Security News

Police in Quebec have arrested 45 people and seized more than 12,000 counterfeit bank cards in raids on an international fraud ring that cloned cards and pilfered cash from victims' accounts.

"We believe that we’ve put an end to a significant operation that was in operation here in the province," said Guy Pilon of the Sûreté du Québec.

"Internationally, it is a reality that is obviously evident in all countries today. The advent of the technology creates opportunity for the public, but also for criminal organizations that want to defraud individuals."

The network was based in Montreal, but worked with accomplices in Vancouver, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Tunisia and the United Kingdom. 

The RCMP say 61 arrest warrants have been issued on charges including gangsterism, manufacturing of forged cards, fraud and identity theft.

It marks the first time Canadian authorities have laid gangsterism charges in connection with a fraud case.

In total, police identified 22,000 victims who were defrauded of $7.7 million. However, the fraud had the potential loss of $100 million, investigators explained.

The fraud worked like this:

- Point-of-sale pin pads were stolen or taken with consent of employees from commercial businesses and replaced with a dummy pin pad.

- The pin pads would be taken to a hotel where they were outfitted with a card reader and Bluetooth transmitter before they were swapped back in at the business.

- The suspects would leave them in place for several weeks or a month as data was captured from customers.

- That data was transferred remotely to a computer via the Bluetooth.

- That information was then recorded on a blank card and the pin number written on top.

- In a coordinated attack, a group of "runners" would use those cards and hit bank machines all at the same time, draining as many accounts as possible before the banks caught on.

In one such attack, the fraudsters used 79 cards at 23 banks and drained $30,000 out of victims' accounts – all within five minutes.

Pilon said police in Quebec are working with international authorities to help identify accomplices outside of Canada.

A steady stream of vehicles carrying suspects flowed into Montreal police's northern operational headquarters Wednesday morning. More than 30 arrests had been made by 9 a.m. ET.

Locations in the greater Montreal area and Ontario were targeted, with about 250 officers involved in the operation.

The RCMP said the wave of arrests follows a major debit card fraud takedown in November 2010.

Source: http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/quebec-debit-card-ring-defrauds-22000-victims-1

On Friday afternoon, some members of the Burlington Bulldogs novice team already had their bags packed for a trip to the World Juniors Hockey Championships in Edmonton later this month.

But on Friday night the online contest, in which the Burlington squad had amassed more than 55,000 votes, was closed due to vote tampering.

“This decision was made with heavy hearts,” read a statement posted by the Tim-Br Mart video challenge team on the contest’s website. The statement said the contest was closed “due to persistent illegal and malicious hacking and tampering.”

The online contest asked teams to post videos showcasing their team sprit and a love for hockey. The Burlington Bulldogs had placed third in the same competition the year before, winning $2,500 at Source for Sports for the team of then seven-year-olds.

This year, they were leading going into the final two days of voting. Ten-thousand votes behind, sitting in second place, was the Ancaster Avalanche pewee (11-year-olds) team. They were poised to with $5,000 from Source for Sports after two weeks of canvassing votes.

“The contest has been the target of significant and sustained attack by one or more hackers, which has continued to impact the integrity of the voting totals,” read the online statement. “We are working closely with both the RCMP and an independent IT forensics security firm and will co-operate in every way with their investigation, as they work to identify and pursue appropriate action against the person or persons responsible for this attack and tampering.”

It is unclear which team’s votes were tampered with.

The prize of a trip to the World Juniors will still be awarded by a Dec. 8 draw of the 25 teams who entered the competition. Each of the remaining teams will receive $1,000 in gift certificates to Source for Sports.

“This is not the outcome we hoped for,” read the statement. “We are as devastated as the teams, their fans, supporters and all voters. Please accept our sincerest and deepest regrets.”

Source: http://www.insidehalton.com/sports/article/1257026--vote-tampering-shuts-down-online-contest

Manotick pizzeria owner Khodor Eldidi is as hot as his ovens these days.

His latest Internet hassle - his second in about six months - is costing him customers, says Eldidi, just like the first.

It's a pretty unethical thing for a small businessman to have to put up with, even in dog-eat-dog cyberspace. He figures sales have dropped by $200 a day - maybe more - during that time.

His problems began last spring when one of his regular customers called to ask if Tops Pizza had become a Pizza Pizza franchise - like the one near Eldidi's shop.

Eldidi was told to look at his website. He entered Tops Pizza on Google, the website search engine, and couldn't believe his eyes when the electronic page opened.

