(Update: corrected a few things. You can’t see the person’s bank account number. But you can see anyone’s phone bill, whether or not they’re a customer of that bank.) — Here’s a hole in Internet banking that allows anyone with an account at a bank to look up other customers’ people’s bills–tax, water bill, Internet … Read more
The Internet is fast becoming a sort of gossip chamber where the real merges with the fantasy, leaving ordinary people overwhelmed. I’m not sure it’s a good thing. Take an email my wife forwarded me this morning. It’s from a newsgroup comprising Indonesian expat mothers in Singapore (talk about niches!). The sender had forwarded … Read more
Turns out it is possible to make money from having your products pirated. You put them out there yourself, and then sue anyone who takes them. This is what, allegedly, is happening between a U.S. pornographer, a German anti-piracy organisation, and a firm of UK lawyers. Here’s how the scam—allegedly—works. The pornographer cuts a deal … Read more
Facebook may have just won a theoretical warchest from a spammer, but it’s not put its house in order when it comes to scams. Indeed, I suspect they’re getting worse. Now you can get infected without even having to visit your Facebook account. What happens is that, if you have set your profile to receive … Read more
I make an appearance on the excellent Breakfast Club show on Radio Australia each Friday at 01:15 GMT and some listeners have asked me post links to the stuff I talk about, so here they are. Follow football on your cellphone through vibrations: a team in Scandavia has come up with a way to convey … Read more