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"Sixty million euro has been stolen from bank accounts in a massive cyber bank raid after fraudsters raided dozens of financial institutions around the world.
According to a joint report by software security firm McAfee and Guardian Analytics, more than 60 firms have suffered from what it has called an "insider level of understanding".
"The fraudsters' objective in these attacks is to siphon large amounts from high balance accounts, hence the name chosen for this research - Operation High Roller," the report said.
"If all of the attempted fraud campaigns were as successful as the Netherlands example we describe in this report, the total attempted fraud could be as high as 2bn euro (£1.6bn)."
The automated malicious software programme was discovered to use servers to process thousands of attempted thefts from both commercial firms and private individuals.
The stolen money was then sent to so-called mule accounts in caches of a few hundreds and 100,000 euro (£80,000) at a time.
Credit unions, large multinational banks and regional banks have all been attacked."
http://news.sky.com/story/952931/fraud-ring-in-hacking-attack-on-60-banks
Well, Ken Ware, I am far from being a Luddite and strive to keep as informed and up to date and knowledgeable about technology..especially computers, networks, and encryption as I can be.
I know that, providing you are not using certificates that have been compromised, and providing you don't have a keystroke logger, or other virus or trojans embedded in your kernal as a rootkit (which evades detection by most virus checkers), or if you are using a live usb Linux virtual OS, along with a Stateful Firewalled router and possibly other monitoring or prevention software or hardware devices, then you might be able to avoid being hacked..you, at least, might make it just a little bit harder for someone to break in. But, not everyone goes to any of these measures to avoid being hacked. And even if they did...they can still get hacked. Most people are not going to use their computer strictly to do their banking and pay bills..they will also surf the internet and could easily pick up a virus. Even just their presence online even if they aren't surfing, they can be detected and broken in to.
People are getting hacked all the time and if they have sensitive information on their computers...or even just momentarily when you type in your username and passwords...keystroke loggers can monitor everything you type in. People are not only getting hacked all the time but many have had their bank accounts wiped out once these hackers get the username and passwords. Of course some banks use, in addition to usernames and passwords, another form of authentication..which would help but not entirely prevent keeping your information private. Man-in-the-middle, Firesheep, Metasploit, Backtrack, there are many tools that can be used to crack open your computer or intercept information.
I have seen web sites that posted thousands of people's captured bank account numbers, balances, names and addresses, and they, along with the passwords, were all for sale. And don't think those certificates are always reliable as we found out a number of times from cert providers having been hacked...like DigiNotar, for example. They went out of business, as they deserved to, and are not a problem anymore but even these companies can be hacked.
I am fully into the 21st century but I am also aware of the pitfalls that await the unsuspecting, unguarded, true believers who put all their faith into something they know little about and rely on the pretensions of authority and security that these banks sell you. And until they can really make the internet safe to the point where I can trust my money, and the political and judicial system is more protective of us rather than the banks, I'll keep writing checks and helping the PO stay in business a little longer. (Not that I fully trust the PO either...they sometimes do deliver my mail to neighbors houses and vice versa...which, of course, if they so chose could steam open the letters and glean all my personal data.) But at least, that would be keeping it more local and possibly able to identify who stole my identification and/or wiped out my bank account than some Eastern European or Ethiopian Mafia. And if you think we are perfectly safe, in this 21st century, then you need to read my previous post of the quotes from the Matt Taibbi article. We have handed all our money over to powerful Mafia-like banksters hoping that they don't make our money disappear someday.
Quotes from Matt Taibbi's article in Rolling Stone:
The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia
How America's biggest banks took part in a nationwide bid-rigging conspiracy - until they were caught on tape
'...Corruption is a business model that brings in $66 for every dollar you invest. Even more startling was the way that a notorious incident involving former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson resurfaced during the trial. Barack Obama, you may recall, had nominated Richardson to be commerce secretary – only to have the move blow up in his face when tales of Richardson accepting bribes began to make the rounds. Federal prosecutors never brought a case against Richardson: In 2009, an inside source told the AP that the investigation had been "killed in Washington." Obama himself, after Richardson bowed out, praised the former governor as an "outstanding public servant."
Now, in the Carollo trial, defense counsel got Doug Goldberg, the CDR broker, to admit that his boss, Stewart Wolmark, had handed him an envelope containing a check for $25,000. The check was payable to none other than Moving America Forward – Bill Richardson's political action committee. Goldberg then went to a Richardson fundraiser and handed the politician the envelope. Richardson, pleased, told Goldberg, "Tell the big guy I'm going to hire you guys." '
"When we allow Wall Street to continually raid the public cookie jar, we're not just enriching a bunch of petty executives (Wolmark's income in 2008, two years after he was busted in the FBI raid, was $2,464,210.18) – we're effectively creating an alternate government, one in which money lifted from the taxpayer's pocket through mob-style schemes turns into a kind of permanent shadow tax, used to maintain the corruption and keep the thieves in place. And that cuts right to the heart of what this case is all about. Wall Street is tired of making money by competing for business and weathering the vagaries of the market. What it wants instead is something more like the deal the government has – regularly collecting guaranteed taxes. What's crazy is that in order to justify that dream of regular, monopolistic tribute, they've begun to see themselves as a type of shadow government, watching out for the rest of us. Amazingly enough, this even became a defense at trial."
"The men and women who run these corrupt banks and brokerages genuinely believe that their relentless lying and cheating, and even their anti-competitive cartelstyle scheming, are all legitimate market processes that lead to legitimate price discovery."
"Capitalism is a system for determining objective value. What these Wall Street criminals have created is an opposite system of value by fiat. Prices are not objectively determined by collisions of price information from all over the market, but instead are collectively negotiated in secret, then dictated from above."
"One of the biggest lies in capitalism," says Eliot Spitzer, "is that companies like competition. They don't. Nobody likes competition."
"In the end, though, the conviction of a few bit players seems like far too puny a punishment, given that the bid rigging exposed in Carollo involved an entrenched system that affected major bond issues in every state in the nation. You find yourself thinking, America's biggest banks ripped off the entire country, virtually every day, for more than a decade! A truly commensurate penalty would be something like televised stonings of the top 10 executives of every guilty bank, or maybe the forcible resettlement of every banker and broker in Lower Manhattan to some uninhabited Andean wasteland... anything to address the systemic nature of the crime.
No such luck. Instead of anything resembling real censure, a few young executives got spanked, while the offending banks got off with slap-on-the-wrist fines and were allowed to retain their pre-eminent positions in the municipal bond market."
"Get busted for welfare fraud even once in America, and good luck getting so much as a food stamp ever again. Get caught rigging interest rates in 50 states, and the government goes right on handing you billions of dollars in public contracts."
"...the bid-rigging scandal laid bare in USA v. Carollo is a totally different animal. This is the world's biggest banks stealing money that would otherwise have gone toward textbooks and medicine and housing for ordinary Americans, and turning the cash into sports cars and bonuses for the already rich. It's the equivalent of robbing a charity or a church fund to pay for lap dances."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-f...
Well Palindromedary and Sushi, how about a little advise from someone who has never had the problems you two have experienced in making payments on time, for whatever reason. You have computers with secured systems, pay online! You will get a confirmation number and generally a reply indicating you payment was received on time. Seems like you are both wasting alot of time complaining about a problem with a simple solution. This is the 21st. century and your still using the same method of payment that seems to be creating your problem, whether it be the banks or the postal system. I do not trust the banks either, so use a system that will prevent them from screwing you over!! As far as the banksters screwing the public with tricks and lies, that is not new news to anyone who has had to deal with the bastards, so use a system they use called computers to make sure they can not keep it up or call them if you refuse to use online service before your payment is due to confirm they received your money.........Not brain surgery to figure this one out! Good luck in the future.......
Correction-from an American living in France
Thom, you keep saying that Hollande has promised to bring the retirement age back down to 60. This is not true. He wants to restore this possibility only for people who started working at an early age or who do hard labor:
A lot is made of France electing a socialist president over Sarkozy, what you don't understand over there is how much people over here hated him. The election results are due just as much to the hatred of Sarko and the split conservative vote with the Front National, than with Hollande being a socialist. Besides that, the socialist party here are more like blue dog democrats than anything- they are pro milton friedman free market economics for the most part.
Thank you Louise for all your hard work!
How often does this happen to you? You buy something with cash and the cashier marks something on the bills you hand him/her and holds them up to the light... scrutinizing them carefully. You stand there thinking "Oh, so you think I'm a counterfeiter, do you?"
One time I stood in line and this happened to the guy ahead of me and he shocked the cashier when, after she hands him bills in change, he holds the bill up to the light and scrutinizes the bill...shaking his head..and saying "ummm, I don't know.....!" The cashier goes "WELL!" and kind of nervously laughs it off.
