When a scam comes together

What a beautiful little scam.

Pornoscams have been around for a while. First, an industry came up harvesting settlements from folks too embarrassed to have themselves named in suits for downloading the likes of "Nude Nuns with Big Guns." I'll claim a bit of prescience in having predicted this as a potential business model for porn in the age of Tube sites.

This one's as good. And, it displays some Kiwi ingenuity.

Porn site users are being conned by scammers using the New Zealand police logo.

New Zealand's finest are warning the users of adult websites the scam, which interrupts a users web session, has nothing to do with them.

The message featuring the police logo appears on their computer screen saying they have been fined for using the x-rated site and need to enter banking details and pay an instant fine.

Police have received a handful of calls about the scam from people believing the message is from them.

In at least one case a person's computer was frozen and they were advised it would remain frozen until they paid the fee into the account.

Police says they have no association with any of the websites and suggest users avoid accessing such sites. 

Calling Bruce Schneier...

Even more clever might be this twist on the scheme.

Some places make it illegal to host or view computer-generated pictures purporting to display minors; some places say fiction isn't a crime. So you can get arrested for looking at the Microsoft Paint pictures somebody drew of the Simpsons, depending on where you are. Get a server in a place where it isn't illegal to host fiction or CGI representations that are illegal to view in other regions. Watch the IP logs for people coming in from countries where viewing that content is illegal. Take their IP address and the browser stats that are basically a unique identifier, or close to it. Then put up the "We will contact the police in your country if you don't pay up" warning. People would know that the current Kiwi operation is a scam because looking at pornography isn't really illegal, and there's no way that the NZ Police would run this kind of instant-fine scheme. But the one I'm proposing... you could make pretty credible threats. Run the site for a few months without the extortion part so it can get a decent page rank for that kind of thing. Make sure there's no malware on the site or anything that might put off would-be targets. Then run the extortion scheme.

I am not advocating that anybody do this. It might be evil, depending on what you think about people who like to read stories about pedophilia, and whether you think reading fiction about pedophilia or looking at CGI pictures of same is a complement or a substitute for actual pedophilia. But it would be clever and it would work. I'm not even sure if it would be illegal to do it - it would have to depend on the jurisdiction from which you're hosting.

Come to think of it, I'd be surprised if nobody were already doing this. It looks like $20 on the sidewalk.

HT: Luis

Customs NZ

Anyone interesting coming to New Zealand ought use whole disk encryption prior to travel, using a randomly chosen key left with someone out of country, then phoning home to get the key on arrival.

Customs here may be following overseas trends in using customs powers as an end-run around warrant requirements.

Bruce Schneier helpfully explains how to protect yourself.

Travel safe...

Beyond Security Theatre

Schneier on "Beyond Security Theater"

Refuse to Be Terrorized

By not overreacting, by not responding to movie-plot threats, and by not becoming defensive, we demonstrate the resilience of our society, in our laws, our culture, our freedoms. There is a difference between indomitability and arrogant "bring 'em on" rhetoric. There's a difference between accepting the inherent risk that comes with a free and open society, and hyping the threats.

We should treat terrorists like common criminals and give them all the benefits of true and open justice -- not merely because it demonstrates our indomitability, but because it makes us all safer. Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism.

Supporting real security even though it's invisible, and demonstrating indomitability even though fear is more politically expedient, requires real courage. Demagoguery is easy. What we need is leaders willing both to do what's right and to speak the truth.
...
Today, we can project indomitability by rolling back all the fear-based post-9/11 security measures. Our leaders have lost credibility; getting it back requires a decrease in hyperbole. Ditch the invasive mass surveillance systems and new police state-like powers. Return airport security to pre-9/11 levels. Remove swagger from our foreign policies. Show the world that our legal system is up to the challenge of terrorism. Stop telling people to report all suspicious activity; it does little but make us suspicious of each other, increasing both fear and helplessness.

Afternoon roundup

• Midas Oracle hosts excellent videos explaining why you should never ever talk to the police. Never. Must watch for American readers.


• Tim Hazledine thinks ACC is just fine. I disagree. Yes, insurance schemes can run short run deficits if there's a bunch of negative shocks. But that isn't what's going on here. Rather, they're not charging anything like actuarily fair rates; heck, some classes of payouts don't even have any premia charged at all! Yes, a case can be made that ACC is preferable to transactions-costs-heavy tort litigation; that's not a case for an insurance scheme paying out for things where folks don't pay a premium. If there are classes of things for which the government wants to provide compensation but doesn't want to charge an insurance premium, or where charging a premium is too difficult, it's best not handled through the insurance system but rather through the welfare system. The more ACC is social insurance rather than risk-adjusted premium-based accident insurance, the better the case for not having ACC at all and just having generalized welfare programmes. I still prefer privatisation and actuarily-fair premia.


• Bruce Schneier applies the Lucas Critique to internet security. If you penalize companies for leaving comment spam, they'll leave comment spam for their competitors...