A huge Pizza Pizza menu, complete with specials and its central phone number for the Ottawa area, appeared on his computer screen. His menu was nowhere to be found.

His website had been hacked, Eldidi figured, so he called his Pizza Pizza counterpart in Manotick to give him an earful. But the competitor denied any knowledge or involvement. Eldidi's lawyer, Andrew Wilson, complained to the chain's head office. The Pizza Pizza menu on his website was removed, says Eldidi, but it still took about two months.

Then, several weeks ago, a man arrived at Eldidi's pizzeria and strongly suggested he buy a $100 ad on a website restaurant directory known as MenuMap. The directory is one of several operated on the Internet by Source Networks Inc.

"'No, no, no, I had enough trouble with Pizza Pizza,'" Eldidi recalls telling the Menu-Map salesman, who, strangely, happens to be an Ottawa dentist. Dr. Ben Fong left him his card and a letter, explaining MenuMap and its ad promotion.

"Your restaurant is already listed on our website," says the letter. "However, we are offering you the opportunity to maximize the visibility of your restaurant to all visitors of our website, by incorporating you into this new promotion."

The letter says the $100 fee would include a special advertisement on MenuMap in September and other bonuses to entice new customers to his business.

Last week, Eldidi found out the consequences of not buying into the promotion. And again, like the last time, a loyal customer called Eldidi. He wanted to know if Tops was now affiliated with Milano City Pizza, another Manotick competitor.

The customer was curious because of a Milano City ad that was prominently displayed on a website he opened after doing a Google search for Tops Pizza.

Eldidi's pizzeria is listed as well on that website, along with its address and phone number, but it is hardly noticeable beside the Milano City colour ad that screams a 20-per-cent discount on menu items. At the bottom of the same page are links to Tops Pizza's menu with a note: "This menu was not posted by Tops Pizzeria and therefore may not be their current menu, please confirm items (and) pricing when ordering!"

Eldidi says he hit the roof and called Milano City's owner and threatened to sue. Eldidi says his competitor denied any wrongdoing, explaining that he simply paid $100 to have his ad posted on MenuMap.

A man who answered the phone at Milano City on Thursday says he called Fong to tell him he wanted off the Tops Pizza site. But Fong assured him it was the Menu-Map site where Eldidi spotted the Milano City ad, and that if Eldidi was threatening to sue, let him.

As it turns out, the Milano City ad is on the MenuMap site. But the site does cause confusion, especially if customers aren't Google savvy.

Eldidi could stop the confusion by buying a Menu-Map ad.

Says lawyer Wilson: "Maybe this is (Fong's) way of trying to force him on his revenue stream."

But Eldidi refuses. He says he's not an Internet expert, but adds, "This is not professional. This is like the mafia."

Eldidi says when he called Fong, he was berated and called a cheapskate.

Eldidi wants any reference to his pizzeria removed from MenuMap so its website doesn't appear when a customer goes on Google to search for Tops Pizza. Wilson is trying to get a hold of Fong to tell him that.

"(The site) is basically using our name and driving people elsewhere," he says.

"Who has rights to what information? Obviously, Tops Pizza and its phone number and address are public information. However, one would hope it cannot be used in that manner. I'm hopeful (Fong) will see the merit in not creating this confusion, which is not helping my client."

Source Networks, Menu-Map's parent company, could not be reached for comment. And Fong did not return calls to his Herongate Mall clinic, his home or cellphone.

Eldidi says he is just trying to eke out a decent living from his small business, a fixture in Manotick for more than two decades. He bought the pizzeria three years ago.

"I'm not going to be rich. I pay my driver. I pay my rent. I'm happy. But I want to work for myself, nobody else."

Source: http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=7edba7a5-142a-481e-89ad-18f808b1e134

Miffed is the only way to describe how Martin Aitken feels.

The Fredericton businessman wants authorities to do more in the battle against toll fraud - the theft of long-distance phone service.

Aitkens Pewter was recently hit with a bill of $1,563.24 for calls it didn't make to Zimbabwe.

"Today, there is a lack of interest in addressing this particular problem," Aitken said. "The phone companies are just sort of saying, 'Yes, yes, you've been hacked, you've been robbed.' The guys who install the phone systems say, 'Yes, it happens all the time.' And the police say, 'Yes, there is nothing we can do about it.' "

Aitken said he would like to see toll fraud handled in the same way fraudulent use of a credit card is. If that occurs, the charges get reversed to the vendor.

"All of these charges should be reversed back to the Zimbabwean telcom company," Aitken said. "When those charges get reversed back, after a while, somebody will do something about it."