Of course, there is a reason why the cashier checks these bills...they very well could be counterfeit. And the merchant is going to be a lot more careful than most people. Because the merchant knows that if you get stuck with a counterfeit bill(s) you are not only out of the money but you could be in a lot of trouble if you try to pass it on to someone else. Even people who have gotten money out of bank ATMs have been given counterfeit bills. It happens more than they want you to know about. I had read that counterfeit bills holds a relatively large percentage of the total bills in circulation.
Well, Sushi, you are certainly not alone in being scammed by the banks. I used to mail in my credit card payments, actually all my bills, well before 10 days before the due date. And several times I was informed that they didn't receive payment. I had to cancel the checks and write new ones.
Now, I don't even wait at all...as soon as I receive the bills in the mail...I write the checks and send them right out at a major Post Office branch. And I don't even trust my small local post office as I suspect they may have been part of the reason my mail didn't get to the credit card company in time. But, as I always pay my credit card bills in full and never a partial payment...they don't get a lot of interest from me.
It seems every once in a while they either fail to send out the bills on time or they claim they haven't yet received payment...thereby charging me penalties and interest. I have gotten rid of all my credit cards but one...and I have often thought that I might even get rid of that one. Cash works out quite nicely, actually...and they can't monitor what you buy or where you are at any particular time...unless you use a discount card...then "they" know everything you buy when you use it.
There is just no way of knowing who is at fault. I don't mail my checks using outside drive by boxes anymore either. I had some checks stolen from the overstuffed box (it was just before Christmas). I knew right after I dropped the letters in the box that the box was so full that someone could easily reach in a grab a handful of mail. Again, I had to cancel checks and resend new ones. Then weeks later, I get my bank statement showing some electronic transfers out of my account that I didn't make. After going to the bank, they investigated and after many more weeks...like over a month...I found out that they redeposited that money. No explanation as to the results of "the investigation". Then, several months later, I get a notice from the credit card company again saying they didn't receive payment...but this time...I mailed it as soon as I got it and at my small local Post Office...inside. I was really ticked off at my credit card company thinking they were up to tricks to get me to pay interest and penalties. But, it could have been my local post office.
I don't have on-line banking because I know how insecure that is and that the banks can always try to say I was careless with my password...or something. It is all too easy and has happened much more often than the news reports. It is like a dirty little secret the banks would rather you not know about. They are tougher on business accounts than they are on individual accounts...re: Ocean Bank vs Patco Construction where hackers stole over half a million dollars and the courts ruled in favor of Ocean Bank when Patco Construction tried to recoup the money.
I suppose, if you really wanted to narrow down the problem, you could mail your bills via registered mail...then you'd have proof that you can throw at them. Might be cheaper than having to pay penalties or extra interest charges. Whatever you do..don't use on-line bill pay...or on-line banking...you open yourself up to the mercy of hackers who can, and do, empty bank accounts.
Many years ago I tried using on-line bill pay and I got a notice from my mortgage company that they did not receive payment. I checked with the bank...and the bank (not the same one that held my mortgage) said that the payment had been debited from my account. I was caught between my mortgage company and my other bank. After many frightful days of telephone calls...I finally get a message from my mortgage company that the problem was fixed...but never any mention of who was at fault. Using on-line bill paying, I didn't even have a canceled check that I could use to prove the mortgage company was in err.
Yup, getting rid of my last credit card sounds like a good idea. Who needs credit? It is just a stupid trap anyway. They've got us all so wrapped around their little fingers and led by the nose it's pitiful.
If they tick me off anymore, I may very well just call them up and tell them to shove it. Yes, as with all the other credit cards I canceled, they tried to talk me out of it...saying "think of what it will do to your credit". Without hesitation, I said "Cancel it now!" Kinda funny actually! I have excellent credit...always have...and aside from buying a house...many years ago...I never really needed credit except to make it just a little bit more convenient to buy things.
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And, of course, it is now known that not only has all 3 branches of our government been guilty of collusion on behalf of the wealthy, according to whistleblower Sibel Edmonds et al, and against the majority of it's citizens...but also the major banks have been colluding, according to Matt Taibi "Wall Street Bribes, Bid-rigging and Collusion within the Municipal Finance Markets" from Rolling Stone magazine et al, for at least the last 15 years on setting the Libor rate. There is no real capitalism or free market as the right wing likes to hype. There is no real competition. It is all rigged and we are all the losers in this historically unprecedented corrupt system of smoke and mirrors, marketing hype, engineered beliefs, and clap trap. What we have here...is Organized Crime on a massive scale...and many of the tentacles of that organized criminal empire runs through both major political parties.
