Snippets

xxx Major card schemes are rallying around the the new EMVCo Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) framework in a bid to create a ubiquitous online shopping technology standard backed by token-only storage of payment details. From Major card schemes zero in on single 'buy' button for online commer... . xxx

xxx Every morning I wake up to the same routine. I log into the Tinder account of a 45-year-old man from Texas—a client. I flirt with every woman in his queue for 10 minutes, sending their photos and locations to a central database of potential “Opportunities.” For every phone number I get, I make $1.75. I’m what’s called a “Closer” for the online-dating service ViDA (Virtual Dating Assistants). From Online dating is so awful that people are paying virtual dating assistants to impersonate them — Quartz . xxx

xxx It's called Fuelgram and, for a few dollars a month and access to your Instagram log-in credentials, it will use the accounts of everyone who paid that sum to like and comment on your posts — and it will use yours to do the same to theirs. In other words, Fuelgram creates fake engagement from real Instagram accounts. From Real People Are Turning Their Accounts Into Bots On Instagram — And Cashing In . xxx

Thanks to PSD2 (and the Competition and Markets Authority) we now have open banking . Third parties can have access to bank customer data — with customer consent, obviously — and there’s nothing that banks do about it. Who will benefit from this? We have long advised our clients that the competition to incumbent financial services providers will not be fintechs. I wrote back in 2016 that the major beneficiaries of the regulators pressure to open up the banks will be the internet giants who already have the customer relationships. Of course, when I said it, no-one listened. But when the woman at the top of Europe’s second biggest bank weighed in, people began to sit up and pay attention: Ana Botín, executive chairman of Santander, told the Financial Times that the EU’s Second Payments Services Directive “needs to be reviewed for the digital age. The theory is good but it needs to be fair — at the moment it’s not symmetrical.” Now, Ms. Botin is not the only one who thinks this asymmet...

xxx Money Box reporter Marie Keyworth spoke to 17 year old 'Holly' who was approached on social media to 'lend' her bank account to a stranger. The teenager was challenged by her bank, her account closed down and a warning flag put against her name. From BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Teenage money mules. What happens when you get found out? . Xxx “You don’t realise how much you need a bank account until you can’t get one"

xxx As a group, banks all agree that AI is important, but their strategies for using it vary wildly. One European bank that took part in the survey told the FT it had 500-800 people working on AI; Nordea, of Sweden, generally believed to be one of the world’s most technologically advanced banks, says it has just 25. From AI in banking: the reality behind the hype . xxx

xxx “It’s the tokenization of the asset that’s the revolution,” said Dave Birch, director of innovation, Consult Hyperion, a London-area consultancy that specializes in secure transactions. Birch interviewed corporate venture-capital manager Jonathan Larsen at Money20/20 Asia. “Tokenization is a really massive trend,” Larsen said. “That’s a much bigger story that cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and even blockchain.” Larsen is chief innovation officer of Ping An Group and head of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund. Ping An is a Chinese financial-services holding group based in Shenzhen. “I have no doubt about the opportunities (of tokenization) to reduce friction across every asset class and to create fractionalization of assets where it does not exist today,” he said. Fractionalization refers to the ability to, for instance, partition the equity you own in a home and use the resulting token to sell that equity as a tradable asset. “That means if you own a home and i...

xxx Mr Silvester also warned owners to be careful when handing their fob over to valet parking services or car washes, as keys can be cloned "in seconds", allowing thieves to take the car at a later date without any external signs of damage. From Car thieves target middle-class areas, data reveals, as police warn drivers to invest in a steering wheel lock . xxx

xxx "According to Swiss National Bank (SNB) governing board member Andréa Maechler, private-sector digital currencies are better and less risky than nationally-issued versions." From "Gov’t-Issued Digital Currencies Threaten Financial Stability, Says Swiss Central Banker" . xxx

xxx "Virtual ID  gives the users the option of not sharing their Aadhaar number at the time of authentication. - The Virtual ID, which would be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency like a mobile company, limited details like name, address and photograph, which are enough for any verification. - A user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants. - The older ID gets automatically cancelled once a fresh one is generated." From "UIDAI unveils Virtual ID in beta form – Here's how VID for Aadhaar works | Personal Finance News" . xxx

