According to the FBI, fourteen individuals were arrested on July 19, 2011 based on charges related to their alleged involvement in a cyber attack on PayPal’s website (www.paypal.com) as part of an action claimed by the group Anonymous. In addition, two more defendants were arrested on other cyber-related charges.
Read more on http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog
California legislators approved collection of an online sales tax among their revenue efforts as they passed the state budget on Wednesday.
Sponsors estimate the tax could bring in $200 million a year by collecting taxes that consumers have been avoiding when they make online purchases.
Federal law says states can only tax companies with a physical presence in a state, but the new California law applies that to include companies such as Amazon.com Inc. of Seattle, that have “affiliates” in a state.
NEW YORK (AP) – If you use Facebook to “check in” to your favorite restaurants or shops, you can now expect to see rewards and discounts from companies looking to drum up business and lure in loyal customers.
Facebook is looking to bridge online advertising with people’s offline behavior as it announced a service called “Deals.” It’s an extension of Places, the check-in feature the company unveiled this year. Rising with the explosive growth of smart phones, services based on people’s location help them find coupons, earn quirky merit badges or simply share with friends where they are.
The number of people using such services is still small – just 4 percent of the U.S. Internet population have ever used it and just 1 percent on any given day, according to a survey released Thursday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The Internet has made life easier in so many ways, including the ability to shop and conduct financial transactions online. Of course, just like in the world of bricks and mortar, criminals also lurk in Cyberspace, seeking to steal identities, data and money. While Cyber criminals, of course, are responsible as a matter of criminal and civil law for their own wrongdoing, the question arises as to whether others also can be deemed responsible for the harm suffered as a result of this illegal conduct.
The recent case of Patco Construction Company, Inc. v. People’s United Bank d/b/a Ocean Bank, filed in state court in Maine, tees up this very question for resolution.
Patco alleges that it has been a customer of Ocean Bank. Patco asserts that Ocean Bank failed to fulfill “ones of its most basic obligations, namely, to protect its customers’ funds against theft.”
Here’s a routine the online shopper knows well. Skim a book, try on a watch or compare refrigerators at a local store.
Then head home with the specs in hand and find the item on the Internet,—cheaper, and often with no state sales tax. Of course, you buy it for less,—at times, a lot less.
Dueling pieces of legislation, both of which were introduced in Congress in July, address the issue of whether to close the loophole that allows online shoppers in most states to avoid paying sales tax.
Thieves are stealing credit-card numbers through skimmers they secretly installed inside pumps at gas stations throughout the Southeast, using Bluetooth wireless to transmit stolen card numbers, according to law enforcement officials. “We’ve sent detectives out to every gas station within a mile of Interstate 75,” says Lt. Steve Maynard, spokesman for the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, which last Thursday was first notified about a suspicious skimming device discovered by a maintenance worker at a Shell Station located in the vicinity of Gainesville, Fla. So far, three card-skimming devices hidden in gas pumps at three stations have been discovered by investigators, and the U.S. Secret Service has been notified. The Sheriff’s Office, along with other local police departments, are trying to inspect as many gas stations in the area as possible, especially focusing on those along I-75. But law enforcement is encouraging gas station operators to look for signs of the skimmers at their pumps and contact them if they think they’ve found something. The Secret Service has indicated there’s a crime wave throughout the Southeast involving the gas-station pump card skimmers, and it may be traced back to a single gang that may be working out of Miami, Maynard says. Nearby St. Johns County in Florida has also been hit by the gas-pump card skimmers. Maynard says criminals wanting to hide the credit-card skimmers in gas pumps must have a key to the pump, but in some cases, a single key will serve to get into many gas pumps. It’s not known whether the gas-pump skimming operation involves insiders. Law enforcement is encouraging gas-station operators to train video surveillance they may use on the pumps.
For more information go to: http://www.knowconnect.com/mirln/current AND/OR http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179136/Bluetooth_at_heart_of_gas_station_credit_card_scam_in_Southeast_?taxonomyId=85
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