THE VERGE – July 4 – The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 is set to dramatically change how businesses handle data in the most populous state. Companies that store large amounts of personal information will be required to disclose the types of data they collect, as well as allow consumers to opt out of having their data sold. The bill, which passed both chambers unanimously, was signed later in the day by Gov. Jerry Brown. The legislation, which is similar to Europe's new GDPR protections, is the result of a last-minute attempt to head off a ballot measure that would have brought a slightly different set of privacy rules to the state.
Category: Scammer
UK Action Fraud Police Data Now Available To Dating Services Via Scamalytics
PRESS RELEASE – July 2 – Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, is working with the dating industry to distribute intelligence about known scammers to dating services. The partnership is made possible through anti-scam service Scamalytics, who already provide a scammer detection and intelligence sharing service to household names in the dating industry. The reports taken by Action Fraud are sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) which is run by the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud. The NFIB then pass intelligence to Scamalytics, who load it into their central database. Dating services then check their users against the Scamalytics database, and receive a status on whether a user matches a known scammer. Scamalytics, based in London UK, maintain the largest shared anti-fraud blacklists specifically dedicated to the online dating industry. Founded by a group of industry veterans, the team have years of experience in both detecting scammers, and in applying the latest artificial intelligence techniques to make sense of user behaviour on dating sites. Scamalytics specialise in detecting all types of dating fraud including romance scams, chargeback fraud, affiliate fraud, camgirl fraud, redirection fraud.
Venntro Media Group Integrates With Action Fraud And National Fraud Intelligence Technology
PRESS RELEASE – July 3 – Venntro Media Group's WhiteLabelDating.com anti-scammer technology now checks all members against known scammers reported by Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau which is run by the City of London Police (the national lead force for fraud).
Elite Mate Integrates MyLife Identity Verification & Reputation Scores Into Its Dating Profiles
PRESS RELEASE – May 30 – Elite Mate, the dating site for affluent professionals, will implement MyLife identity verification and Reputation Scores into all of its dating profiles. The integrated MyLife widget will verify user profiles, in addition to providing access to Background Reports, Reputation Scores, and personal reviews of all of its members. MyLife's platform includes compiled government, social, and public records for ~320M people in the US.
See full article at Internet Dating Newswire
Zoosk To Protect Military Members, Preventing Romance Scams
WARISBORING – May 16 – In 2016, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received ~15k reports of romance scams. According to Zoosk, ~1/4 of profiles that get blocked on suspicion of fraud are attempts at impersonating members of the US Armed Forces so the site is launching a military verification feature, called Insignia, to verify whether or not a user is a member of the US Armed Forces. Zoosk partnered with SheerID, a long-trusted verification company, to provide active duty military and reservists the opportunity to verify that they are legitimate service members.
Aussies Conned Out Of $3.55M So Far This Year By Online Dating Fraudsters
NEWS.COM.AU – May 4 – Comparison website finder.com.au recently analysed data from the ACCC and found Aussies have lost ~ $3.55M through dating scams this year alone. That's a 19% increase from the same period in 2017, with 402 reported cases from January to March 2018. The average victim lost ~$9K and just over half of those scammed are female, with 45 – 54 year olds most likely to fall victim.
MyLife Launches Reputation Platform
PR NEWSWIRE – May 10 – MyLife is allowing websites and mobile app developers – including dating and all other online services – to verify profiles, and provide access to Background Reports, Reputation Scores, and personal reviews for all of their members. MyLife has invested ~$240M into its platform and provides compiled government, social, and public records for ~320M people in the United States, giving access to verified background records including a person's age, past and current marital status, criminal and court records, lawsuits, liens, and bankruptcies, as well as Yelp-like personal reviews and an overall Reputation Score for everyone so people can know more about others they are engaging with online.
MyLife Launches Reputation Platform For Developers
PRESS RELEASE – May 10 – MyLife is allowing websites and mobile app developers, including dating and all other online services, to verify profiles, and provide access to background reports, reputation scores, and personal reviews for all of their members. MyLife has invested ~$240M into its platform and provides compiled government, social, and public records for ~320M people in the US. Developers can get started here or emailing Jeannette Weinstein for partnership details.
Romance Scam Victims Say Facebook Dating Is A Train Wreck In The Making
HUFFINGTON POST – May 2 – Not everybody is thrilled by Tuesday's announcement that Facebook is planning to run its own dating platform on the site. Facebook has done a poor job of policing its platform and keeping it free from scammers, said multiple victims. "It's a train wreck waiting to happen," said the moderator of Romance Scammers Exposed, a Facebook group that helps victims identify stolen photos used by romance scammers in West Africa, where many online scammers are based. "It's going to be party time in West Africa," said Ruth Grover, who runs ScamHaters, a site that posts warnings about online profiles that appear to be scammers. Facebook said nothing about security and identity verification.
by Ann Brenoff
See full article at Huffington Post
Homeland Security: Top Cyber Risks Are Mobile Apps & Users
FOX BUSINESS – Apr 24 – Most mobile app users trust that the apps they download from app stores are safe and secure. But that isn’t the case, according to Douglas Maughan, who heads up the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology division. “Most mobile apps aren’t vetted,” he says. Percy Tucker, senior manager of systems engineering at RSA, showed us how exposed user data is when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Everything done on an app can be seen – if that app doesn’t have proper security. “If a user is on their laptop and they are doing something under an unencrypted protocol we can actually visually reconstruct exactly what they are seeing.”