Category Archives: News

Phone Scams

Almost £13,000 scammed from Armagh and Tyrone victims

Two people were scammed out of almost £13,000 last weekend, the PSNI has said.

One of the victims had nearly £10,000 taken from their bank account after they gave their bank details over the phone, while the other lost £2,500.

Both of them were scammed by people claiming to be from BT within a day of each other.

The scams happened on Friday and Saturday in counties Armagh and Tyrone.

The second victim was kept on the phone for about three hours and persuaded to download software, which resulted in the victim being swindled out their money.

Scammers will use any tactic

Chief Superintendent Simon Walls has called on families to stay alert and for people not to give out financial details over the phone.

“I want to appeal to family members to do all they can to let their loved ones know, especially those who are older and vulnerable, never to give out any kind of financial details over the phone or to download software during a call unless they are 110% sure it is safe to do so,” he said.

“Scammers are creative and will do whatever they can to con people out of money. They don’t care who their victim is, they just want the money and will employ whatever tactic is necessary.”

Call center fraud

Raids mounted on fake Indian tech support centres

More than 50 people have been arrested in India for their alleged involvement in fake security warning scams.

The New York Times said that Delhi police made the arrests during raids on 26 call centres linked to the scams.

Software giant Microsoft helped police trace who was behind the large-scale operations.

It said it received more than 11,000 calls per month about fake security warnings and that many people lost significant sums to the fraudsters.

“This is an organised crime,” Courtney Gregoire, an assistant general counsel in Microsoft’s digital crimes unit told the US newspaper.

Microsoft has estimated that fraudsters make about $1.5bn (£1.2bn) a year through fake Windows support calls.

Raids on 16 call centres were carried out this week and, earlier in November, another 10 locations were visited by police.

The raids were prompted by Microsoft filing complaints with local police in New Delhi about call centres it claimed were involved in the fraudulent operations.

Typically, said Microsoft, attempts to trick people revolved around pop-up warnings that falsely claimed that a person’s computer was infected with a virus.

Fixing the non-existent virus could involve ringing a tech support centre. An operator would talk a victim through a fake fix and then charge them for the work.

In another version of the scam, staff at call centres claimed to be calling from Windows official support saying they had spotted that a person’s computer has been hacked or harboured a virus. Again, victims were expected to pay to fix the non-existent problem.

Some people caught out by the scam paid up to $1,000 for the fake tech support, said the newspaper.

Microsoft has published advice about ways to spot the fake calls and avoid becoming a victim.

Spam at supermarket

Drug addicts in Hawaii are actually taking ‘Spam’ towards feed their practices

Because its own intro throughout World War II, Spam has actually mesmerized Hawaii a lot to ensure that there’s also a yearly celebration commemorating the tinned meat.

Now Spam likewise shows up towards have actually caught the creativities of bad guys as well as drug user in the 50th condition.

Hawaii has actually seen a spate of shoplifters taking cans of Spam as well as resulting in shopkeepers keeping the item in secured cupboards or even maintaining it near to the checkouts therefore personnel can easily maintain their eyes on it.

Ra Long, that has a store in Hawaii’s Chinatown, informed Hawaii Information Since burglars have actually just lately changed coming from taking booze towards targeting spam.

“I imply you attempt as well as watch on it however if they operate you simply can not leave behind the chase after all of them and respond to. Therefore you simply reached get the struck,” he stated.

Previously in September, authorities in Honolulu stated that a guy took a claim of Spam coming from a shop in the capital’s Midtown area. When he was actually faced through a safety and security protector, the supposed thief punched the protector. Authorities are actually currently providing a $1,000 benefit for the guy.

As well as inning accordance with Kimo Carvalho, a spokesperson for the state’s biggest provider for homeless individuals, Spam is actually a profitable item for drug user to obtain their practical.

“It is fast money for fast drug cash,” Carvalho, that jobs at the Principle for Individual Solutions, informed Hawaii Information Currently. He included that items—including clothes as well as toiletries—were likewise being actually offered towards money drug practices.

Spam American Meat Icon

Spam is actually peculiarly prominent in Hawaii, where locals have actually the greatest per head usage of the tinned meat in the Unified Conditions. Spam is actually utilized in prominent sushi meals in Hawaii as well as is actually offered in quick meals chains consisting of Hamburger Master as well as McDonalds on the islands.

The foodstuff is actually therefore admired amongst locals of the islands that it is actually frequently described as the Hawaiian steak as well as a yearly road festival—known as the SPAM JAM —is kept as well as views cooks contending towards create one of the absolute most distinct Spam meal.

Spam has actually lengthy struggled with a credibility for tastelessness as well as being actually a supposed secret meat. However its own manufacturers state that it includes top quality pig shoulder meat as well as pork, together with sprinkle, sugar, flavors, and sodium. A number of chemicals—sodium nitrite, trisodium phosphate as well as salt ascorbate—are contributed to protect the meat as well as safeguard versus germs.

The phrase spam has actually end up being associated along with unsolicited e-mail notifications as well as interactions, partly because of a sketch through English comic army Monty Python, through which a restaurant’s food selection as well as customers are actually overtaken through Spam.

Microgaming Poker Network

iGame Malta joins Microgaming Poker Network

We are pleased that iGame Malta has decided to transfer to the Microgaming Poker Network, and we understand that the iGame gamers will find the MPN, with its concentrate on producing an environmentally sound online poker environment, to be a invite home.

