Catching Child Predators by following the Money Trail

The Internet can be a dangerous place, especially for children. You never know what may lurk behind a "screen name" and the Internet is used by those involved in child pornograghy to distribute their immoral and illegal material.

Now a coalition between the financial services industry, ISP's, law enforcement and a child advocacy group will use a time-tested method of resolving Internet crime, which is if you want to find the culprit(s); follow the money.

USA Today is reporting:

"The financial institutions will report child porn sites they discover on the Web to a central tip line, slated to expand next month to receive the information. The companies will block transactions for online child porn or, if law enforcement opens an investigation, help track sellers and buyers."

"The Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography represents a new phase in the war against what has become a multibillion-dollar, international business. Internet service providers, including AOL, already report child porn sites they find."

For the article by USA Today, link here.

The intent of this effort will be to identify offenders, shut down sites and hopefully bring some of the people to justice.

This new tool was brought about with some hard work by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a cyber tipline, as well as, a link where anyone can report a sighting of a "missing child." This site also has a lot of valuable information for children and parents how to be Internet smart and is well worth a visit.

Hacking the Paparazzi

I've never been much of a fan of "paparazzi" types. Their whole goal in life is to invade "people's personal domains" for no other reason than to satisfy the public's need for gossip.

Now, it appears, they are using technology to spy on each other and the FBI is taking action.

As reported in the LA Times:


"Federal agents want to know whether one of the owners of Sunset Photo and News attempted to learn what stories the staff at US Weekly, a Hollywood gossip magazine, was working on, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

Please note that the FBI isn't commenting.

Link to LA Times story, here.

Another story, from Hollywood.com was a little more specific and claims that Charlie Sheen was the target of the alleged "hacking" exploit. The "person of interest" at the Sunset Photo and News (Jill Ishkanian) is allegedly good friends with Heidi Fleiss, who has claimed that the "hacking allegations" are untrue.

Not sure how credible this is, but Heidi allegedly knows Charlie quite well.

All kidding aside, hacking and a legal "Spy Industry" threaten a lot of people's privacy and now that the "Stars" are being targeted -- perhaps we can get George Clooney, Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, and maybe Charlie's father (Martin) to speak out on this issue.

The Federal Trade Commission is taking notice and recently went after a bunch of Private Investigators, who had people's personal telephone records for sale.

Now, I'm not sure, but I might guess that some of these people are "outraged" about the telephone companies giving information to the NSA. As I've said before, the NSA is only using the best information out there - which has been gathered for years - from the private sector.

The Information Industry is big business and has been buying and selling our personal information for years.

Personally, I'd rather have my telephone records with the NSA than sold to, "whomever."

As technology continues to grow and laws fail to keep pace with it, we are all at risk. Recently, "hacking kits" were being sold on the Internet via dubious sources and if you need advice on how to do it, there are plenty of Internet groups that thrive on this subject.

Not only are there shady "Internet" sources, but you can also buy a lot of "neat" technological devices to invade people's privacy and no one will ever ask you what it's intended use is.

Industrial and personal espionage is a real problem and needs to be addressed by going after the root causes, which seem to be perfectly legal. Until we do this, our personal privacy will be out there for whoever wants to buy it.

Why Should We Allow Eastern Europe to Export Cyber Crime

I just got finished reading an article from Business Week called "Meet the Hackers." It highlighted a trend that could very well be what's behind some of the massive "information breaches," we see on almost a weekly basis.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The picture that emerges is of organized gangs of young, mostly Eastern European hackers who are growing ever more brazen about doing business on the Web. They meet in underground forums with names like DarkMarket.org and theftservices.com to trade tips and data and coordinate scams that span the globe. (Those and other Web sites and organizations named by investigators did not respond to e-mails, instant messages, or phone calls seeking comment.) "Financial payment fraud has evolved tremendously," says John Corbelletta, a former police officer who is director of fraud control for Visa U.S.A. Inc. "Most of the cases I investigated when I was a cop involved people who had their cards stolen out of their purse. We didn't even think of counterfeiting cards."

One of them, a young man from the Ukraine (Dimitry Ivanovich Golubov) was recently arrested, and then released with the help of some highly placed friends in the Ukranian government. This was someone, who our government was interested in prosecuting and allegedly a "godfather" type in the cyber crime circles.

