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BBC NEWS | Politics | Straw hit by internet fraudsters

Page last updated at 16:00 GMT, Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Straw hit by internet fraudsters

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has been the victim of Nigerian fraudsters who sent out hundreds of e-mails in his name asking for money.

The e-mails claimed he had lost his wallet on charity work in Africa and needed 3,500 US dollars to get home.

Messages headed the Right Hon Jack Straw MP were sent to council bosses, government chiefs and others.

The fraudsters are thought to have hacked into computers at Mr Straw’s Blackburn constituency office.

Mr Straw has confirmed the e-mails had been sent to a “significant number of people” in his address book but he said there were no security issues as it was his Blackburn e-mail address rather than his ministerial account that was targeted.

He told his local newspaper the Lancashire Telegraph: “I started getting phone calls from various constituents asking if I was really in Nigeria needing 3,000 dollars.

“It was an issue for constituents, not the government.
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Hacking Godfather ‘Maksik’ Sentenced to 30 Years by Turkish Court: “A Ukrainian cybercrime lord linked to virtually every major breach of U.S. retail networks in the past four years was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison by a Turkish court, on unrelated charges of hacking banks in that country, according to reports.

(Via Wired News.)

Online fraudsters ’steal £3.3bn’: “Internet fraudsters have stolen credit and debit cards with a value of more than £3.3bn, research suggests.”

(Via BBC News.)

Fraudsters profit from financial crisis by using fake websites to steal bank details: “Online banking customers have been warned to be on the alert for a fresh wave
of phishing e-mail attacks in the wake of the banking turmoil.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Fraudsters’ website shut in swoop: “A website where criminals traded credit card details and bank log-ins is shut down after a police operation.”

(Via BBC News.)

Identity fraud: Plan to release death records to credit agencies: “Death records are to be released in a bid to stop fraudsters stealing the identity of the deceased”

(Via Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk.)

PayPal to refund shoppers defrauded on eBay – Times Online

See also Online shoppers: ‘Buying isn’t entirely safe’

From The Times, October 4, 2008

Rebecca O’Connor

PayPal, the payment service used by 20 million online shoppers in Britain, has given in to consumer demands to offer full refunds to buyers defrauded on eBay.

Previously, anyone using PayPal to buy items such as a laptop or furniture risked losing hundreds of pounds on something that might not work or even arrive.

Consumers who buy an item worth more than £150 using PayPal on eBay will now have protection.

The decision to remove the present limits comes after years of pressure from PayPal users, who make up more than half of all UK eBay members. They felt that the previous limits were unfair and made eBay shopping less safe than buying on the high street.

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Mail and phone scams catch out 3m: “Fraudsters solicit £3.5bn a year from Britons but less than one in 20 victims report the cons”