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First Henry Golding now J.K. Rowling.

Fraudsters are like fishermen: they dangle a juicy titbit and expect you to snap it up and get hooked.

But often it's not actually a worm, it's fake meat, a plant-based concoction that has artificially induced flavours and aromas. It misrepresents itself by appearance.

That's what this scam is all about and only the names have been changed because J.K. Rowling is back in the news.

FCRO Subsection: 
Financial Crime News

Bank scam-scam - Santander UK

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This spam scam is a fake from Santander in the UK

BIScom Subsection: 
Account security

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FYI: Anti moneylaundering scanner. Allegedly. Virus warning.

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Even by the standards of spammers, we have to be impressed with the targeting of this outfit. antimoneylaundering.net has, this spammer claims, sent an e-mail to antimoneylaundering.net. That's our sister domain. That's not clever - lots of criminals do that. It's not even clever to put the name in the "from " - criminals and sales people do that. But to tie it to something that might actually be of genuine interest? That is clever or, at least, devious.

CoNet Section: 
IT & Communications

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CoVid - 19. No room for complacency

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As the UK finds that opening its pubs might lift the spirits of the people, their ability to contain themselves when consuming spirits or other alcohol risks further outbreaks. The same was found in California last week. Some pubs that were open for two or three days are closed again as people report contagion within hours of their visit. Here are figures published yesterday by the WHO that show that it is important to be responsible for your own safety and that of others while out socialising - or else there's the risk of a terminal decline in the businesses where recreational drinking is available.

In short, so far as responsible behaviour is concerned, put up or pub shut.

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UK flexes its post EU membership muscles - imposes sanctions on individuals and entitles

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The UK's first foray into independent sanctions is a fascinating mix of politics with messages hidden in each one.

Publication: 
Sanctions In Action

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20200707 Full list of Sanctions issued by the UK on 6 February 2020

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This is the full text of the UK's initial sanctions list published 6 July 2020, segregated into topics. We have also reproduced the UK's statement about the status of sanctions.

See here for commentary.

Publication: 
Sanctions In Action

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How to change the default date settings in Linux Mint 19.3

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The default system setting for Linux Mint 19.3 is the US system of month, day, year which drives so many people in the rest of the world to the borders of insanity or rage.

There are many solutions for this across the internet. They are all written for command line junkies. But for everyone else, there's a quick and simple solution.

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It's goodbye from EncroChat. But it's not goodnight.

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So, your EncroChat phone is dead. It's the the end of the world, though. While the UK's National Crime Agency and other law enforcement bodies around the world were able to attack the EncroChat system, disable its web presence and take control of its servers, and to make an extraordinary number of arrests and spectacular seizures of portable assets, the tech that the criminals relied on wasn't particularly clever and while it may have been proprietary, it was not unique. In the UK, the same mobile phone number is used by some selling both EncroChat and a rival system. Private bankers, lawyers and others have a problem that has, so far, not been talked about in the excitement of the initial arrests.

FCRO Subsection: 
Financial Crime News

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F1: the longest winter

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When we all wrapped up at the end of the 2019 Formula One season, there was the usual end of season feeling: a bit excited, a lot deflated (the Abu Dhabi race does that to me every time - it just doesn't cut it coming after Brazil) and a feeling that the next few months would be punctuated with bits of news from factories, some driver chat and the testing in Barcelona so we northern Europeans get reminded of what sun looks like. And then, it's off to Australia - in reality or virtually - for the season opener that really tells us nothing much about how the season will go and - fun as it is, it's really a shakedown test with points for those that don't shake apart. A huge cock up saw the teams arrive, unpack, set up cars - and then put them all back in the box and go home without a single car doing a lap. Covid-19 had struck and chaos reigned. Until yesterday.

CoNet Section: 
Motorsport

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Wirecard : the FCA's freezing of assets.

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In his blog (here), Nigel Morris-Cotterill talks of chickens coming home to roost, a lack of attention by regulators too anxious to become FinTech hubs and the constraints on prudential management of FinTechs operating across borders, especially under the EU's central regulatory regime.

BIScom Subsection: 
Regulation

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Fast, low cost IT solutions? That'd be reconditioned PCs.

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Public thanks: TechWarehouse in Kuala Lumpur. I bricked my primary PC and nothing else in the house was capable of handling its workload. I needed something urgently until I get the big box to ASUS so they can work out why the BIOS isn't working out and fix it.

CoNet Section: 
IT & Communications

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Linux Mint : Number Lock on Start Up

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Linux is almost infinitely configurable. For those used to offerings from Microsoft Windows or Apple OS, that's either great or scary. It also means that many things that users of those systems take for granted don't come in the box while many things that are fiddly or time consuming with those work without any intervention.

Issue: Caps Lock is OFF on Start Up by default.

Solution: quick and easy.

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UK's FCA warned of a specific fraud in 2017 - the fraudster is still active.

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Sometimes, one has to shake one's head in wonder. on 23rd October 2017, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority issued a notice about what it calls a "cloned firm." It's not a firm, it's a company. It would be really helpful if regulators used language more precisely. Anyway, it was this "Century Finance/Century Finance Services Limited/ Century Finance UK Limited."

The idiot that's running the scam has just sent to me - me, of all people - his pitch.

BIScom Subsection: 
Commercial finance

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We'd say we hate to say we told you so, but this time we are delighted to say it.

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Oh, ACCC, ACCC, ACCC. Have the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission not learned that success is expected and we are remembered by our failures?

And this failure is the result of one bad decision after another.

CoNet Section: 
Advertising

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US President Trump applies sanctions to the International Criminal Court

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The USA and Israel are the two most prominent countries which refuse to recognise the International Criminal Court. But the International Criminal Court takes action where it finds it. And US President Trump doesn't like it when US Citizens are affected. Now he's taken the remarkable step of issuing an Executive Order on 11 June 2020 applying sanctions to those involved in the Court. And he's declared a national emergency.

Publication: 
Sanctions In Action

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