Fraudsters use nail cutters, screwdrivers to withdraw money from ATMs
Beware if the ATM screen goes blank after you swipe your card. It could be a mischief by fraudsters to withdraw cash from your account after you leave the ATM in a huff. A bit of adhesive and a screwdriver are all that’s needed to outwit hi-tech safety gadgets. These swindlers are part of a powerful inter-state network spread across the country. Assam Police and Kolkata Police have recently rounded up three swindlers who have mastered the tampering of ATMs.
The trick applies only to ATM machines that need a customer to insert and extract the card to start operations (as opposed to ATMs where the card pops out after the transaction is complete). Many nationalised banks, including SBI and Bank of Baroda, use this system at their ATMs, most of which are unmanned. So, what is this low-tech, highly effective modus operandi?
Fraudsters, who generally strike in pairs, enter the ATM by swiping a valid debit card at the gate, press down a key on the keyboard and stick it with adhesive so that it does not return to its original position. This switches on the machine. They then walk out and wait for a victim to step into the trap. When a customer enters the ATM and swipes the card, he does not realise that the machine is already on. A message flashes for him to key his PIN, which he does. But since the machine has been switched on in an improper way, the screen goes blank automatically as a security feature to stop fraudulent withdrawals.
The customer thinks it is a system fault and gives it a second try. He has no clue that the two ‘customers’ getting impatient outside are actually criminals waiting to steal his money. They start abusing him for taking too much time and force him to leave in a huff. Exit customer, enter fraudster. They simply use a screwdriver to ‘release’ the key. The ATM restarts automatically. What it has in store is the PIN of the last customer who swiped his card. The gang simply enters the amount and walks out with cash. The SBI has been receiving several such complaints from its unmanned ATMs. “We were at a loss to locate the fraud because the CCTVs showed the customer swiping his card. But customers complained that they couldn’t withdraw money,” an SBI official said.
Later, banks found out that the actual transaction happened long after the customer had swiped his card and left. And, the CCTV footage always showed two or more suspicious people enter the cubicle soon after the customer left. “What struck us is that the transaction was completed only after the group of people left the counter,” the bank official said. Banks then complained to the police. One such complaint was lodged at Entally police station in June this year. CCTV footage came handy for investigators from the anti-bank fraud wing of Kolkata Police. One of the kingpins, Adid Khan, was caught in the act as he tried out the same stunt at an ATM in a shopping district. Police seized adhesives, screwdrivers and nail cutters from his associates, simple tools that helped them carry out a near-perfect crime. Three ATM cards, a debit card, a car and Rs 2 lakh in cash were seized. Probe revealed the trio is part of a large gang operating from Gaya in Bihar. When they confessed, police were stunned by the simplicity of the operation.
Here’s a secret they didn’t tell you when you bought a 3G iPhone: One of its best features—the ability to run new applications found on iTunes—is also possible on the old iPhone with an easy software upgrade. Plus, you can hack your first-gen to run unofficial apps alongside the sanctioned ones (known as “jailbreaking” the phone). And remember that your deactivated iPhone still has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well. With all this at your disposal, there are lots of ways to give a first-gen a second life.
Remote Control
Apple’s free Remote application is the slickest way to control your AppleTV or Mac’s iTunes with an iPhone, but there are other free apps for controlling your TiVo (code.google.com/p/tivoremote), your MythTV home-theater PC (trac2.assembla.com/mymote/wiki) or any computer (code.google.com/p/telekinesis).
GPS Device
xGPS ($75; xgps.xwaves.net) uses a small GPS receiver that plugs into your phone, along with software to give you turn-by-turn directions (you must have a jailbroken phone to use xGPS). Coming in January, LocoGPS (gomite.com) will do the same thing with a GPS receiver that connects to your iPhone over Wi-Fi.
VoIP phone
Although your cell number is now on the 3G, your old phone can still make calls over the Internet using Wi-Fi. Truphone is found in the app store; calls cost between 6 and 30 cents a minute. Fring (fring.com) lets you use your Skype account, including SkypeIn, so you can receive calls too.
Media Center
With Apple’s Universal Dock ($50; apple.com), you can play video and music from your iPhone through a connected TV and stereo. Download movies and TV from iTunes or transfer them from your Mac, and install applications like Pandora and Last.FM for customized Internet radio.
Music Studio
Shop Assistant
Our pal Chuck over at Toolmonger has put together a list of five uses for your iPhone around the shop including the rather analog straight edge, and a digital level using the phone’s built-in accelerometer and an app like Bubble Level ($.99). We’d add “calculator” to that list with the handy ShopCalc ($1.99), which can add fractional and decimal measurements interchangeably, and a more comprehensive unit-conversion app like Units (free), which handles everything from pressure to power
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http://www.popsci.com/oldiphone
SecureMac is reporting a new Trojan horse that threatens the Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 installation. AppleScript.THT, a new variant of the infamous Trojan Horse virus, is originating from a hacked website through iChat and Limewire.