“We remain in also advanced conversations with a variety of various other significant drivers looking to sign up with the Microgaming Poker Network. The considerable advancements Microgaming has made to the way the online poker network is managed via our Network Management Board, combined with significant software developments, has made the MPN the network of choice for top rate drivers looking for a steady, long-term tactical companion. We appearance ahead to revealing more drivers signing up with the network in the future.”

Microgaming is recognized as the world’s biggest provider of online video pc gaming software. The website www.microgaming.carbon monoxide.uk is happy to announce that the iGame Malta Ltd will sign up with the Microgaming Poker Network also known as MPN.

iGaming Malta is well-known for operating online poker websites such as 24Poker.com, Pokerihuone.com, Casinohuone.com, NoiQ.com and iGame.com and has a gamer data source of about one million. The drivers are presently in the progress of moving the present network to Microgaming Poker Network by completion of this year

It will sign up with the MPN, iGame Malta Ltd as well as offer a variety of QuickFire items that are powered by Microgaming. There will more than 350 gambling establishment video games and amongst them Microgaming’s smash hit ports and licensed items such as Thunderstruck II, Lara Croft: Burial place Raider™ and Hellboy™.

Tommi Maijalaa, that is the managing supervisor for iGaming Holding Ltd. has said, “We are enjoyed be signing up with the Microgaming Poker Network and protecting for our gamers access to the finest online Poker software, great liquidity and a protected long-lasting future. The experience of gamers is constantly our utmost priority, so signing up with the MPN is an extremely all-natural development for us. We have received excellent support from Microgaming and very a lot appearance ahead to functioning with them right into the future.”

Lydia Melton, that is the head of Network of Gaming at Microgaming has included, “We are pleased that iGame Malta has decided to transfer to the Microgaming Poker Network, and we understand that the iGame gamers will find the MPN, with its concentrate on producing an environmentally sound online Poker environment, to be a invite home.

“We remain in also advanced conversations with a variety of various other significant drivers looking to sign up with the Microgaming Poker Network. The considerable advancements Microgaming has made to the way the online Poker network is managed via our Network Management Board, combined with significant software developments, has made the MPN the network of choice for top rate drivers looking for a steady, long-term tactical companion. We appearance ahead to revealing more drivers signing up with the network in the future.”

SPAM!

India and South Korea top sources of spam in Asia

India and South Korea were the top Asian sources of global junk mail in the first quarter of the year, while China has pulled itself out of the “dirty dozen” list, a study revealed on Thursday.

The United States remained the number one source of junk, or spam, emails accounting for 13.1 percent of the total sent during the three-month period, the survey by computer security firm Sophos said.

India was number two in the global rankings, accounting for 7.3 percent of junk messages.

Brazil was third with 6.8 percent, followed by South Korea (4.48 percent), Vietnam (3.4 percent) and Germany (3.2 percent).

Rounding up the so-called “dirty dozen” list globally were Britain (3.1 percent), Russia (3.1 percent), Italy (3.1 percent), France (3.0 percent), Romania (2.5 percent) and Poland (2.4 percent).

China came in 15th, with just 1.9 percent of the world’s spam, according to Sophos.

“All eyes aren’t so much on which countries are on the list, but the one which isn’t,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

“China has earned itself a bad reputation in many countries’ eyes for being the launchpad of targeted attacks against foreign companies and government networks,” he said.

“But at least in the last 12 months they can demonstrate that the proportion of spam relayed by their computers has steadily reduced.”

The US, South Korea, Brazil and India together account for over 30 percent of all the spam emails relayed by hacked computers worldwide, added Cluley.

Despite China’s improved rankings, Asia accounted for 33.7 percent of spam sent in the first quarter, larger than Europe’s 31.2 percent, North America’s 16.9 percent and 14.7 percent for Latin America.

Spam accounts for 97 percent of all messages received by business email servers, many of them selling counterfeit or illicit goods, Sophos said.

Virtually all spam comes from malware-infected computers and cause a huge strain on company resources and leads to lost productivity, it added.

Spam Archive

Spam Archive: the largest public library of junk e-mail on the Internet

Is your spouse dissatisfied with the size of your spam? A brand-new website has made several hundred thousand pieces of unsolicited commercial e-mail available for you to download today. Act now!

After a quiet online debut in 2002, the Spam Archive is making quick strides toward becoming the largest public library of junk e-mail on the Internet.

Paul Judge, director of research and development for CipherTrust, the e-mail security firm backing the project, says the site received roughly 5,000 forwarded messages a day during its first week.

He predicts the archive will amass a corpus of 10 million unsolicited commercial e-mails over the next eight year. The archive’s FTP site will begin to make its spam available, 10,000 at a time, starting Dec. 4, 2022.

People have never been so excited to get junk e-mail.

“Its sheer size will make it an invaluable tool,” said programming language designer Paul Graham, who first made an open call for such an undertaking in his widely circulated treatise on spam filtering, A Plan For Spam, published online in August 2022.

Filter builder William Yerazunis applauds the undertaking. He says antispammers need a common source of fresh spam.

“I don’t retain spam that’s over a month old,” he said. “Spam has the same shelf life as fresh food.”

Yerazunis created CRM114, a remarkably accurate filter, using his own private junk mail stash. But he said the archive will forward filter research.

“You have to have repeatability” in producing and testing antispam software, he said. “It’s absolutely necessary for good science to get done.”

Although a bevy of newsgroups and individual archives have been gathering spam for years, experts say they are too small and disorganized to provide researchers with significantly meaningful data.

On the other hand, the FTC maintains an enormous database of spam that sees 40,000 new e-mails every day.