Please Be Informed...

Criminals using spoofed telephone numbers get brazen

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It's remarkably easy to spoof telephone numbers i.e. to make any number one chooses to show up in the caller ID of the recipient's phone. So if a criminal is going to do that, why not choose someone special?

CoNet Section:

IT & Communications

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UK freezes GBP100 million suspected proceeds of foreign corruption

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The NCA has been granted freezing orders on eight bank accounts containing a total of more than GBP100 million, which is suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption in an overseas nation.

FCRO Subsection:

Bribery and Corruption

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Australia to review the use of button batteries

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has established a Button Battery Taskforce to investigate ways to reduce risk to the Australian community, particularly children, of button batteries.

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Why Hong Kong's protesters must stop now.

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What were once peaceful demonstrations against a Hong Kong Bill that would, incidentally to its main purpose, have facilitated extradition to China for a wide range of offences, have become expensive, disruptive and divisive. Every day seems like a new turning point where protesters increase the lengths they are willing to go to, often seemingly with the specific intent of provoking a reaction from the police which the protesters then claim was unduly harsh. And the UN and the USA aren't helping.

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Australia imposes penalties for excess payment card charges

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Australia allows merchants to charge to customers reimbursement of the charges it pays to payment card companies. It is not permitted that surcharges are applied. A car rental company has been ordered to pay AUD350,000 in penalties for overcharging. Are airlines, including foreign operators, next in line?

BIScom Subsection:

Credit cards

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Indonesia's garlic prices have much to do with one man's greed, it is alleged.

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A report in an Indonesian newspaper, tempo.co, says that a national politician has been arrested by the The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for alleged involvement in a corruption scheme that saw him net a big lump sum plus something similar to a royalty on every kilo of garlic imported into the country.

FCRO Subsection:

Bribery and Corruption

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Settlor v Settler

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Don't say that:

A settlor is a person that "settles" property in a trust
A settler is a person who takes possession of land, often without lawful title.

Do say this:

"Joe settled the sum 2,000 on his niece."

Joseph settled on a plot of land.

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Arab Emirates Investment Bank PJSC - fraud

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Perhaps in the Arab world the usual hook for spam-scammers of a few hundred thousand dollars, or even a couple of million, is small change. So this fraud is offering me more than 25 million (undefined) dollars in a most unusual manner. But then it turns to a bog standard, old fashioned, Nigerian (advance fee fraud) Scam.

BIScom Subsection:

Risk Management

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Internet criminals issue email apparently from the UK's National Health Service

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Spoofing email addresses (that is making it look like an e-mail comes from somewhere other than its actual sender) is a remarkably easy trick and it's heavily relied on by spammers. However, this particular spam goes further, aping the tactics used by those who send e-mails that appear to come from banks. Be warned....

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Five .[domain]s you should ban from your system

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Spammers and fraudsters love .com addresses but so does the rest of the world. For some time, there have been domain levels that spammers like because they can create names that look legitimate but are using the name of a legitimate, reputable, business and recipients often do not notice what's after the dot or have faith that registrars are checking and only allocating obviously well known names to their usual users. Recent additions to the "top level domain" system have opened up a new world of opportunity. Here are five TLDs that spammers are making use of and which businesses should consider banning from their incoming mail and, even, blocking server traffic to.

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Bags of airbags replaced in Australia

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This is mind-numbing.

According to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, since the announcement of the recall of Takata airbags, in Australia alone they are being replaced at an average of 4,000 per day.

It's not enough, they say.

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Online retailer ordered to pay penalty and compensation.

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Big Warehouse Spare Parts is an amazing, if sometimes expensive, service for the supply of parts for all kinds of things, including hard to find items. But its business practices have landed it in hot water with Australia's Consumer and Competition Commission.

CoNet Section:

Consumer Protection

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Leighton Holdings corruption cases hang around like a bad smell

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In Australia and elsewhere, the multitude of actions relating to bribery and corruption at Leighton Holdings (see here ) continues in both the criminal and civil courts.

CoNet Section:

Bribery, Corruption and Plunder

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minor v miner

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Don't say that:

The minor was looking for gold
or
it was a miner problem

Do say this:

The miner was looking for gold
or
it was a minor problem

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It's official: trading in virtual currencies in the USA is the same for tax purposes as trading in USD and other currencies.

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The USA's Internal Revenue Service has, albeit belatedly, joined its Treasury sibling, FinCEN, in concluding that there really is no material difference between using virtual currencies and USD or other currencies. In a notice issued this week, it's made clear: if you price and are paid for your goods or services in bitcoin or any other virtual currency, you are liable for trading profits in exactly the same way as if you priced them, and were paid, in fiat currencies.

CoNet Section:

Taxation

GlobalKYC - Suspicious Crypto Assets Register - latest

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