Even the one political party that tries to convince us that they represent "the people", the Democrat Party, is corrupt to the core. Both parties are owned and controlled by the ruling elite. The Democrat Party panders false hopes so that the people don't react appropriately to the really horrible things that awaits them. In effect, we are being exterminated...depopulated...and this is their plan, I suspect.
We need to massively boycott businesses in the US. Don't tell me that "Oh, but that will mean even fewer jobs"...that's the same old worn-out saw that they use to frighten us from merely going to the polls every four years to elect yet another fake and to keep us from actively rebelling against them in any meaningful way. And besides, that argument flies in the face of all those other actions the ruling elite has been carrying out...like shipping our jobs overseas. They don't care a whit about jobs in the US...yet they use that argument to keep us frightened to do anything really meaningful that would make a difference. Repeating the same old failures of the past will never change anything for our good. It will only keep us bogged down and sinking into the mires and fens of a corrupted democracy. It is their way of dividing and conquering. And a massive boycott is only the beginning...people need to take to the streets en masse like Occupy Wall Street but bigger and more numerous.
Criminal behavior such as the earlier scandals and now Barclays and Libor should be evidence enough that we, the 99%, need an organization such as Occupy to upturn the current runaway corporate-controlled politicians and send them packing-the sooner the better. Sooner or later the Tea Party group and middle-income Republicans are going to find out that they, too, have been led down the primrose path and mean absolutely nothing to those who used them for their own means.
Of course, nothing will be done to the perpetrators of these crimes, as they are in the drivers' seats now. But remember, as powerful as they are, they are in the minority, and as such are vulnerable to a massive uprising. I am approaching 87 years of age, am an active member of Occupy, have been politically active since age 8, and intend to help facilitate a sea change in the way our nation performs its constitutional duties, SCOTUS included as it, too, is a politically-motivated body. I love this country in which I have lived these many years, and will not stand by and see it cast to the dogs.
"After heads rolled last week at Barclays Bank..."
Heads rolled? If only heads actually rolled. Probably more like "eyes rolled."
Meanwhile, I am wondering if any of you have had this happen, because this is twice now from Bank United: I sent my mortgage check and it was not cashed. I found this out when they sent me a foreclosure proceeding notice, so I ran to the nearest branch and wrote two checks...one for the "skipped" payment and one for the current one. Three days later, they cashed my first check. That really dented my bank account to have three mortgages taken out in one bite. Now it is happening again, except I caught it early this time. They say they did not receive my payment, so I am going to give them my account so they can take the payment due....anyone want to place bets that they will double cash my first and second payment again? Are they trying to trick people into cutting it so close that they can rack up charges or just want a boost to their bottom line for a month? This time, two payments is going to sting.
Thom....if you get a spare minute, could you ask if this is a common occurrence? If we each think it is just happening to them individually, but it could be an epidemic and we just don't know about it.
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Equal Justice under the law?...since when??? why don't "WE" enforce the laws?
It is worth it to mow lawns in federal prison for a couple years when you have hundreds of millions waiting for you in Switzerland.
Yes, they need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. White collar crime must end. Holder has his hands full right now and now is not the right time for Obama to push it as they are spending all their $$ fighting his re-election.....they know what's going to happen if he wins...and, I truly believe that there will be justice if Obama gets a majority in the House/Senate/Courts.
No, as long as politicians need money they will not do anything to stop getting it.
There are not enough politicians like Bernie Sanders.
Do I think any of these banksters will be brought to justice?
Not a chance. maybe one....who'll get pardoned at the end of the next presidential term....
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Thought you might find this interesting:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/08/1107585/-Without-GOP-Unemployme...
This accounts for the cost of state and local austerity not only on public employees, but the spillover effect on local economies - 2.3 million jobs, plus the consequences of blocking the 2011 Jobs Bill - 1.9 million jobs.
How many jobs has GOP obstruction and economic wrecking cost Americans? A partial accounting shows that the current unemployment rate would be under 6% but for the actions (or inactions) of the GOP.