xxx "Three months ago Muniya Devi travelled some 35km to the nearest town to submit the forms and papers necessary to get her family's ration cards linked to Aadhaar. People at the office demanded a bribe to get the job done, so she paid them 400 rupees, nearly four days of family earnings. 'They say the network is down, the computer is not working. And I keep borrowing food to feed my family,' she told me." From "Aadhaar: Is India's biometric ID scheme hurting the poor? - BBC News" . xxx

xxx We just discovered that we may have lost the signing key allowing us to update the app Note: key isn't compromised, just was accidentally deleted and isn't recoverable — ACINQ (@acinq_co) April 7, 2018 xxx

xxx "The Sun on Sunday tested it on a busy high street and were able to clone a test 'victim's' credit card in seconds" From "How crooks are using a legal app to steal your bank card details in under one SECOND" . This is, of course, fake news. You can’t clone an EMV card using the card number and expiry date (both of which are printed on the from of the card anyway) and if merchants allow a crook to order something using only the card number and expiry date (ie, without asking for the security code or address) then they are liable for the fraud. Cardholders are completely protected.

xxx In what it calls an attempt to promote “trustworthiness” in its economy and society, China is experimenting with a social credit system that mixes familiar Western-style credit scores with more expansive — and intrusive — measures. It includes everything from rankings calculated by online payment providers to scores doled out by neighborhoods or companies. High-flyers receive perks such as discounts on heating bills and favorable bank loans, while bad debtors cannot buy high-speed train or plane tickets. From Life Inside China’s Social Credit Laboratory – Foreign Policy . xxx

xxx "The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs elected the contractor and had to transfer money to the company's account. Then the scammers appeared in the game, who impersonated the company and sent the Belgians the account number of the company they controlled. Oblivious to fraud, employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have shed over 400,000 criminals. euro." From "Kolumbijskie kartele prały setki milionów zł przez spółki z Pruszkowa i okolic - tvp.info" . xxx

xxx China has developed a new voice recognition system, connecting speakers’ voice features to their identification information for the purpose of building a database of “voiceprints.” The system will be used for authentication of people’s identities on the internet, as well as in the areas of medical treatment, education, financial services, transportation, and tourism, according to the Chinese regime’s state-run news agency Xinhua. From China Gathers ‘Voiceprints’ for New Identification Technology, Raising Privacy Concerns | The Epoch Times . xxx

xxx In a March 26 letter to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that last year it identified suspected unauthorized cell-site simulators in the nation’s capital. The agency said it had not determined the type of devices in use or who might have been operating them. Nor did it say how many it detected or where. From APNewsBreak: US suspects cellphone spying devices in DC . Of course some of these might be “legitimate” (ie, being used by the FBI or the police)

xxx "omputer Weekly understands there’s a battle going on between the Cabinet Office, where GDS sits, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), responsible for policy around the digital economy – within which the issue of identity is central." From "As Gov.uk Verify concerns mount, is GDS about to lose control of digital identity policy? - Computer Weekly Editor's Blog" . xxx

xxx "On trial for murder in Adelaide, Australia, 26-year-old Caroline Nilsson claimed her mother-in-law, Myrna Nilsson, had been attacked and killed following a home invasion by a group of men angered in a road rage incident. Prosecutors, however, presented evidence that showed the crime scene and story was fake, and used forensically tested Apple Watch data to illustrate the time and style of attack." From "Apple Watch Data Used as Evidence in Australian Murder Trial | Digital Trends" . xxx

xxx "Park Won-soon, the Mayor of South Korean Capital Seoul, has announced intentions to pursue the development of blockchain technology in the city. Won-soon stated that there will be a digital currency created for use in Seoul" From "Seoul Mayor Prepares City to Embrace Blockchain Technology | NewsBTC" . xxx

Rob Wainwright, the Director of Europol, was talking about the great success of the continents $20 billion per annum anti-money laundering regime. “Professional money launderers — and we have identified 400 at the top, top level in Europe — are running billions of illegal drug and other criminal profits through the banking system with a 99 percent success rate,” he said. From Europe is losing the fight against dirty money – POLITICO . xxx