Why is it so easy for these sites to exist? Obviously the writer was able to send them messages "seeking comment?" The sad truth is it is far too easy to set up rogue sites, and all we need do is look at the volume of "phishing" activity that is out there. Whether they set up with foreign IPS providers, or hack into an existing site, they seem to have no problem getting a Internet address.

They have stolen so much information, it has become pretty cheap on these "carding" sites. In fact, they are becoming so brazen; they are now selling "how to kits" with everything a "budding" fraudster needs to get started.

With 82 million identities floating around (the amount compromised recently), it shouldn't surprise us that our "identities and personal information" are so cheap. Quite simply, there is a surplus of information out there for sale.

For an interesting article from the Washington Post on how cheap our information is being sold for, link here.

Eastern European organized crime is a worldwide issue and they aren't only involved in cyber crime. They are also involved in guns, prostitution, extortion, car theft, black market, drugs and the "human flesh" trade.

Here are some interesting statistics from the United Nations:

"The number of known criminal groups in Russia increased between 1990 and 1997 from 785 to an astronomical 9,000, with a combined membership of more than 100,000, according to the country's Interior Ministry. In Moscow, some 189 criminal organizations were active in 1996, of which 23 had branches abroad."

"The Ministry estimates that about 40,000 Russian businesses are controlled by organized crime. Among these are law firms, banks and other businesses that can launder money. Many have global links."

In another UN report about Russian Organized Crime in the United States, it said:

"Russians have recently become the principal purveyors of credit card fraud in the U.S., supplanting the West Africans."

It appears that cyber crime isn't the only thing they are involved in that is a threat to human decency. Sadly enough, some of the greatest victims are their own citizens - many of whom - are sold into slavery in some of this criminal activity.

There is also increasing evidence of collusion amongst the various organized crime factions of the world, and some say terrorist factions. Al Qaida teaches it's minions to survive via credit card fraud. Recently, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) made a pretty good argument for this.

With the sheer amount of data breaches and evidence of the information being sold (pretty cheaply) over the Internet, a financial disaster could be in the making. It also seems that whenever it is traced, it goes back (largely) to Eastern Europe.

I decided to check out the recent (highly publicized) arrest, where 565 cyber criminals were caught and discovered that none of the arrests, or law enforcement support seem to come from these Eastern European countries.

Since I'm certain that this is not because of a lack of effort on the part of law enforcement, perhaps we would make greater headway if our politicians took some action. If Eastern European governments are failing to cooperate, maybe our governments should put some "economic" sanctions in place designed to make them see the "light."

Ironically enough, 26.5 million veterans, many of whom trained to protect us from a perceived threat from this part of the world during the "Cold War," might be having their identities sold (cheaply) over some of these "carding" sites somewhere in the near future.

My message to Eastern Europe is that they need to stop exporting their problems to the rest of us and should they fail to do so, we should exercise our combined political voice to stop their personal attack on millions of innocent people.

Lay and Skilling Guilty, Aunt Millie Finally Sees Some Justice

Kenneth Lay and his Kenneth Skilling have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for September 11 and Lay and Skilling - considering their ages - are potentially facing life sentences.

A lot of us can now reflect that maybe "Aunt Millie" has finally seen a little justice.

Here is a "tidbit" from a previous post, I wrote:

"Enron was illegally manipulating energy costs by faking plant failures etc. California suffered the brunt of it with outrageous bills and blackouts. In taped conversations between the traders at Enron, poor old Aunt Millie (a grandmother from San Diego on a fixed income) was brought up and it was (jokingly) suggested that she use candles."

Link, here.

Please note that Aunt Millie was facing electrical bills of close to $1,000.00 a month on a fixed income, while Lay and Skilling reaped enormous personal benefits. These "fine fellows" ripped off their investors, employees, the State of California and many others for billions of dollars.

Even now - that justice has been served - the victims in all of this will probably never be made whole. Proposed settlements in the civil portion represent pennies on the dollar and are unlikely to reach anyone individually.

Additionally, it appears they still have a lot of financial resources and a "full scale" effort towards appealing these verdicts is yet to come. While "Aunt Millie" and all the other victims in this case might have seen a little justice, Lay and Skilling still have the "means" to mount a formidable defense.

Hopefully - when this is all said and done - their "means" will have been returned to those they have victimized.

For another post, I did adressing Ken Lay's defense effort, link here.

For the Houston Chronicle's blog on the trial, link here.