Earlier this month, the Fredericton Police Force issued a warning regarding toll frauds, which add up annually to $12 billion worldwide.

Const. Rick Mooney, who speaks for the force, said police take such things seriously.

"Absolutely, this is a criminal code offence," he said. "It's very technical in nature and is something that crosses borders quite easily. We often, upon receiving complaints, do encourage victims to get in contact with phone busters, as one of the steps that we take."

Public affairs manager for Bell Aliant Isabelle Robinson said the company is aware of the problem. She said it commonly occurs when a customer owns their phone system, including switching equipment and sets.

"Because of the functionality of that type of system, it is possible for someone externally to access their dial tone," she said. "Someone outside the business can intercept your dial tone and it's available for them, unfortunately, to make unauthorized calls."

An example of how it can happen is through voice mail, she said, when a hacker guesses a password and gains access.

That's why it's important to update and secure passwords and not to have one similar to the phone number, Robinson said.

People should also have a good understanding of how their phone system works.

Robinson said Bell Aliant encourages those with an issue about their phone or bill to contact it immediately and to notify police, as well as the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

"If someone doesn't give someone authorization to make a long distance call but they use your phone and incur charges, the owner is still responsible for charges made on their line," she said.

But such breaches will be investigated by the phone company, she said, and every effort will be made to determine if the customer will continue to be responsible for the charged amount or if a portion of the billings can be removed.

Aitken said the best advice he can offer people to avoid what has happened to him is to get a second level of phone password protection.

"There's the password I use to get into my phone system to pick up my messages and there's another password that allows you, apparently, to do programing in your phone system. I wasn't aware of that at all. That has to be put in place for everybody," he said.

Business owners and members of the public are encouraged to contact their telephone service providers to ensure their phone systems have adequate protection against toll fraud.

Source: http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1404374

A man accused of stealing valuable computer code from his employer says he actually lost about $500,000 after starting a rival company overseas.

Roman Cisar, 49, is on trial for allegedly copying the code — the blueprint for the only product sold by Spicer Corp. of Kitchener — and selling virtually the same software program at a third of the price for 11 years.

Officials have estimated that Spicer — which was later sold to Open Text Corp. of Waterloo — lost $28 million in sales because of the discount competitor.

But in testimony Wednesday, Cisar said he made only about $50,000 in sales and had a net loss of about $500,000 while running a company called Parallax69 in his native Czech Republic.

Cisar admits he used the code — described as the “secret formula” for the software — to develop a program called Eroiica that went on the market in 1996.

He insists, however, that the code was given to him by Steve Spicer, majority owner of Spicer Corp., in a secret deal to take advantage of lower labour costs in the Czech Republic.

They were going to be partners in the new company, Cisar said, but Spicer backed out of the arrangement after just a few years because it was taking too long to develop.

Cisar continued to sell Eroiica — direct competition for Spicer’s Imagenation software program — until his company was dissolved in 2007.

A marketing employee, Cisar resigned from Spicer Corp. after working there from 1989 to 1996.

Charges were first laid in 1998, soon after Spicer Corp. learned about the competing company, but Cisar wasn’t arrested until 2007 when he was pulled over in a routine traffic stop while living in Kincardine.

He allegedly fled overseas after the theft, then took steps to conceal his identity and whereabouts after returning to Canada in 2000.

In a 2005 passport application, for instance, Cisar used his wife twice as a reference by listing different names and different addresses for her.

He contends he had no idea police were looking for him, openly advertised his phone number on a company website and travelled outside Canada several times without being questioned.

Cisar said Parallax69 failed after he hired a Czech firm to manage it and he “lost interest” in its operations.

“I didn’t have control of what was going on,” he testified.

Steve Spicer died in 2007, so there is no direct evidence from him on the existence of a secret business deal with Cisar.

But company officials have testified Steve Spicer was furious after the rival firm was discovered, saying the theft of the code made him feel like he had been raped.

Cisar has suggested Steve Spicer feigned outrage because he knew Canadian employees would be upset he was covertly undermining the company.

The source code behind Imagenation — which facilitates the display, editing, scanning and printing of engineering and office documents — was valued by one Spicer official at $15 to $17 million.

The trial has dragged on in fits and starts since April, largely because Cisar doesn’t have a lawyer and is defending himself. It is scheduled to wrap up this week.

Cisar and his wife, Janice Anderson, are also being sued by Open Text.

