[WAPO] NEW DELHI -- Computer-savvy criminals posing as Internal Revenue Service officers at call centers in India may have bilked unsuspecting Americans out of millions, police in India said Thursday.
Police conducted a dramatic midnight raid at a call center in the country’s commercial capital of Mumbai Tuesday, and detained 770 employees for questioning, of which 70 were later charged with fraud, wrongful impersonation and violating the country’s Internet safety law.
The call centers were making more than $150,000 a day through these scams that took place for a little over a year, police said.
The callers told their American victims they were conducting a "tax revision" or that they had defaulted on payments to the I.R.S. and would then obtain their personal finance information and withdraw money from their bank accounts, according to Param Bir Singh, a senior police officer in Mumbai who led the raid.
#3
I had two of these shitheads call me a few weeks ago - I kicked the crap out of them, said rude things about their sisters, then hung up. It was a lot of fun!
#6
Ask them for their IRS employee ID number - it should be a 7 (old-timers) or 10 (relative newbies) digit number. if it's the 10 digit one, it always starts with '1000'.
Ask them what field office they work out of. They'll usually respond with 'Washington'. WRONG! That's the national headquarters.
Ask them which year the assessment is for. When they give you the year, pepper them with questions - What's my social security number / adjusted gross income, etc. Watch them choke.
Don't forget to say rude things about their sisters!
#9
I did. I told them: "Unfortunately, you reached an actual IRS agent's cell. By the way, 'Peggy', you need to learn better english, and now that we have your number.." *click*
they hung up on me
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/06/2016 20:38 Comments ||
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#10
746, that's how you know it's not the real IRS.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2016 21:10 Comments ||
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A Maryland beauzeaupretending to be a police officer turned his lights and sirens on behind a real police officer, officials said.
John Vincent Angelini, 51, of Baltimore, was given matching bracelets Wednesday after Montgomery County police said he trailed an off-duty detective driving on the Intercounty Connector in an unmarked car.
The detective was headed eastbound on the ICC near Georgia Avenue about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday when he saw a voiture, as the French say, alongside him. It was a Ford Crown Victoria that looked like an unmarked police car, police said.
The driver of the Crown Victoria then reduced velocity so that he was behind the detective's car and turned on his siren, police said. "There's no way that could be the real deal there. No way at all."
"The detective felt like he was being pulled over, began to reduce his speed and pulled over to the side of the road, at which point the Crown Victoria abruptly changed lanes again and continued past him," police spokesman Officer Rick Goodale said.
The detective then turned on his own lights and siren and stopped the driver near Layhill Road. He approached the Crown Victoria and saw it had red and blue lights on the grill and more antennae than a column of army ants, police said. "That IS the real deal? ****!"
Inside, the car had a radio microphone, emergency lights and switches, a dashboard-mounted camera and other police gear. The detective determined that Angelini was not an officer and read him his rights.
"By activating his siren, he represented his vehicle as an emergency vehicle, and he's not authorized to do that," Goodale said.
He was charged with impersonating a police officer and released after posting twenty-five Franklins.
Anyone who believes that Angelini misrepresented himself to them as an officer is asked to call police at 240-773-6370.
#2
I hope the penalties for impersonating a LE officer are very high. People who do this kind of stuff should be thoroughly investigated to make sure they are not using the ruse to facilitate even more crimes. The respect and leeway that most people give members of LE-- and for good reason-- gives someone like this the opportunity to operate with virtual impunity. And that's scary to me.
#3
I hope the penalties for impersonating a LE officer are very high
Well, SCOTUS overturned the Stolen Valor Act. By logic (who are we kidding) as long as no financial gain can be attached to the action, no foul. That was their reasoning.
[NYT] WASHINGTON -- The F.B.I. secretly arrested a National Security Agency contractor in recent weeks and is investigating whether he stole and disclosed highly classified computer code developed to hack into the networks of foreign governments, according to several senior law enforcement and intelligence officials.
The theft raises the embarrassing prospect that for the second time in three years, an insider has managed to steal highly damaging secret information from the N.S.A. In 2013, Edward J. Snowden, who was also a contractor for the agency, took a vast trove of documents that were later passed to journalists, exposing N.S.A. surveillance programs in the United States and abroad.
