Walmart employees were trained to “turn a blind eye” when criminals used their money transfer services for fraud, and in some cases, store workers were in on it, claims the Federal Trade Commission in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. At one point, Walmart’s written policy stated, “If you suspect fraud, [Keep reading]
Bryan Palma, CEO of cybersecurity company Trellix, spoke recently at the biggest cybersecurity conference in the world, the RSA conference, and issued quite the call to action. Social media companies are soulless, he said. Tech workers who want to find more meaning in their work…well, there’s plenty of work to [Keep reading]
A million appeals for justice, and 14 reversals. That’s the scorecard from the Facebook Oversight Board’s first annual report, released this week. The creative project has plenty going for it, and I think some future oversight board can benefit greatly from the experience of this experiment, launched by Facebook parent [Keep reading]
A class-action lawsuit claims Zelle consumers hit by fraud are up against a “secret” bank policy to deny consumer dispute rights, even when the victimized account holders are entitled to Regulation E protections. Given the details shared in a New York Times story published today, and the pile of examples [Keep reading]
How many sugars do you want with that coffee? And how much surveillance? If you were “cheating” on your favorite coffee shop with a different one, would you mind if an app told on you? Earlier this month, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner found that the Tim Hortons chain violated the law [Keep reading]
Alexis Conran is a rare combination of smart, suave, mysterious and … good-hearted. He’s the star of an international hit TV show called The Real Hustle, aired first on the BBC. A professional magician, Alexis and his band of “criminals” perform scams on unsuspecting consumers in the show — all [Keep reading]
If you are a victim of Zelle fraud, I finally have some good news for you. Two U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), are now demanding answers from the instant payment tool. A bright light is finally shining on the terrible crimes that Zelle and its banking partners have enabled. [Keep reading]
If you are planning to take your first post-Covid flight soon, be prepared for some dramatic sticker shock. Really dramatic — like first-class-prices-for-coach-class -tickets dramatic. A friend recently posted about her depressing search for a fairly routine cross-country flight that used to cost around $400 — she was quoted around [Keep reading]
Some stories just make me more angry than others. You all know that the Internet is crawling with criminals out there looking for vulnerable people — widows, the elderly, children. There are, incredibly, people who go even lower than that. Criminals are actively searching for very sick people, cancer patients [Keep reading]
INTRODUCTION The dot-com bubble. It’s hard to put into words how crazy, outlandish, extravagant, and optimistic the dot com bubble was. When I landed in the middle of it as a Microsoft intern in the mid-90s, the first company party I went to — Microsoft rented out a mountain. [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan