Risk Management

In a world where hundreds, even thousands, turn up in public spaces to protest against whatever is the current fancy, there is question that needs to be answered: why aren't the large protest movements that can drive such action encircling Russian missions around the world? Where are their apparently tireless keyboard warriors? How come they aren't driving trending hashtags across social media?

Is the answer that they are, in some way, beholden to Russia and its money?

This spam-scam is fascinating: it looks like an old telex message. Very clever.

But it's still an obvious fraud when you read it.

Perhaps in the Arab world the usual hook for spam-scammers of a few hundred thousand dollars, or even a couple of million, is small change. So this fraud is offering me more than 25 million (undefined) dollars in a most unusual manner. But then it turns to a bog standard, old fashioned, Nigerian (advance fee fraud) Scam.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) yesterday issued for consultation proposed requirements for financial institutions (FIs) in Singapore to implement essential cyber security measures to protect their IT systems. These requirements will help FIs strengthen their cyber resilience and guard against cyber attacks, says MAS.

A scam-spam has been received from the fake internet domain WESTEMUNION.COM

(see update, below)

It's a stupid name: TSB is an acronym for Trustees Savings Bank and then some idiot, years ago, decided to add "Bank" to the acronym, in a move that rivals the equally stupid "ATM machine." But that's not the reason this heavy-duty spam-scam mailout is an obvious fraud. Warning: the content is highly plausible and the mail constructed to avoid even aggressive anti-spam filters.

The story of Warderly International Holdings Ltd is strange. Formed in 2002, it floated almost immediately. In 2007, shares were suspended when Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission raised questions about the management of the listed company and, as was learned much later, allegations of insider trading.

It's amazing: the old 419 scam still works enough for people to persist in using it. From mail in envelopes via, in some cases, telex and then fax and onto e-mail, they just keep on coming. This one purports to come from someone working at Barclays Bank.

There are many countries around the world where the numerical value of the currency is so high that even the smallest purchases are calculated in thousands. To be a millionaire may mean having less than the equivalent of USD100 in your pocket. While official inflation may be low, unofficial inflation, from rounding up or, even, simply inflating unpublished prices, can have a startling effect on costs. And, of course, in environments where cash is the normal means of settlement, creates a profit that is secret from victims and, even, from employers and Revenue officials. But countries are reluctant to redefine their currencies. Why?

Differences in spelling are only part of the differences between these two criminal offences.

Regulations implementing the Liquidity Coverage Ratio in China and the United States are assessed as “compliant” with the Basel framework, while the European Union is “largely compliant”.

We love, really love, the most ludicrous spam-scams we can find and this one is an absolute classic of its type.

There's a lot of talk about KYC when accounts are opened but a general lack of concern over accounts once they are established. The director of a company in liquidation has pleaded guilty to a fraud that could only have taken place because someone wasn't paying enough attention.

It's very clear that, when Britain is outside the EU, there will be changes to the legal and regulatory framework applicable to, amongst other industries, its financial services sector. It is therefore obvious that UK banks must have representation in Frankfurt where the ECB is based. Not only is this not new, it's not even a tiny little threat to the UK financial sector, no matter what the media says.

We looked up the domain used for this spam-scam: samba-bank.co.uk. There's something not quite right about the available information but it's too limited to be sure that the domain has, either, been critically compromised or that it has been obtained by fraudsters. But it's not the first spam we've had that uses this same domain. Perhaps someone from Samba would like to tell us if the domain is, in fact, under their control. The spam-scam, itself, is interesting, too. It's the first time for a while we've seen a 1970s style Nigerian Scam letter and even the language is in the old style!