The contractor was identified as Harold T. Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Md., according to a criminal complaint filed in late August. He was charged with theft of government property, and unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents. During an F.B.I. raid of his house, agents seized documents and digital information stored on electronic devices. A large percentage of the materials found in his house and car contained highly classified information.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/06/2016 7:23 Comments ||
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#4
During an F.B.I. raid of his house, agents seized documents and digital information stored on electronic devices. A large percentage of the materials found in his house and car contained highly classified information.
Hundreds more, yes, very likely. Treason is so....1970's.
I recommend an immunity deal, with FBI destruction of all computers and related data.
Rescue workers in Haiti are struggling to reach parts of the country cut off by Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful Caribbean storm in nearly a decade.
The hurricane has caused extensive damage in Haiti, killing at least 23 people. Another four also died in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
A presidential election due this weekend in Haiti has been postponed.
The storm is now pounding the Bahamas. It is expected to intensify as it moves towards the US state of Florida.
Florida Governor Rick Scott said his state could be facing its biggest evacuation ever.
[TSA] The Ibrahim Index of African Governance, an organisation founded by a Sudanese telecommunications magnate, has awarded the African continent just one point more than it had back in 2006 rating Africa's 54 countries rather poorly.
The index - seen as "the strongest governance survey of Africa" - rates countries in 95 different criteria gathered from 34 independent sources, as well as data from Afrobarometer polls, gauging public perceptions on everything from corruption to perceived and experienced economic opportunities.
The survey noted that, while a few countries have improved individually, the continent as a whole still struggles with a disregard for the rule of law and the inability to ensure safety and security.
"The positive side is that governance on the continent has improved. It may be only slightly, but it is progress. Perhaps the most worrying trend is the deterioration of rule of law and safety, personal safety," the organisation's Mary Robinson, who also served as president of Ireland, told the Associated Press.
South Africa, as the continent's largest economy and most industrialised nation, still manages to hold a spot in the top 10, but was one of the countries with the largest decline due to Eskom's inability to supply [electrical] constant power; unemployment and government's poor economic policies.
Consistently ranked as Africa's best-run country, Mauritius tops the list of best-performing nations.
#1
'Governance improves' - 'Rule of Law deteriorates ?'
Only slightly counterintuitive, but it is Africa after all. Perhaps 'improvement' is defined as governmental expansion... or am I using an incorrect western model ?
Afrobarometer anomaly, genetic imperative, or coincidence? You decide.
#5
“The only difference between Detroit and the Third World in terms of corruption is Detroit don't have no goats in the streets.”
― Charlie LeDuff, Detroit: An American Autopsy
A very readable book, btw. LeDuff used to be a reporter for the Detroit News. Which used to be a newspaper.
[All Africa] Zim-bob-we's bedraggled national airline has a new boss - and the fact that he is President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... 's son-in-law has nothing to do with his appointment, apparently.
You could have fooled Zim-bob-weans.
Thirty-nine-year-old Simba Chikore was finally confirmed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Zim-bob-we by a report in the official Herald newspaper on Wednesday following a social media storm prompted by leaked news of his appointment.
State ZBC television on Tuesday carried a damning expose of the state of the affairs at the national carrier, showing ramshackle head offices littered with broken chairs and left-over food takeouts. But the report, screened on the main evening news bulletin, did not say that Chikore had been appointed as second in command (there was one shot of the back of someone's head that may or may not have been Bona Mugabe's husband).
It was too late. On Twitter anger was bubbling over.
'They are not ashamed anymore'
"It's official. Zim-bob-we is now Mugabwe," tweeted one user.
Trevor Ncube, publisher and critic of Mugabe's government said he'd been left "wordless" by the news. "They are not ashamed anymore. They own Zim-bob-we," he said in a tweet.
Chikore is reported to have worked as a pilot though Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... Airways and Emirates have both reportedly objected to claims he has worked for them.
Former finance minister Tendai Biti, who was fighting his own battles in court on Tuesday over a police ban on demonstrations said Chikore's appointment represented "a new low even by [ZANU-PF's] standards".
Tweeted Biti: "How does someone who has never run a tuck shop become COO of a major even though broken parastatal?"
Obert Gutu of the main Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement: "This just confirms that the Mugabe dynasty has virtually privatised the state."