If instead of austerity Congress had used federal revenue sharing and grants to state and local governments - as it has done in every other recovery - and grown public employment at just half the level that Reagan did - or equal to what GWB did - unemployment today would be under 5%.
This is more nonsense.
1) When the marginal tax rate is high the incentive to pay exectutives ongodly wages at the expense of all other workers is diminished and average wages go up. This produces economic stimulous.
2) A high marginal tax rate is a fair way to ensure that the ALL of the costs associated with that income is covered by the individual who is receiving that income. It's very easy to ensure that revenue goes to the right person. It's very hard to ensure that all of the costs associated with that revenue are born by the individual who is reaping the revenue.
3) It's not only about the actual tax revenue received by an increased marginal tax rate. it's also about what happens to that money. If it goes to the rich who will consider extremely disposable income it will stagnate. If it goes to reduce the deficit and preclude further austerity it will have a popcorn effect by virtue of the effect on the ecomony. Our economy is heavily dependend on consumption.
4) Look up the word socialism. A high marginal tax rate is not socialism. Consumer protection is not socialism. It's not hard to figure out what socialism is. Obama has not espoused socialism in any way shape or form.
5) Why would someone not want to earn more money just because the tax rate on that money is high. Wouldn't a high marginal tax rate be incentive to earn more so you could increase take home pay? Are you referring to the hypothetical, laughable Laffer curve?
6) The current deficit was not created by Obama. It is well known what has created it; a) Bush tax cuts, b) two wars, c) medicare part D that was a huge tax giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry, d) economic downturn, much of which was created by conservitvie policies to deregulate wall street. It is a fact that the increase in federal spending under Obama's watch is down from many prior administrations. Obama could not end the wars on the day he took office. He is not a dictator and therefore could not repeal a law that contributed heavily to the deficit by just saying, "make it so." He's been trying to do things that improve the economy, but...
Because the republicans have maintained control of the senate by abusing the philibuster, effectively requiring 60 votes to get anything done, Obama's policies in large part have not even been implemented.
And the dems never really had 60 votes because two of the 60 (Bird and Kennedy) were too sick to even show up to cast a vote. That's why the Affordable Care Act needed two republicans to get to 60 votes.
The people who are saying yes must be waching fox and cnn They are not watching free speech tv or msnbc
The least we can do with this situation is to make sure there is no profit made from public funds and publicly funded loans cannot be used for profit. If there are (were) these Charter schools would be by definition public schools and subject to all public laws.
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I certainly agree that we are the frogs in the slowly boiling pot of water. But I believe that it isn't because of liberalism or socialism...it is because the rich have been driving us all to our destruction. And what kills the work ethic the most is when these rich connivers send our jobs overseas. They are already cheating us out of our ability to survive and feed our families.They are maximizing their profits at our expense by exploiting cheap labor.
And the thing that is driving inflation is the ever increasing prices for goods and services being overlorded by overpaid CEOs and capitalists who expect way too much compensation. After these capitalists continue in cutting back on quality and labor in their endeavor to maximize profits in the shortest possible time...they are running out of rope...and will eventually hang themselves with it. The only thing left is their marketing hype of shoddy products that no one wants to buy even if they could afford it....because they were laid off years ago and are struggling just to get by.
I'm sure there were those who said the same things (about taxing the rich) in Eisenhower's day but they did just fine in producing a tremendously strong and growing economy. And that lasted until Reagan started to turn things for the worse...and Bush nosedived our economy by servicing the rich with all their tax breaks and anti-labor practices.
Our economy went to sh!t when corporations started downsizing paychecks and benefits and shipping our jobs overseas. So, it is finally time we reverse this very destructive practice and tax the rich. We also need to penalize any corporation that chooses to send our jobs overseas. Penalize them for having offshore tax-shelter havens.
And the Republicans have no problem on "deficit spending" if they are getting wealthy off the outcome. The Military Industrial Complex has no problem with deficit spending when it comes to murdering people in other countries in the stupid, illegal, and immoral wars they start. As long as American corporations are raking in the money from government programs they don't care a whit about deficit spending. The only time they care, or mention, deficit spending is when it is time for the government to meet it's social-spending obligations. They don't care if the people are cheated out of the social contracts like social security, etc. That's when they sound like immature sniveling brats throwing tantrums and stomping their feet. They are greedy bastards that have committed criminal acts and should be thrown into jail and have their ill-gotten gains taken from them and put back into the commons.