The Trojan horse allows a malicious user to access a system remotely and transmit system and user passwords. It can also avoid detection through opening a port in a system’s firewall, as well as turning off system logging. AppleScript.THT can also log keystrokes, take pictures with Apple iSight camera, take screenshots and turn on file sharing.
SecureMac is also reporting that the Trojan horse is being distributed in two ways. As a compiled AppleScript known as ASthtv05, or as an application bundle called AStht_v06. When a user downloads and runs the script, the Trojan horse will then attack the system, and even moves itself into the /Library/Caches/ folder.
To protect your Mac OS X from getting infected by the virus, SecureMac is suggesting you run its MacScan 2.5.2 software.
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[SecureMac]
How ironic: LinkedIn - indeed any social network - is all about making a connection. Yet thanks to the blizzard of coverage generated by the professional-themed network’s new $53 million-dollar round of funding, all I saw when I first tried to get on LinkedIn were error messages saying “connection interrupted” (Firefox) or “the server unexpectedly dropped the connection, which sometimes occurs when the server is busy” (Safari).
Yep, a New York Times story and ton of links on top content aggregators like Techmeme will do that to you.
LinkedIn is currently the Social Network Media Darling of the Moment because of its willingness to carve a niche for itself with $100,000-a-year-plus professionals, and many in that income bracket who have found their job security threatened in a down economy have turned to the site for career information. Indeed, a lot of people in my former profession - television news - who were recently downsized or may see a layoff around the corner have sprouted LinkedIn profiles. I’ve also noticed a rise in LinkedIn Groups dedicated to TV/media work (full disclosure: I’m a LinkedIn member.)
While a lot of the coverage has focused on forthcoming company-centered applications for LinkedIn and how that will go over with its 23 million members, The broadcast newsguy in me is curious about when I will see more video/audio on the site, specifically on the front page. I’m not talking about turning LinkedIn into Facebook or MySpace; I’m thinking valuable resources for the executives, mid-level professionals and entry-level staffers who make up the core of the membership.
Take some of the member-generated questions-and-answers and expand on them in LinkedIn-produced “news” stories; take more of the company-produced video content seen on LinkedIn’s blog page and put it out front; set up audio podcasts and quiz select members on major business stories of the day. No doubt LinkedIn’s membership includes some knowledgeable experts; any cable business network booker would love to include them in their Rolodexes. Use them and watch the connections multiply in the LinkedIn News Network.
Read [LinkedIn Blog]
As we ran our live blog of last Monday’s WWDC Keynote, I couldn’t help but get a little excited about all of the iPhone applications being demoed. This is a bit out of character for me, as I’m a Mac guy, not a gadget guy. In fact, before I finally broke down and bought an 8GB iPhone last autumn, the closest I’d come to a cell phone was using my wife’s Kyocera pay-as-you-go phone through Virgin Mobile.
Now, I’m happy with my iPhone. I’ve made some calls. I’ve even answered some. I’ve texted some friends, photographed some sunrises and followed my real time hockey scores. But, by and large, I get less use out of my iPhone in one week than many of you will in an hour. That’s all about to change, however, with iPhone 2.0 and the App Store. Now, there are programs to use. Information to store. Games to played.
Games.
This got me to thinking...will my 8GB iPhone be enough? When I upgrade, will I have pay for the 16GB model just to handle those glorious games? A quick check of my current iPhone reveals that I’m using less than 1GB in available space, and over 9/10ths of that is taken up by one movie (you probably don’t want to know which one). Obviously, I’ve got plenty of room to spare, but will that continue to be the case as I buy more games, utilities and productivity software? Apple has announced they’re restricting the iPhone app size to 2GB, but that’s only three applications away from filling up my drive. Hardly a restriction.
So, to get an idea on whether 8GB will be enough, I contacted a couple gaming companies to see what they’ll be delivering (I went with games only because they tend to demand more disk space). Pangea Software’s Brian Greenstone, who demoed Cro-Mag Rally and Enigmo for the iPhone at the Keynote, told me, “The app sizes are still in flux, but I can say that they’re not very large—smaller than the original games.” A quick check of their Mac counterparts reveals that Enigmo and Cro-Mag are 23MB and 130MB downloads, respectively. That’s certainly workable.
I also contacted our friends over at Freeverse regarding their iPhone games. Colin Lynch Smith replied, “Big Bang Sudoku will be around 4MG. Wingnuts Moto Racer will be in the vicinity of 10MG.” Colin also offered this tip; “Given that apps under 10MB will be downloadable over the cell networks, I think most devs will try to keep their apps under 10MG if at all possible.”
So, at least for now, it looks as if I’m safe with my 8GB model. We’ll see how long this lasts as more applications are released and developers continue to push the technology, but I have a feeling any disk space I sacrifice will be because I refuse to delete any games from my iPhone…
...and because I never know just when I’ll want to watch the greatest movie ever made!
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http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/is-8gb-enough-for-the-iphone-3g/
