Eideard

Police in the United States and seven other countries seized computers and servers used to run a “scareware” scheme that has netted more than $72 million from victims tricked into buying fake anti-virus software.

Twenty-two computers and servers were seized in the United States and 25 others in France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom…

The suspects involved in the scheme, who were not identified, planted “scareware” on the computers of 960,000 victims. The scareware would pretend to find malicious software on a computer. The goal is to persuade the victim to voluntarily hand over credit card information, paying to resolve a nonexistent problem.

Latvian authorities seized at least five bank accounts believed to have been used by the leaders of the scam…

U.S. authorities also said…they disrupted a second scam, charging two Latvians with running a similar scareware scheme that led to $2 million in losses through an advertisement placed on a Minnesota newspaper’s website…

Law enforcement officials would not confirm whether the seizures were directly connected to a raid early on Tuesday morning at a web-hosting company in northern Virginia where they took servers, a move that disrupted more than 120 websites.

U.S. authorities have been more aggressive this year in trying to stem cybercrime and have been scrambling to investigate several hacking attempts on U.S. institutions and corporations.

I know there’s no patch for stupid; but, it seems possible – since there have already been a few examples in the field – for the FBI to place software on a few compromised machines and trace back control of botnets to criminal sources.

Grab and incarcerate the crooks – and throw away the key.

U.S. police arrested 17 people and broke up a gun running network that sought to funnel more than 700 firearms including high-powered Kalashnikov rifles to Mexico drug cartels.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, said police arrested 17 suspects in a multi-agency operation across the Phoenix valley on Tuesday. Three other suspects remained at large.

The operation…dismantled a network buying weapons for Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel, investigators said. “We strongly believe we took down the entire organization from top to bottom that operated out of the Phoenix area,” said William Newell, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Phoenix field division…

Arizona straddles a lucrative and heavily trafficked smuggling corridor. Organized criminal networks haul drugs and illegal immigrants north, and spirit guns and cash profits south to Mexico.

The 53-count indictment alleged that from September 2009 to December last year the defendants conspired to purchase hundreds of guns, including Kalashnikov rifles, a weapon of choice for cartel enforcers in Mexico.

It’s the weapon of choice for military-style operations worldwide.

Criminal indictments handed down in the case charged defendants with crimes including conspiracy to obtain a firearm for drug trafficking offense, and making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms.

A conviction for conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison, while making a false statement, five years…

The gun bust comes a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa in Mexico, and restated the United States’ support for Calderon’s drive to crush the cartels.

Clinton acknowledged the role the vast U.S. demand for illegal drugs and the flow of U.S. weapons south across the border to drug smugglers were major contributors to the violence.

Acknowledged, eh? Well, that accomplishes a lot doesn’t it.

Paranoid nutballs and their NRA allies may whine all the way to the next Tuscon-style crime scene; but, the traffic in weapons needs to be as thoroughly regulated as public safety demands. It doesn’t matter if the motivation is sport or safety – though the number of murdered spouses is daunting – fear of what follows is why we get to vote. Someone writes a lousy regulation, throw the bum out.

Preparing for elections,eh?

An Ivory Coast man arrested while allegedly trying to buy weapons in New York last week was on official business, a spokesman for his government says.

Former Ivory Coast Defense Minister Bertin Kadet told Radio France Internationale that the man arrested by the FBI was an army colonel named Yao N’Guessan.

Kadet said N’Guessan was sent to New York to purchase crowd control armaments in advance of the Ivory Coast’s October elections.

The FBI said N’Guessan allegedly was engaged in a deal worth more than $3.8 million for 4,000 handguns, 200,000 rounds of ammunition and 50,000 tear gas grenades when he was apprehended.

The funds to purchase the armaments had already been transferred to the United States.

Opponents of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbago say the arms purchase was intended to keep his party in power.

The United Nations imposed an embargo on arms to the Ivory Coast in 2004.

That’s what happens when you send an amateur out on a shopping trip like this one.

He should have worked through traditional channels, discovered which members of Congress would grease the wheels of international arms sales for him, which lobbyists needed to be engaged to avoid anything like law or principle getting in the way.

Ah. An opportunity for those inclined to see an evil empire behind every monkey.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

This is one of those times when my native cynicism approaches levels of superstition. I really hope the conclusions being reached are appropriate and accurate. But, I would never risk my life on believing Americans can learn from experience.

US consumers slashed their borrowing by a record amount in July as rising job losses and uncertainty about an economic recovery hit home.

Consumer credit fell by $21.6bn (£13.1bn) compared with June, figures from the Federal Reserve showed, massively more than analysts expected. June’s figure was also revised downwards, to $15.5bn from $10.3bn.

Economists say that US households are focusing on cutting back debt levels during the recession.

Meanwhile, there have been signs that the US economy is recovering.

Last week, figures showed that US manufacturing grew in August for the first time in 19 months and that home sales hit a two-year high in July.

That’s it. Short and sweet. Not a lot of analyzing and no psychologizing.

I continue to bump into ancillary articles claiming Americans are learning to save, discovering moderation and good sense. I’ll believe when I see it for a decade or so.