Sift Science, a Y Combinator-backed startup founded by former Google engineers, is today launching its fraud-fighting service based on machine learning – a system designed to adapt to the ever-changing techniques used by criminals online. The company is also announcing $4 million in Series A funding, led by Union Square Ventures. As a part of the funding, Union Square’s Albert Wenger is joining… → Read More
Jumio, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed mobile payments and ID-scanning startup, is today releasing a new version of its Netverify product designed specifically for mobile devices, both smartphones and tablets. Netverify Mobile, as it’s called, will allow app publishers to authenticate their customers’ identities via their driver’s license, passport or other ID card. → Read More
Customers who used the self-checkout lanes at Lucky Supermarkets have been hacked. The grocer, which operates stores in California, says some of their credit card machines have been altered with sniffers to capture credit and debit card numbers. Lucky, owned by parent company Save Mart, is telling customers who used those machines to close their bank and credit card accounts. At least 80… → Read More
European video game retailer, GAME, has been handing out memos asking their employees to engage in some questionable business practices. The instructions told employees to take money out of the register and buy Nintendo 3DS consoles from the nearest Tesco supermarket — which happens to sell the 3DS at a loss for $55 less. → Read More
According to an article at Forbes, identity theft and related fraud were up considerably in 2009 with 11.2 million victims for an estimated cost of $54 billion U.S. dollars. In 2008, just under 10 million people were ripped off as a result of identify theft, for an estimated cost of $48 billion. Interestingly, the cost to individuals as a result of data breaches has declined from $498 in 2008 to… → Read More
In a coordinated attack spanning 130 ATMs in 49 cities, a group of hackers managed to suck dry bank accounts totalling over $9 million, according to an admission by RBS Worldpay, a payment processing company that oversaw the accounts.
The attack actually occurred in November, but the extent of the fraud was only revealed yesterday by some investigative reporting by — of all things &mdash… → Read More
VPN4Life is a new site that is promising a lifetime of private and anonymous access to the internet through their servers for a one-time fee of $50. Their mission statement is to “free the world from ISP monitoring, government restrictions, and capitalism’s growing influence on the Internet.” Pretty bold words there, but how else are you supposed to sell the lowest tier of what appears to be a… → Read More
Back in October, Japan suffered a spate of swindles executed by cell phone: con artists convince someone that their young son is in trouble and needs money. The banks got wise and started questioning elderly folk making large withdrawals. The con artists got wiser, and started directing the elderly victims to use ATM machines. The cops started patrolling ATMs, but that didn’t seem to work. → Read More
Our permanent campaign marches on here in the U.S., with preparations for 2012 already well underway. To that end, some dude has asked proto-blog Slashdot what to look for when it comes to electronic vote fraud. (He’s an elections official, so he has some modicum of power to stop any shenanigans.) The suggestions are rich in thought and content. • Look for a paper trail. If… → Read More
I’ve worked in retail so I know how shady some people can be when they try and return items, but I’ve never seen anything like this before. An Xbox 360 was returned one morning and the poor chump working was by himself and had no choice but to return the console because the thieving bastard had a receipt. He obviously didn’t inspect it well enough or else he would have found that… → Read More
This is a neat present for that person in your life who seems to have been swayed into submission by pictures of the Loch Ness monster and ghostly ladies at the side of the road. The point and shoot single-use camera adds a ghost into every picture so you don’t have to invest in film editing equipment to get that perfect shot of the Jersey devil. All the fame and fortune of being a ghost… → Read More
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Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
