Category: Scammer

Owner Of Online Dating Site Arrested For Fraud

Posted on March 31, 2010

Scam picture INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES – Mar 31 - Barrie Turner is alleged to be in connection with the operation of more than 200 web sites offering "executive dating" services. The accused is the owner of Executive Dating LLC, a company which offered online dating services through various linked websites such as Executive Catholic Dating, Executive Gay Dating and Executive Seattle Dating. Customers said they paid as much as $997 for a six month membership and were told the fee would pay for "two to seven introductions or 'matches' per month."  Most of them received the same "match" profile and sometimes fictitious ones, and when they attempted to date this person, the system replayed that the person had chosen to date someone else. Investigators estimate that Executive Dating received more than $1.2 million in mailed and wired payments.

The full article was originally published at International Business Times, but is no longer available.

Online Scammers Still Using Love To Get Money

Posted on March 11, 2010

Iovationlogo IOVATION BLOG – Mar 10 – According to a recent Toronto Sun article, “Money scammers target online daters,” Durham Regional Police received several reports—all during the weeks following Valentine’s day—from women claiming they had been scammed by men they met online. In a recent Miami New Times article, “Tech Keeps Scammers Out of Your Heart and Wallet,” iovation reported the following statistics based on activity from the last 90 days alone:

    * Over 67,000 instances of spam
    * Over 30,000 scams and solicitations
    * Over 13,000 member profiles misrepresented
    * Over 5,000 cases of identity mining and phishing

The full article was originally published at iovation blog, but is no longer available.

See all posts on iovation

Dating Site Scams Rise In Australia

Posted on March 1, 2010

Online-dating-scam-traps ABC – Mar 1 - Australians reported losses of ~$70M to fraud and
swindling to the consumer watchdog last year, but real losses could be
much higher. Scams linked to dating sites were up by 30%. More than
12,000 people lost between $1 and $10,000. Two Australians lost more
than $10M. FULL ARTICLE @ ABC NEWS

iovation Keeps Scammers Out Of Your Heart And Wallet

Posted on February 21, 2010

Iovationlogo SILICON BEACH – Feb 19 – One of the topics at the iDate 2010 conference descended on Miami Beach last month was protection against scammers. Identity theft is ridiculously easy. iovation is a pioneer in managing online fraud and abuse. "The fraudsters posts a profile, usually to attract women," says Max Anhoury, VP of sales and marketing at iovation. "They build confidence. They'll use a stolen credit card to upgrade their membership level. They'll use the same card to send flowers or jewelry. And then typically there's a story about how they've been abandoned and need money wired." By examining devices — the computers from which fraudsters generate profiles — Iovation can detect when something is amiss. Once a computer is re-identified, the same schmuck who is trying to get money out of a lonely heart somewhere might have a difficult time pulling a scam elsewhere online. Iovation also works with other industries, such as e-retail and financial services. "In the last 90 days, we have identified 67,588 different instances of spam, over 30,000 scams and solicitations, over 13,000 profile misrepresentations, and over 5,000 cases of identity mining and phishing." FULL ARTICLE @ MIAMI NEW TIMES

See all posts on iovation

iovation Stops 30,000 Online Fraudulent Activities Daily

Posted on January 28, 2010

Iovationlogo BUSINESS WIRE – Jan 26 - iovation, provider of the reputation service for preventing online fraud and abuse, today announced monthly recurring revenues are up 50% over the beginning of 2009. Since inception, iovation has performed 2.7 billion reputation checks on behalf of customers, processing nearly double in 2009 over 2008, and actively stopping more than 30,000 fraudulent activities per day on the Internet.

The full article was originally published at EON, but is no longer available.

See all posts on iovation

Scams Cost Australia $1 billion

Posted on October 12, 2009

Scam picture AAP – Oct 12 – Around 6 million Australians have been exposed to some type of scam or fraud in the past 12 months, fleecing them of almost $1 billion. There were generally four types of scams – bogus lottery wins, money transfer scams, phishing and fake "get rich quick" schemes. But scams also took other forms, including fake job offers and inheritance scams, as well as romance scams.

The full article was originally published at The Australian, but is no longer available.

Online Dating Scams – The Biggest Threat To A Growing Industry

Posted on September 22, 2009

Broken heartIOVATION – Sep 21 – According to Forrester Research online dating is the third largest producer of revenue out of all paid content sites, generating $957M in 2008, a figure that the firm predicts will grow 10% by 2013. The increased popularity of online dating is also good news for scammers. According to trends revealed by Google, search terms like “online dating” and “free dating” are getting the most hits from fraudsters in African countries. One of the important ways Iovation helps companies in the dating industry is by raising the bar for re-identifying scammers, by focusing on the computer they use. With device reputation, it is much easier to identify scammers trying to return to a site and repeat their scam or con.

The full article was originally published at iovation blog, but is no longer available.

See all posts on iovation

Fighting Friendly Fraud

Posted on August 24, 2009

Friendly fraud IOVATION — Aug 21 — There are many types of security threats out there that get significant press. Identity theft, credit card theft, account takeover, romance scams and money laundering. Friendly fraud isn't often talked about. Friendly fraud occurs when an individual makes a purchase and then denies the purchase with their card company after they have received the goods/services. A shared device reputation service allows online merchants to benefit from the knowledge and experience of their peers.

The full article was originally published at iovation blog, but is no longer available.

See all posts on iovation

iovation Exceeds Two Billion Fraud Checks

Posted on July 22, 2009

Iovationlogo BUSINESS WIRE — July 22 – iovation, provider of the world’s first
device reputation service for preventing online fraud and abuse, has
provided over two billion reputation checks for its customers. These
checks have resulted in the identification of over 140M unique device
reputations, a growth of ~500% from one year ago. iovation uses device
fingerprinting to identify unique devices and establish device
reputations that are based on each device’s history of fraud or abuse. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

See all posts on iovation

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Kris Covino Wins Scammer Email Competition

Posted on June 30, 2009

Winner OPW — June 29 — After receiving an email on this post from a scammer, we launched a scammer email competition to see who could come up with a better scammer email. Kris Covino of Date.com wins the competition and we've donated $200 to his favorite charity, the Sick Kids Foundation.