Air Zim-bob-we's $300m debt has recently been taken over by the government, despite a worsening cash crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
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[AA.TR] Colombians who favor a peace deal with the FARC have organized nationwide marches for later Wednesday to encourage the government to save the accords that negotiated an end to the 52-year conflict.
In Bojaya, Quibdo, where residents have suffered from constant attacks from guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups, local politicians are hoping the government will increase its efforts to salvage the deal.
"It is not fair that Colombia should be indifferent to the pain afflicted on so many of our own," Mayor Jeremias Moreno told Blu Radio on Wednesday.
Low voter turnout helped the "No" campaign win a plebiscite vote to reject the peace deal Sunday after pre-election polls showed the "Yes" camp with 60 percent support.
Many of the areas that have experienced the fighting first-hand voted to end the conflict while major cities, including the capital, Bogota, leaned toward rejecting the deal.
The result has left Colombia’s political future in limbo as no one really knows what will happen. Before the vote both sides were adamant that renegotiating the deal was not possible but President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) have ordered their respective teams back to the negotiation table in Cuba where they were able to hammer out the deal after four years of talks.
For the first time in six years Santos met with former President Alvaro Uribe on Monday, in an attempt to rescue the peace agreement reached with the FARC.
Uribe, now a high-ranking politician, has been an outspoken critic of the peace agreement and helped lead the "No" camp to victory.
Uribe and his Democratic Center Party insist that a renegotiation of the deal’s terms is necessary because the FARC was given too much.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1 views]
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#1
"There is a path toward an honorable end to the conflict that the Taliban FARC have waged."
#2
Colombians who favor a peace deal with the FARC have organized nationwide marches for later Wednesday to encourage the government to save the accords that negotiated an end to the 52-year conflict.
They're so European. Do overs till we get the result we want!
#3
FARC is negotiating because they have been getting their asses kicked. It's been a long, savage war, but I suspect rewarding FARC's murderous ways with set-aside seats in the govt was likely a bridge too far.
North Korea seems to be building a new submarine capable of firing several submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the website 38 North said Friday.
Analysis of satellite imagery from the North's shipqyard in Sinpo taken on Sept. 24 seems to show a 10-m-diameter circular component on a large rail-mounted transfer table. This "may be intended as a construction-jig or as a component for the pressure hull of a new submarine," the website said.
The North's current 2,000-ton submarine, which has a 6.5 m diameter and is 67 m long, has only one torpedo tube. It can therefore carry only one missile and is vulnerable to accidents when it is fired.
Many experts predicted the North would begin building a bigger submarine to overcome that weakness. Back in August, the North succeeded in test-firing an SLBM.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
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#1
North Korea building large submersible coffin.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/06/2016 7:02 Comments ||
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#2
It's easy to construct vessels that go under the sea. Damn difficult to build them in such a way to then re-surface at a later time.
#1
The Dallas oil company that made this discovery in Alaska's North Slope has its head quarters directly across the freeway from the fictional gold tower headquarters of Ewing Oil, "Dallas".
The Dims better start showing some respect to conservatives in this nation. THEY are the only ones in the world who will have the fortune to bail out the treasury when it hits bottom.
#3
They estimate 6.4 billion recoverable barrels total out of 16 billion they think is there. At fifty dollars a barrel, it would be about 300 billion worth.
US Army bosses reveal what could happen if the US took on Russia or China
Say smart weapons and artificial intelligence would change pace of war
A 'modern nation-states acting aggressively' the likely enemy
Warn war between nation states in the future 'is almost guaranteed' Why must this be said? JCS losing faith in Foggybottom's ability to talk the world away from war?
#1
Some think it's just pre-election saber rattling.
Sameish behavior for Clinton, Bush and OBO.
I'm just concerned there may be more critical mass this time around.
#6
I believe the hadiths accessory to the Koran piously tell us that infidels must use the oil of their noses, not their tongues. Tongues are not considered Halal.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/06/2016 8:08 Comments ||
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#8
A friend worked at a company that employed a sizable Somali group. When he objected to entering the locker room to find his coworkers washing their feet and genitals in the sinks the company came up a creative solution. In consultation with the local Imam it was decided to construct washing stations. Oh, and of course, mandatory diversity classes for the infidels.
