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Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

itnews.com.au

81–90 of 100 posts

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#81
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We seem to be exposed to different information on the EU. > notorious for rich people to lobby I don't know about rich people, but companies seem to have a lot of success in doing so. > Murdoch backer of Brexit This is not evidence that the EU is hard to lobby. People across the political spectrum can be anti-EU: Corbyn, who's as left and as anti-corruption as they come, was a Leaver (and a UK with Corbyn as PM would…

> One article that I enjoyed is this: https://archive.is/YieBg The corruption in EU is indeed happening through local governments(EU allocates money for projects, local governments who actually end up getting the money to execute these projects siphon that to their cronies or to spice up the local economies), as per this article and the articles in ftm.eu

> as per this article

This is one article that says the European Commission is not aware of 90% of EU fraud cases: at this scale, this can't be brushed off as being the fault of member states.

> and the articles in ftm.eu

No. That is not what FTM investigations show. At all.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#82
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of requiring a phone number, accept a small amount ($1-2) in cryptocurrency. You can charge extra if the user sends too many DMs or gives too many likes. Perfect solution against spammers. However, personal information costs much more than $2, so the companies will continue to demand a phone number. Mobile OS developers even developed a format for automatically transferring SMS OTP to a website to help scammy…

Requiring a user to use cryptocurrency sounds like a great way to not have a lot of users.

[deleted]

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#83
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One article that I enjoyed is this: https://archive.is/YieBg The corruption in EU is indeed happening through local governments(EU allocates money for projects, local governments who actually end up getting the money to execute these projects siphon that to their cronies or to spice up the local economies), as per this article and the articles in ftm.eu

> as per this article This is one article that says the European Commission is not aware of 90% of EU fraud cases: at this scale, this can't be brushed off as being the fault of member states. > and the articles in ftm.eu No. That is not what FTM investigations show. At all.

The site is paywalled, can't check the articles but at least one of the headlines is about the local government corruption(how Orban funnels Hungary's assets to its allies).

Since EU doesn't directly deal with anything, there's not much opportunity for corruption. It's almost always down the pipeline.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#84
post #76

That's probably the cause why I cannot get an Australian phone number nor data plan for my month long business visit here. 3 different prepaid SIM's cannot get registered with my foreign Austrian passport. Roaming is way too expensive here. Telstra support tells me to call their free support number, nice catch 22. I cannot use my phone, only hotel, company or free wifi. There is no free wifi, because hackers. Telstra…

Did you miss the part of the article where it stated the group was in Latvia and not in an Asian country?

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#86
post #84
post #76

That's probably the cause why I cannot get an Australian phone number nor data plan for my month long business visit here. 3 different prepaid SIM's cannot get registered with my foreign Austrian passport. Roaming is way too expensive here. Telstra support tells me to call their free support number, nice catch 22. I cannot use my phone, only hotel, company or free wifi. There is no free wifi, because hackers. Telstra…

Did you miss the part of the article where it stated the group was in Latvia and not in an Asian country?

This group was in Latvia, last week they raided a SIM farm near New York, but the article came from Australia, and they are acting weird.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#87
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed the title more that I want to admit TBH :) In every country in Europe people are pissed with their government and hate the police but when its a "Euro" thing it feels much better. The online narrative may make you think that "Europe" is a dirty word(chat control, cookie banner, regulations, fines etc), but its actually much more pure than any local politics and much much less divisive. The "Euro cops" phras…

This reminded me of something Jean-Claude Juncker once said about democracy in the EU: > We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it. Being a step removed from local politics means they can do stuff without the immediate fear they're all kicked out, but the other downside of people not really caring who they elect is it's relatively easy to be elected on a "We hate the EU" lin…

I love the EU.

There just isn't a better place to live (having lived in other places like the UK, US and CH, and visited many countries).

For example, when I meet European researchers, each has some things to bitch about their own governments, but we all agree the unity of the EU is very valuable, and that we are very grateful for what it has given us (democratic stability, freedom of movement, a vision for living together respecting and celebrating our cultural differences yet sharing key values).

In the media, in particularly in the UK, people had not much good to say about the "European beaurocrats". In contrast, I work with some very committed officers in Brussels that administer the Horizon Europe research programme, and they are doing a job as well as possible given legal and political constraints. How they work is too little known by the general public, which makes the EU bashing easy but not quite fair.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#88
post #60
post #33

This is a legitimate service also used by privacy minded individuals - just like the recent similar raid in the USA. What's the actual crime here?

The fact that it was run by actual organized crime group using the SIMs to commit crimes in masse. Article lays it out quite clearly.

After the USA did the exact same thing, I'm predisposed to not trust this statement without seeing any evidence. The USA seems to have assumed criminal activity simply based on the fact of unusual hardware, and I'd like to see evidence the EU hasn't done the same. Perhaps my skepticism is misplaced though, perhaps the police over there are less arrest-hungry and they have only done this after having real evidence that this SIM farm actually belongs to a spam ring and isn't just something they use.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#89
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminded me of something Jean-Claude Juncker once said about democracy in the EU: > We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it. Being a step removed from local politics means they can do stuff without the immediate fear they're all kicked out, but the other downside of people not really caring who they elect is it's relatively easy to be elected on a "We hate the EU" lin…

I love the EU. There just isn't a better place to live (having lived in other places like the UK, US and CH, and visited many countries). For example, when I meet European researchers, each has some things to bitch about their own governments, but we all agree the unity of the EU is very valuable, and that we are very grateful for what it has given us (democratic stability, freedom of movement, a vision for living to…

Hi stumble on this tweet about EUs Horizon program and the person who wrote it looks very frustrated: https://x.com/ewasniecinska/status/1982130441088794788

Can you maybe give some context on the issues he's talking about?

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#90
post #88
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it was run by actual organized crime group using the SIMs to commit crimes in masse. Article lays it out quite clearly.

After the USA did the exact same thing, I'm predisposed to not trust this statement without seeing any evidence. The USA seems to have assumed criminal activity simply based on the fact of unusual hardware, and I'd like to see evidence the EU hasn't done the same. Perhaps my skepticism is misplaced though, perhaps the police over there are less arrest-hungry and they have only done this after having real evidence tha…

This didn't happen in USA and don't compare EU (or Latvia or Austria or any othe participating states) to a fascist state ruled by a tyrant.

In any case, you had all the facts laid out in the article.

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