Haiti Relief Scams

Online fraudsters seem to be always on the ready to grab an opportunity to make money out of a scam, and this time it is the Haiti earthquake of 12 January 2010 that has caught their attention.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team has already issued a warning to people who want to help the Haitians, of email scams and search engine poisoning campaigns that will direct users to phishing sites. The only way to avoid this happening is to keep the anti virus software up to date, say experts.

The FBI too has issued a statement to the public in general to watch out for emails that appeal to them for money and other forms of aid for the Haitian victims. The public must be wary and apply due diligence before responding to such requests, and to keep these guidelines in mind:

• Never respond to spam emails soliciting money.

• Stay wary of people claiming to be officials, and asking for donations.

• Confirm the authenticity of non-profit organizations by checking them out with external links rather than clicking on the link provided within the email.

• Make all contributions and donations directly instead of offering them to strangers to do it on your behalf.

• Never give away any financial information to strangers soliciting it for the purpose of donations.

Passenger profiling in UK very soon

For those of us who plan to travel to the UK any time soon, here’s some news! In direct opposition to what Civil Rights groups think, there will be added security for air passengers in the form of profiling, and travelers will be frisked according to their age, gender, race and ethnic background, said Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

This means that in addition to submitting to full body scanners which will come into operation at the end of January this year, there will be sniffer dogs as well. Trace equipment will be in place at all airports. This will mean more delays of course, but if more lives could be protected this way, then well, we cannot protest against this invasion of privacy and violation of human rights.

Seven year olds being groomed for terrorism

The British Home Office and the Association of Chief Police officers of the ‘Channel Project’ have been working closely with children who showed radical tendencies, and found recently that even children as young as seven were being groomed for terrorism. Football coaching and outdoor activities were the tactics used to attract them.

In most cases, it was parents who turned to the project officials for help, when their Westernized children suddenly started to wear Islamic dress, and expressed Islamic views. The young Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been coached by the Al-Qaida when he was a college student.

The question is this: Are we ever going to be safe?

Failure to ‘connect the dots’ could have resulted in tragedy.

US President Barrack Obama has admitted publicly that the US government did have prior information on the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab; in fact, his name was on a US database of suspected terrorists, but authorities failed to realize that this was man planning a deadly terrorist attack on a Detroit bound airliner. In fact, Obama said that the US government “"had the information scattered throughout the system to potentially uncover this plot and disrupt the attack…" but failed miserably.

Now, the time has come for the US government to bring in even more new measures to combat terrorism:

· Better screening technology at all airports, perhaps full body scanners would be brought in

· Better dissemination and distribution of security information across agencies

· Better analysis of crucial information

Nevertheless, experts feel this response may not be enough.

President Obama has also announced to the Muslims of the world that his administration would start working towards persuading them that Al-Qaida’s policies would only create more misery for them and not vice versa.

Handwriting Analysis offers New Lie Detection Method

In an article published in the Homeland Security Newswire on August 28 2009, I happened to read the astonishing news that Israeli researchers have found that when one is writing lies, as opposed to writing the truth, the handwriting may vary significantly. This one simple finding may lead investigators to decide on a person’s guilt or innocence in a crime that has been committed.

Apparently, the researchers use a computerized tablet that analyses and measures the physical properties of a person’s handwriting, like for example the number of seconds the pen would be in the air when he is writing, or the pressure that he is applying on the paper, and find out from these characteristics whether he is being deceptive or truthful.

This does make a lot of sense, and one can perhaps hope for more research of this kind to bring quicker justice to the injured parties. An interesting piece of news indeed!

The Notorious Nigerian Scam!

I just read more news about notorious scams in 2009. One of the more interesting scams that has been making headlines recently is the so called ‘Nigerian scam’, or ‘419’.A woman or a man claims that her husband/wife/father/mother has died and that he/she has left her a huge fortune, which absolutely has to be invested in a country other than Africa. In return for your participation in covering the ‘legal’ fees that must be paid for such a large investment to be carted out safely, you will be given a substantial portion of the fortune.

Countless numbers of people have been cheated of their money by these scams. Beware if you have received an email from anyone claiming that they are ready to give you a lot of money (why would anyone?!) in return for some dubious service.

Shocking Identity Theft Frauds, Beware!

I was shocked to read that about 10 million Americans are victims of identity theft frauds and scams every year. These are the stats: 38 to 48% of the victims found out about the identity theft within three months after it has been committed, and 9 to 18% discover the theft only after four to five years, during which time the person who has assumed the false identity goes about living a life that is not his own. About 43% of the victims of identity theft believe that they know who the perpetrator is, and anywhere from 3 to 5,480 hours is spent every year on recovering and repairing the damage that has been caused by the identity theft.

I happened to read an article that detailed the ways in which one can prevent identity theft. Here they are:

· Never get rid of your receipts in public places, unless they have been shredded.

· Be careful when you are using your ATM; make sure you do not let another person stand too close to you: he may be recording your PIN with any of the new devices available freely in the market today.

· Even at home, do not leave your personal information, especially about your bank or your identification, lying around.

· When you make a purchase using your credit card, you must make sure that it is swiped only once. The reason? Fraudsters swipe the card twice: once to pay for the purchase, and another time, to record the information on the card.

Stay aware, stay safe.

The Mystery of the Vanishing ‘O’!

Well, this was a mystery that caused sleepless nights to many users across the globe. It happened this September, when a mysterious other-worldly doodle appeared out of nowhere on the Google Home Page, and made one ‘O’ of Google vanish. This made’ Google’ ‘Gogle’! Perhaps because the word sounded too close to ‘ogle’ or something, several people were panic stricken, and Google was forced to take some serious disaster management steps. When Google announced that they had NOT been taken over by aliens, the world breathed a sigh of relief (well, so did I, disaster averted, security established at last!)

Google was reinstated as Google, and the world went on as usual. But who knows…!

Penalty for Internet Service Providers

If you have ever wished that people who abuse children or even those who facilitate the abominable act were given severe punishment, this is good news indeed! As reported in the Independent, internet providers in the UK who have failed to provide adequate security or have not managed to curb child porn on the internet will have to face severe penalties.

Perhaps from henceforth parents will be able to relax a little when their kids spend time surfing the internet...