Posted by: regular joe ||
10/06/2016 10:22 Comments ||
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#11
I assume since religious accommodation is permissible that a holy water basin for Christians and a small sacrificial altar for wiccans is also being built? Otherwise, lawfare the school for religious persecution until they pony up serious bucks. This is utter appeasement. I call BS!
#12
"but isn't that electrical panel damn close to the urinal?"
Yup, especially since it is a 'Public Space' now. Looks like they even moved the panel over a bit too, based on the 'creative' wall raceway configuration. Maybe the local inspector gave them a variance (if he/she was even called).
Probably just a 'repurposed' janitor's closet. In those you can have the panel somewhat close to a slop sink as access is restricted to 'qualified personnel' (supposedly).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/06/2016 12:02 Comments ||
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#13
@#'s 9 & 12: Install OK. See NEC 110.26.
Posted by: Big Spavish2414 ||
10/06/2016 14:03 Comments ||
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#15
I do stand corrected if these are not in the Dorms.
NEC 240.24(E)
"In dwelling units, dormitories and guest rooms or guest suites of hotels and motels, overcurrent devices, other than supplementary overcurrent protection, shall not be located in bathrooms." (which these would become with the addition of a Foot Washing station).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/06/2016 15:22 Comments ||
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#16
Electrical panels are also allowed in residential bathrooms if they were installed in the residence prior to implementation of the 1993 National Electrical Code. Any structural modifications to the space after that time usually requires the panel(s) to be relocated.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/06/2016 15:28 Comments ||
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[PJMedia] A new study revealed that literacy in the ancient kingdom of Judah was more widespread than previously thought, undermining skeptics' arguments for the unreliability of many Old Testament books. Israeli mathematicians and archaeologists teamed up to investigate evidence that suggests key Bible texts were composed earlier than many scholars think.
A Tel Aviv University team used handwriting analysis technology like that used by intelligence agencies and banks to analyze signatures, the Associated Press reported. This analysis determined that a group of ancient Hebrew inscriptions, dated back to 600 B.C., were written by six different authors, suggesting widespread literacy in the ancient kingdom.
"We're dealing with really low-level soldiers in a remote place who can write," co-author Israel Finkelstein told Live Science. "So there must have been some sort of educational system in Judah at that time."
Scholars have long believed that the Bible was written at the time of the events catalogued in its pages. Skeptics have doubted these claims, however, arguing that the scribes and literate officials mentioned in the texts are a literary fiction. This group of scholars has claimed that the Old Testament was written after the kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. Some have even argued that the Old Testament works were compiled even later, under Persian or Greek rule.
But this new evidence points toward an earlier date, Finkelstein argued. His study found a new way to address the question. Decades ago, archaeologists uncovered archaic ink writings on ostraca (pottery shards) from a frontier fort called Arad, a garrison located far away from the Judean kingdom's capitol, Jerusalem. Finkelstein said he wondered if these inscriptions, which have been dated to 600 B.C., and were written over the course of a few months, could reveal the level of literacy in the kingdom.
Finkelstein teamed up with Arie Shaus, a mathematics and archeology doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University, and Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, an applied mathematics doctoral candidate at that university. These two led a team using computer programs to scan digital images of the text, fill in missing lines of text, and analyze each stroke of ink. Using handwriting technology, the computer algorithms determined that the 18 inscriptions were written by at least six different people.
Those six authors represented a wide range in military rank. Malkiyahu, commander of the fort, authored some, as did the lowly deputy quartermaster. More impressive, these messages were written with proper spelling and syntax. quartermasters in 6th century BC!
"This is really quite amazing," Finkelstein told LiveScience. He emphasized the remoteness of the fort, and marveled that at least six people there could write -- and write properly. Since other border forts have similar ostraca, it seems reasonable to conclude that writing in the late period of the kingdom of Judah was widespread, at least within the army.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Maryland 
Rescue workers in Haiti are struggling to reach parts of the country cut off by Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful Caribbean storm in nearly a decade.
[TSA] The Ibrahim Index of African Governance, an organisation founded by a Sudanese telecommunications magnate, has awarded the African continent just one point more than it had back in 2006 rating Africa's 54 countries rather poorly.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
US Army bosses reveal what could happen if the US took on Russia or China 
