The Scam of The Century!

Aside from losing over 1.13 million people, the United States is thought to have lost billions of dollars in pandemic relief fund fraud, according to the most recent Associated Press analysis, published this week. 

The analysis discovered that fraudsters took more than US$280 billion in relief cash, while another $123 billion was lost or misspent. 

“Combined, the loss represents 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in aid,” according to the report. 

According to the analysis, this was the worst heist in U.S. history, with criminals stealing billions of dollars in government money intended to stabilize an economy in free fall.

How much ATM bombings costs SA banks

From Business Tech –

“ATM bombings have cost local banks at least R40 million rand so far in 2015.

This is according to EWN, citing the South African Bank Risk Information Center (Sabric).

Sabric CEO, Kalyani Pillay told EWN that, while ATM bombings have declined 27%, the company has seen an “increase in advanced methods used by criminals to carry out the robberies”.

The South African Police Service released crime statistics for 2015, last month, showing that bank robbery was down 19.0%, while robbery of cash in transit was down 17.9%.

Rand Daily Mail reported that overall, banks lost about R100-million more than in 2014, to R300-million in 2015 from all forms of robbery.”

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Bitcoin theft at Mt Gox began in 2011, latest report claims

From Payments Eye –
 “The theft of bitcoins from Mt Gox started as early as 2011, according to a new report probing further into the exchange’s collapse.

Mt Gox’s missing bitcoins were stolen long before the exchange collapsed in February 2014, according to a report from Tokyo-based security firm WizSec. In fact, they were siphoned off over a longer period of time, starting in 2011.

The exchange had been operating on a fractional reserve basis – unwittingly or not – for a good few years before its collapse.”

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Internal ATM cash theft: The toughest temptation

From ATM Marketplace –
“Statistics on the volume and nature of ATM crime are extensive and make for fascinating, if unpleasant, reading. A significant proportion is carried out by individuals involved in the storage, transport, handling and dispensing of cash. This type of crime is not so much overlooked as it is underreported — for reasons that are perhaps understandable.

How can we better design ATMs and their security systems to reduce the opportunity for internal theft and make it less rewarding?”

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Former Goldman programmer faces second trial over HFT code theft

From Finextra –
“Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs programmer who had a conviction for stealing the bank's propriety HFT code overturned is back on trial on charges related to the same incident.

Aleynikov was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in December 2010 of federal criminal charges relating to the theft of trade secrets and interstate transportation of stolen property. However, after serving little more than a year of his 97 month sentence, a US Appeals Court overturned the conviction.

Yet a State judge quickly ruled that double jeopardy does not apply and that New York prosecutors could make their own case against the Russian-born programmer because the charges are different. Aleynikov now faces a second prison term of between 18 months and four years, if convicted.”

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Carbanak Hackers Target Banks in $1bn Attack Campaign

From Info Security –

“Security experts have uncovered a major targeted attack campaign in which criminals infiltrated around 100 banks worldwide and made off with up to $1bn over a two-year period.

Interpol, Europol, local law enforcers and Kaspersky Lab worked together on the case.

They estimate that the hackers – who hail from Russia, Ukraine, Europe and China – stole up to $10m per raid, with each attack lasting between two and four months.

The attacks are said to begin with a classic spear phishing email sent to a bank employee, infecting them with the Carbanak malware.

Once in the bank’s internal network, the hackers searched for administrator machines which allowed them to monitor cash transfer activity. They were then able to mimic that same activity at a later stage to transfer money out to themselves, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Sometimes they used online banking or international e-payment systems to transfer the funds out to accounts in the US and China.

On other occasions they would hack a victim bank’s accounting systems, inflating customers’ account balances by adding some extra zeros and then stealing the extra funds via a fraudulent transaction.

A third method of stealing cash was apparently to program specific ATMs to dispense money at certain times and then arrange for a gang member to collect it.”

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Finally, ATMs That Can Spit Hot Acid When Thieves Attack

From Time

“Researchers have come up with a chemical cocktail they say could be implemented in ATMs to defend against would-be robbers -- but there's no word on whether you'll get charged an extra fee for that

Want a splash of steaming acid to the face next time you try to jack an ATM? Researchers at ETH Zurich University may have you covered. Almost.”

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Ghanaian postal officer charged with remittance theft

A female Assistant Postal Officer of the Ghana Post at Suame in charge of the Western Union Money Transfer Service, accused of embezzling GH¢278,555 belonging to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), has appeared before a circuit court in Kumasi, charged with stealing.

Louisa Osei-Agyemang is said to have connived with some customers of the Western Union Money Transfer service of the ADB to inflate remittances and pocketed the difference.

She pleaded not guilty to the charge and the court, presided over by Mr. R.M. Kogyapwah, admitted her to a GH¢270,000 bail with two sureties to be justified. She is to reappear on September 22.

Corporal Godwin Ahianyo of the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Unit said Ms Osei-Agyemang’s activities came to light during an audit when it was detected that the total money advanced to the office for clearance did not tally with the amount of money expected to be released to customers.

A further examination of the books revealed that between January 2009 and early August this year, some of the customers were paid remittances far in excess of what they were due.

Cpl Ahianyo said a report was made to the Regional Accountant of the Ghana Post and Ms Osei-Agyemang was invited to the regional office to explain the unbalanced amount. The regional accountant referred the case to the police.

Mr Ahianyo said Ms osei-Agyeman was initially granted a police enquiry bail, but after preliminary investigations, she was re-arrested last Wednesday and appeared before the court.