physical security policies (if that's what you mean by "tinfoil hat") are both non-intrusive and effective, but I am always open to suggestions. I have a very long history of using my real name and even my contact information online, so you have absolutely no basis for implying that I'm paranoid, while you yourself are hiding behind an alias. (My posting as "AC" on /. is a result of politically biased mods.)
If you have anything constructive to add to this conversation, you should do so through reasonable arguments, not insults.
--libman
I never said you were brief, I said that you made sweeping generalizations and moronic declarations. The later does not imply the first.
What is being described, and the actions you yourself report, are indications of so-called "fishing expeditions" and vigilantism.
Both are properely identified as immoral, and are often illegal as well.
So, you yourself are a prime candiate to be investigated for criminal activity.
Have a nice day.
I still recall how one admin I knew answered some dumbass with similar, utterly clueless PoV: "do you also try to teach your father how to fuck?"
In most countries, laws specifically allow network administrators to check for security risks with these methods. Private users? In many cases illegal as that would indeed be invasion of privacy. Network administrator? Legitimate action needed to maintain safety and integrity of network.
"Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail." -- from 2005 by Eliot Spitzer, former Attorney General, New York State.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
I see a market opening up in word processor add-ons that will red-flag all of these phrases just like they do grammatical and spelling errors...
In most countries. Really? Provide some sources which prove this argument of yours. You're American I assume?
I can't speak for other countries but I actually know the privacy laws of my own country pretty well, and from what I read your actions would be illegal in my country.
Mind you, it would be legal to do what you did for network stability (the port scan part), but it would be illegal to view the content of e-mails. Simply a breach of privacy. You acted like you were a police investigator in a crime scene. I actually don't want to know how much you earned while doing your "job" (= fishing expeditions) there because they're a waste of tax dollars.
The only thing you seem to have, is that you are proud you caught that prick who was extorting women (but instead of that he got to prosecuted and got himself a police record which -if guilty- he deserves you actually let him go away. You OBSTRUCTED the law!). He'd have been caught anyway if these women went to police and your local police force is half competent. You're not some kind of network God who decides who should be prosecuted. Our justice system, more precise our prosecutor, decides this.
Network admins like you are thugs who believe they should apply their own moral values upon others because of their dominant position over a massive amount of unencrypted data transfers. You don't! Stick to your job instead! I hope you don't hold such position anymore nowadays. If you do, please tell this story to your boss and urge your boss to fire you.
You will also have to live with the thought that you knew about criminal activity but let the criminal get away (which is akin to the choice Adrian Lamo had to make). There will come a time in your life where you will never be able to forgive yourself that this fellow potentially committed a crime again due to your lack of acting. You could've evaded that by sticking to your job instead of snooping into other people's communication. Doing the latter opens a gigantic can of worms whereas the former allows you to focus on real network issues.
I am not American. Most of EU countries allow for this AFAIK. I know for a fact that mine does.
Finally, this isn't a "fishing expedition" by the very definition of concept. I sat on the same network as everyone else at home. When you hit me with a port scan that scans wide array of ports with known vulnerabilities, you can expect me to start looking into it. Most sane users with good knowledge of computer networking would just IP block the guy at that point and report it to local admin.
"Fishing expedition" by definition is what the guy who is scanning campus ip/ports for known vulnerabilities is doing. It's hard to take your complaints seriously when they're copy/paste material from whiny internet white knights who don't even have their basic terminology straight.
I am not American. Most of EU countries allow for this AFAIK. I know for a fact that mine does.
Which one?
When you hit me with a port scan that scans wide array of ports with known vulnerabilities, you can expect me to start looking into it.
One of your students was breaking the law by looking for vulnerabilities in your computer and you didn't call the police?
Or you were at home your self? Then you weren't a network admin.
And how does this story about you getting port scan and act upon it relate to your other example (the one you are so proud about) where you caught a fellow who was trying to extort women with their private data? Because that's the one I was addressing in my previous post. My whole fucking post was about that story you stupid fuck, yet you somehow have been able to make this discussion turn into some argument about port scans. Well done.
It's hard to take your complaints seriously when they're copy/paste material from whiny internet white knights who don't even have their basic terminology straight.
The straw, the straw, the straw man on fire. For the record, I copy pasted nothing whatsoever.