- Email: [email protected]
European information market
Computer
Fraud & Security Bulletin
wearing bottles over his body, which Popp claimed would defend himself against micro-organisms. Popp has been in a London, UK, hospital since September.
January
1992
Popp’s charges included blackmail and criminal damage relating to an incident during Christmas, 1989. According to the UK Metropolitan Police, Popp had sent out over
bookmakers. It was designed to keep track of scheduled sporting events, the lines (or odds) on each event, the names of the betters and runners (subordinate bookmakers) involved, the amounts of money wagered on each event, the commissions earned by the various participants in the bookmaking operation, the amounts of money won and lost by each better on each event, and the status of each better’s account.
20 000 diskettes containing AIDS information and a Trojan Horse, to various international organizations. Prior to Popp’s extradition to the UK, his US attorney claimed that Popp’s aim was to provide information about AIDS via the PC. “He (Popp) says that it is legitimate scientific research,” said the attorney, who also confirmed that Popp had been prepared to send out some 2 million more diskettes. “We just hope that he doesn’t do it again, and that we won’t hear about him again until his book comes out,” commented the UK prosecutor, Richard Curtis.
The system was discovered to include a ‘bail out’ feature. In the event of a police raid on a bookmaking operation, this feature permitted easy transfer of the data from the micro to a system located in Mexico. After the police had left without finding the incriminating information, the bookmaker would have been permitted (for a fee) to retrieve the data from Mexico. Purchasers of the system were promised that in such a situation they could return to doing business as usual in about 20 minutes.
Charlotte Klopp and Tina Monk
Investigation closes down bookmaker system The development and marketing of a bookmakers’ computer system has been stopped after a major investigation. Bookmaking is an illegal activity in the USA. The investigation marked the first time in New York State that a court had ordered access to computer records of betting activity. Ten individuals were indicted as a result of the investigation, nine of these people eventually pleaded guilty to various charges. This ring was alleged to have accepted at least $17 million in illegal wagers and to have laundered more then $3 million. The latter phase of the operation involved the movement of funds through a Fort Worth, Texas, currency exchange. The actual exchanges of currency took place in Las Vegas and other points in the us. The investigation revealed that the bosses of the bookmaking ring and the currency exchange had collaborated on a computer system designed to be sold to other illegal
The plan called for selling the system, after it was demonstrated at a Las Vegas wagering convention, to illegal bookmakers throughout the USA. The demonstration was secretly videotaped by the Las Vegas Police Department intelligence unit. The conspirators were unaware of it at the time, but the technician who operated the system during the demonstration was an investigator. Later a system prototype was installed at a Westchester County site. The data that it contained was eventually transferred, not to the computer in Mexico as the conspirators believed, but to a microcomputer located in the District Attorney’s office. The wagering records captured in this fashion supported several of the indictments. They indicated that the ring had taken over $4.5 million in just one four week period in 1990. Be/den Menkus
European Information
Market
A working group entitled ‘European Information Market’ (EURIM), has been launched with the intention of becoming recognized as an authoritative consultative body on European IT legislation. The EURIM working
01992
Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
January
1992
group, under the honorary presidency of the UK Member of Parliament, Emma Nicholson, will support and work in conjunction with the EURIM All-party Parliamentary Group, which Nicholson is currently forming. Together, the working and parliamentary groups will initiate and propose amendments to UK computer related legislation and influence EC draft directives. EURIM has a central core of twelve European members with an outer circle of some twenty industry advisors for specific projects. The organization will also work with European user groups and professional bodies. The proposed structure of EURIM consists of mirror image groups being established within every European member state, each reporting to its own government, the European Parliament, DTI and CBI equivalents, and each other. The UK working group’s pilot schemes include the production of security guidelines for computer users a code of practice in a reasonably concise format and recommendations for amendments to European laws relating to computer security, data protection, computer misuse and the relationship between competition and intellectual property laws in the IT market. Commenting on the launch of EURIM, Nicholson said that the initiative, “will potentially enable Europe to achieve the necessary degree of conformity across all information technology legislation”.
Tax return fraud is tackled, The US Justice Department has indicted more than 30 individuals said to be involved in frauds related to electronic Federal income tax returns. Additional indictments are expected to be issued at the end of the 1992 tax return season. The US Internal Revenue Service has declined to comment on this situation and upon a related investigation by the US General Accounting Office. The latter’s audit concluded that the Service was unable or unwilling to impose penalties on taxpayers who submit erroneous or obviously fraudulent returns.
01992
Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
False refund claims totalling more than $960 000 are said to be involved in electronic tax return indictments already returned in El Paso and Los Angeles. A key element in the fraud scheme involved securing a Refund Anticipation Loan from a local bank, after the return was filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The proceeds of such a loan, according to the indictments, were shared among the participants in the scheme. When it was secured, the tax return refund was used to repay the loan. Be/den Menkus
Richardson calls for special investigation Former US Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, has called publicly for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the lnslaw case. This case purportedly involves US Justice Department officials in the theft and sale of computer software. Richardson, while a member of the administration of Richard Nixon, demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor. This appointment led to an independent investigation of the Watergate conspiracy and resulted, ultimately, in Nixon’s resignation. Richardson represents the small software maker that is claiming injury by the Justice Department officials. He wants a separate inquiry into the conclusion of US Court of Appeal that in its dealings with Inslaw, The (US) Government acted wilfully and fraudulently to obtain property that it was not entitled to under its contract”. According to Richardson, the US Justice Department contracted Inslaw’s Promis program to keep track of legal cases in the Department’s Washington headquarters, and the US Attorneys’ offices through the country. After Promis had been installed in 19 of these offices the Department, which had withheld payments for the product, terminated the contract and forced lnslaw into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, it has been claimed that the Department had copied
3
Fraud & Security Bulletin
wearing bottles over his body, which Popp claimed would defend himself against micro-organisms. Popp has been in a London, UK, hospital since September.
