The New York Times says that the FBI has begun an investigation that includes almost the entire mortgage industry—from the lenders to the brokers to the Wall Street banks who packaged the loans as securities. They’re cooperating with the SEC and wouldn’t name which firms they’re targeting, but the Times said that it includes 14 companies.
fbi
HSBC Tells You To Cash An Obviously Fake Check
By 12.7.07
Over at InfoWorld they have a story from a guy who was trying to sell something on Craigslist, and because he is savvy in the ways of the internet, did not fall for an obvious “overpayment scheme.”
Family Tries To Pull Off $7 Million Black Friday Heist
By 12.4.07
A young man, his girlfriend, and his mother were arrested on Saturday for stealing $7.4 million from an armored car company last Monday in Cleveland, Ohio. They timed the robbery to occur after Black Friday and the ensuing weekend because they knew the company would be chock full of retailers’ profits. Then they loaded a newly bought getaway van with the cash and hid away in Pipestem, West Virginia. The FBI tracked them down using old shopping receipts found in the girlfriend’s abandoned pickup truck.
2 More Former Employees Claim Geek Squad Stole Customers' Personal Files
By 7.9.07
Two more individuals identifying themselves as former Geek Squad employees have stepped forward with allegations about the repair company’s employees unauthorized copying of personal information from customer’s hard-drives.
FBI: 1 Million US Computers Have Been Taken Over By Botnets
By 6.14.07
The FBI has tells us that they’ve found 1 million US computers that have been compromised and are being controlled and used for evil.
FBI Trains Banks To Be Friendlier to Robbers Than to Customers
By 4.13.07
The FBI is training banks to be super-nice to robbers, as the unexpected friendliness can throw thieves off guard and have them walk away from a crime.
…The method is a sharp contrast to the traditional training for bank employees confronted with a suspicious person, which advises not approaching the person, and at most, activating an alarm or dropping an exploding dye pack into the cash.
FBI Broke Law In Domestic Spying, DOJ Finds
By 3.9.07
The FBI broke the law in obtaining information about private citizens after 9/11, a Department of Justice audit concluded today. From the AP:
How Did The Walmart Spy Intercept Text Messages?
By 3.9.07
It’s also possible to intercept unencrypted or poorly encrypted messages directly as they’re broadcast over cellular channels. (If the network uses sophisticated encryption, you might be out of luck.) To steal messages with your phone, you would need to upload illegal “firmware” onto your phone. This essentially turns your phone into a radio and allows it to pick up all the texts broadcast on a given channel–instead of limiting you to the ones addressed to you. You’d also need to know the network for the target phone–Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.–and you’d have to make sure that both your phone and the target are within range of the same base station. This method isn’t too expensive since you don’t need much more than a computer, a phone, and some firmware that any serious techie could find online for free.
Hmm. We do not know anything about illegal firmware, so we’ll take Slate’s word on that.
Fake Boarding Pass Creator Goes Free
By 11.29.06
Cnet is reporting that the creator of the fake NWA boarding pass generator has been freed and all charges dropped due to lack of criminal intent on his part. “They’ve given me back my passports, my computers, and I’ll be getting the rest of my stuff back shortly. Essentially, I’m a free man–with no charges filed,” Christopher Soghoian wrote on his blog Tuesday, talking about the investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
Newark Airport Screeners Fail To Find Hidden Weapons In Federal Test
By 10.30.06
Screeners at Newark fail to find ‘weapons’ [The Star Ledger via Mere Rhetoric]
Boarding Pass Dude’s Computers Seized, Public Service Praised
By 10.30.06
BoingBoing is really your one-stop shop but:
Fake NWA Boarding Pass Site Removed, Creator Visited By FBI
By 10.28.06
The creator of the NWA Boarding Pass Generator has taken down his site after coming under heavy national scrutiny.
LAX Terminal Evacuated Due To "Suspicious Comment"
20 Southwest Airlines and 2 U.S. Airways flights were delayed after a LAX terminal was evacuated for two hours due to a “suspicious comment” made by a passenger on SWA Flight 1182 from El Paso. We were unable to find out what exactly the “suspicious comment” was, but UPI suggests that it had something to do with explosives in his luggage. The LAPD bomb squad was called, but no explosives were found.