Source: http://news.therecord.com/news/article/823378

Ontario passed a new law Thursday to stop U.S. entertainment giant Ticketmaster from selling and then reselling tickets to the same event, but the Opposition warned it will do nothing to end scalping or keep prices down.

The Liberal government, supported by the NDP, passed the Ticket Speculation Act, which Attorney General Chris Bentley said will ensure people have fair access to concerts, theatrical or sport events.

``We want to make sure consumers get a fair break, and the Ticket Speculation Act is important in that it's another step to protect consumers,'' said Bentley.

``Fair dealing for consumers is what this is about.''

The province introduced the legislation over a year ago, after people complained they tried to buy concert tickets the minute they went on sale, only to be redirected to another site where prices were much higher.

Ticketmaster said Thursday it does not divert tickets between Ticketmaster Canada and the TicketsNow site, which it owns, or provide preferential access to primary market tickets to TicketsNow.

``Ticketmaster invests heavily in consumer protection through the development of innovative technology and is a leader in purchaser information security, buyer guarantees, fraud protection and crackdowns on brokers purchasing en masse through online software robots,'' the company said in a statement.

Ticketmaster has described TicketsNow as a safe resale service for private individuals.

The Opposition called the legislation ``a sham,'' and warned it will not do anything to stop the resale of tickets at greatly inflated prices.

``It's not going to create one more ticket (and) it's not going to reduce the price of tickets one penny,'' said Progressive Conservative critic Ted Chudleigh.

``Ticketmaster doesn't deflect tickets to TicketsNow; if they did that they'd be out of business.''

Even though the New Democrats voted in favour of the new law, they too complained it won't stop scalpers, especially those that use special computer programs to buy up massive lots of tickets the instant they go on sale.

``The amendments do not impact one iota on the 'bot' computer resellers who use a whole gang of computers and operators to, in nanoseconds of ticket sales commencing, purchase huge blocks of tickets and put them on resale sites,'' said NDP critic Peter Kormos.

``The resale sites are not the owners of the tickets, so they can't be prosecuted under this new legislation, nor can the people using these computer systems to buy huge blocks of tickets because they are not related to the primary seller.''

The Tories also expressed concerns about the electronic scalpers.

``There are very sophisticated scalpers with computer programs that buy up these tickets, and this bill does absolutely nothing to impact that problem,'' said Chudleigh.

Bentley admitted the law wasn't perfect, but said it did its job of making sure the primary seller of tickets can't benefit from resales at prices well above face value.

``It's not all that might be required, but it's an important step to make sure consumers get fair access to tickets at the stated price,'' he said.

Ticketmaster has, in the past, expressed disappointment with the Ontario legislation, saying it would do nothing to enhance protection for consumers who created and drive the resale market.

It said the company is committed to a transparent, secure marketplace for tickets, and that TicketsNow is ``fuelled by the public's demand for scarce event tickets.''

Source: http://www.680news.com/business/article/152297--ontario-ticketmaster-law-bans-firms-from-reselling-tickets-on-sites-they-own

Health Canada is warning consumers about the potential risks of buying prescription drugs online from certain websites, which are offering medications not authorized for sale in Canada and thought to be counterfeit.

Those websites are:www.northdrugmart.com,www.northdrugstore.comandwww.pharmacyrxworld.com.

 Health Canada has identified products on these websites that contain references to brand names and resemble drugs that are authorized to be sold in Canada.

"This may lead consumers to believe they are purchasing drugs that have been reviewed for safety, efficacy and quality by Health Canada," the department said in an advisory Wednesday.

"It is important to note that counterfeit drugs may contain no active or unsuitable ingredients, or dangerous additives. To this end, counterfeit drugs may pose a higher risk than other forms of unauthorized drugs."

Prescription products that have been approved for sale in other countries, or generic products purporting to be the equivalent of authorized products, must still be reviewed by Health Canada and receive their own market authorization or product licence before they may be sold in Canada. 

Patients taking prescription drugs without being examined and monitored by a health-care practitioner may not receive the appropriate treatment to maintain health, and also may put themselves at risk for drug interactions or harmful side-effects, the department warned. 

There is no assurance that all claims made on the Internet are reliable, said Health Canada. Some websites falsely claim to be Canadian pharmacies and dispense foreign drugs that are not authorized for sale in Canada. 

The Ontario College of Pharmacists says the three websites named are not associated with a licensed pharmacy in the province. 

Consumers concerned about their health after using products purchased at these websites should consult their health-care practitioner.

Source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/101103/health/health_online_prescriptions_warning