January
1992
Popp’s charges included blackmail and criminal damage relating to an incident during Christmas, 1989. According to the UK Metropolitan Police, Popp had sent out over
bookmakers. It was designed to keep track of scheduled sporting events, the lines (or odds) on each event, the names of the betters and runners (subordinate bookmakers) involved, the amounts of money wagered on each event, the commissions earned by the various participants in the bookmaking operation, the amounts of money won and lost by each better on each event, and the status of each better’s account.
20 000 diskettes containing AIDS information and a Trojan Horse, to various international organizations. Prior to Popp’s extradition to the UK, his US attorney claimed that Popp’s aim was to provide information about AIDS via the PC. “He (Popp) says that it is legitimate scientific research,” said the attorney, who also confirmed that Popp had been prepared to send out some 2 million more diskettes. “We just hope that he doesn’t do it again, and that we won’t hear about him again until his book comes out,” commented the UK prosecutor, Richard Curtis.
The system was discovered to include a ‘bail out’ feature. In the event of a police raid on a bookmaking operation, this feature permitted easy transfer of the data from the micro to a system located in Mexico. After the police had left without finding the incriminating information, the bookmaker would have been permitted (for a fee) to retrieve the data from Mexico. Purchasers of the system were promised that in such a situation they could return to doing business as usual in about 20 minutes.
Charlotte Klopp and Tina Monk
Investigation closes down bookmaker system The development and marketing of a bookmakers’ computer system has been stopped after a major investigation. Bookmaking is an illegal activity in the USA. The investigation marked the first time in New York State that a court had ordered access to computer records of betting activity. Ten individuals were indicted as a result of the investigation, nine of these people eventually pleaded guilty to various charges. This ring was alleged to have accepted at least $17 million in illegal wagers and to have laundered more then $3 million. The latter phase of the operation involved the movement of funds through a Fort Worth, Texas, currency exchange. The actual exchanges of currency took place in Las Vegas and other points in the us. The investigation revealed that the bosses of the bookmaking ring and the currency exchange had collaborated on a computer system designed to be sold to other illegal
The plan called for selling the system, after it was demonstrated at a Las Vegas wagering convention, to illegal bookmakers throughout the USA. The demonstration was secretly videotaped by the Las Vegas Police Department intelligence unit. The conspirators were unaware of it at the time, but the technician who operated the system during the demonstration was an investigator. Later a system prototype was installed at a Westchester County site. The data that it contained was eventually transferred, not to the computer in Mexico as the conspirators believed, but to a microcomputer located in the District Attorney’s office. The wagering records captured in this fashion supported several of the indictments. They indicated that the ring had taken over $4.5 million in just one four week period in 1990. Be/den Menkus
European Information
Market
A working group entitled ‘European Information Market’ (EURIM), has been launched with the intention of becoming recognized as an authoritative consultative body on European IT legislation. The EURIM working
01992
Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
January
1992
group, under the honorary presidency of the UK Member of Parliament, Emma Nicholson, will support and work in conjunction with the EURIM All-party Parliamentary Group, which Nicholson is currently forming. Together, the working and parliamentary groups will initiate and propose amendments to UK computer related legislation and influence EC draft directives. EURIM has a central core of twelve European members with an outer circle of some twenty industry advisors for specific projects. The organization will also work with European user groups and professional bodies. The proposed structure of EURIM consists of mirror image groups being established within every European member state, each reporting to its own government, the European Parliament, DTI and CBI equivalents, and each other. The UK working group’s pilot schemes include the production of security guidelines for computer users a code of practice in a reasonably concise format and recommendations for amendments to European laws relating to computer security, data protection, computer misuse and the relationship between competition and intellectual property laws in the IT market. Commenting on the launch of EURIM, Nicholson said that the initiative, “will potentially enable Europe to achieve the necessary degree of conformity across all information technology legislation”.
Tax return fraud is tackled, The US Justice Department has indicted more than 30 individuals said to be involved in frauds related to electronic Federal income tax returns. Additional indictments are expected to be issued at the end of the 1992 tax return season. The US Internal Revenue Service has declined to comment on this situation and upon a related investigation by the US General Accounting Office. The latter’s audit concluded that the Service was unable or unwilling to impose penalties on taxpayers who submit erroneous or obviously fraudulent returns.
01992
Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
False refund claims totalling more than $960 000 are said to be involved in electronic tax return indictments already returned in El Paso and Los Angeles. A key element in the fraud scheme involved securing a Refund Anticipation Loan from a local bank, after the return was filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The proceeds of such a loan, according to the indictments, were shared among the participants in the scheme. When it was secured, the tax return refund was used to repay the loan. Be/den Menkus
Richardson calls for special investigation Former US Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, has called publicly for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the lnslaw case. This case purportedly involves US Justice Department officials in the theft and sale of computer software. Richardson, while a member of the administration of Richard Nixon, demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor. This appointment led to an independent investigation of the Watergate conspiracy and resulted, ultimately, in Nixon’s resignation. Richardson represents the small software maker that is claiming injury by the Justice Department officials. He wants a separate inquiry into the conclusion of US Court of Appeal that in its dealings with Inslaw, The (US) Government acted wilfully and fraudulently to obtain property that it was not entitled to under its contract”. According to Richardson, the US Justice Department contracted Inslaw’s Promis program to keep track of legal cases in the Department’s Washington headquarters, and the US Attorneys’ offices through the country. After Promis had been installed in 19 of these offices the Department, which had withheld payments for the product, terminated the contract and forced lnslaw into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, it has been claimed that the Department had copied
3