Hacker News with Generative AI: Fraud

Fyre Festival 2 tickets on sale; Mexican officials: "no permits have been filed" (livenowfox.com)
Tickets for Fyre Festival 2 are on sale, but Mexican officials say no one has applied for permits to hold the event.

Festivals, Events, Mexico, Fraud, Fyre Festival

6 points by sva_ 1 day ago | 0 comments

Problematic Paper Screener: Trawling for Fraud in the Scientific Literature (theconversation.com)
The Problematic Paper Screener trawls through 130 million scholarly papers every week looking for telltale signs that papers were produced by paper mills.

Science, Research, Fraud, Artificial Intelligence

5 points by turtleyacht 4 days ago | 0 comments

Verifiable science on modified PCR machine (github.com/ClemHeyd)
Scientific fraud kills. At Duke, 117 cancer patients received wrong treatments due to fabricated data. At Harvard, fake cardiac stem cell research led to years of invalid clinical trials. At Brigham and Women's, fictional pain studies changed treatment protocols nationwide.

Science, Medical Research, Fraud

53 points by kotaKat 7 days ago | 18 comments

US court upholds Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes's conviction (theguardian.com)
A US court upheld the conviction of the Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars while operating her failed blood-testing startup, once valued at $9bn, rejecting her multi-year appeal.

Law, Business, Healthcare, Technology, Fraud

79 points by stevekemp 12 days ago | 107 comments

150-Year-Olds Aren't Collecting Social Security Benefits (wired.com)
Elon Musk claims to have found rampant fraud in the Social Security Administration. There's a much simpler explanation.

Social Security, Fraud, Elon Musk, Misinformation

15 points by ConfusedDog 19 days ago | 4 comments

DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds (dropsitenews.com)
DOGE has gained access to FEMA’s core financial management system, according to sources within FEMA, and “has been embedded for days now.”

Cryptocurrency, Government, Fraud

185 points by jkestner 24 days ago | 285 comments

Shopify says fraud risk, not Nazi swastika, was reason for Kanye store takedown (thelogic.co)
TORONTO — Shopify’s general counsel said the company took down musician Kanye West’s online store because of the potential for fraud, not because it was selling a Nazi T-shirt, an internal staff announcement obtained by The Logic reveals.

Shopify, Fraud, Kanye West, Controversy, Business

9 points by moonka 24 days ago | 2 comments

Chinese Temu sellers use fake U.S. postage labels to boost their profits (restofworld.org)
Some Chinese Temu merchants are padding their profits by using counterfeit postage labels to trick the U.S. Postal Service into delivering packages for free.

E-commerce, Fraud, China, United States, Shipping

12 points by impish9208 26 days ago | 0 comments

Hard disk fraud: long runtimes on new Seagate hard disks (heise.de)
Almost 200 readers have now noticed long runtimes on their new Seagate hard disks. Reports from abroad are also increasing.

Hardware, Hard Drives, Fraud, Consumer Issues

148 points by namanyayg 27 days ago | 92 comments

Couple allegedly tricked AI investors into funding wedding, houses (arstechnica.com)
The founder of an AI startup in San Francisco was indicted this week for allegedly conspiring with his wife for six years to defraud investors out of $60 million.

Artificial Intelligence, Fraud, Startups, Finance, Crime

14 points by LinuxBender 43 days ago | 4 comments

Police struggling to keep pace with cryptocurrency fraudsters (cbc.ca)
Ottawa police say they're receiving daily reports of cryptocurrency fraud from victims who have been swindled out of their savings and investments, with very little chance of getting their money back.

Cryptocurrency, Fraud, Law Enforcement, Crime

7 points by uladzislau 43 days ago | 0 comments

Fish Startup Allegedly Faked Most of Its Sales (yahoo.com)
EFishery Pte, one of Indonesia’s most prominent startups, may have inflated its revenue and profit over several years, according to an internal investigation triggered by a whistleblower’s claim about the company’s accounting.

Startup, Fraud, Indonesia, Accounting, Business

3 points by ChrisMarshallNY 46 days ago | 0 comments

Fake Reviews Have Become the Internet's Perfect Crime (thewalrus.ca)
In a world of information chaos, the idea of consensus has intuitive appeal.

Online Reviews, Fraud, Consumer Protection, Internet

9 points by pseudolus 47 days ago | 0 comments

The Biggest Gaming Fraud in History – Elon Musk (youtube.com)

Gaming, Fraud, Elon Musk

10 points by doener 49 days ago | 1 comments

CFPB Orders Operator of Cash App to Pay $175M and Fix Its Failures on Fraud (consumerfinance.gov)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Block, the operator of the peer-to-peer payments app Cash App, to refund and pay other redress to consumers up to $120 million and pay a penalty of $55 million into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.

Financial Regulation, Fintech, Consumer Protection, Fraud

4 points by cbrozefsky 50 days ago | 0 comments

Pastor who saw crypto project in his "dream" indicted for fraud (bleepingcomputer.com)
A pastor at a Pasco, Washington, church has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly operating a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded investors of millions between 2021 and 2023.

Cryptocurrency, Fraud, Religion, Law Enforcement

8 points by botanicals6 52 days ago | 5 comments

UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000% (fortune.com)
UnitedHealth, employer of slain exec Brian Thompson, found to have overcharged some cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%

Healthcare, Fraud, UnitedHealth, Cancer, Pricing

360 points by this_weekend 52 days ago | 307 comments

Ex-MoviePass CEO Pleads Guilty; DOJ Calls Case Early Instance of "AI Washing" (deadline.com)
Theodore Farnsworth, the former CEO of MoviePass parent Helios & Matheson Analytics, pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding and conspiring to defraud investors in two public companies, including lying about artificial intelligence capabilities that it didn’t have.

Business, Law, Artificial Intelligence, Fraud

4 points by gurjeet 58 days ago | 1 comments

Multiple Apple employees fired for Matching Grants fraud; six charged so far (9to5mac.com)
Around fifty Apple employees have been fired for allegedly defrauding the company via its Matching Grants program, in which the company agrees to match charitable donations made by employees.

Apple, Fraud, Corporate Crime, Matching Grants, Employee Misconduct

10 points by mgh2 59 days ago | 8 comments

Carvana Is Cooking Its Books, Hindenburg Research Claims (gizmodo.com)
Carvana may be a house of cards. That’s according to investment research and activist short-selling firm Hindenburg Research (never a good sign to be the subject of ire from a company named after a famous disaster), which published a report on Thursday that accuses the online used car seller of “accounting manipulation” stemming from unstable loans that it is using to temporarily prop up its prospects while its father-son ownership team cashes out.

Finance, Accounting, Business, Automotive, Fraud

5 points by hilux 65 days ago | 0 comments

'Disturbing surge in cryptocurrency fraud' led by young, tech-savvy Nigerian men (studyfinds.org)
SURREY, England — In an eye-opening study that sheds new light on the evolving landscape of digital financial crime, researchers have uncovered a striking pattern in Nigerian cryptocurrency fraud: all convicted perpetrators are male, and nearly two-thirds are under 30 years old.

Cryptocurrency, Fraud, Nigeria, Crime, Demographics

5 points by Brajeshwar 65 days ago | 0 comments

Over 3.1M fake "stars" on GitHub projects used to boost rankings (bleepingcomputer.com)
GitHub has a problem with inauthentic "stars" used to artificially inflate the popularity of scam and malware distribution repositories, helping them reach more unsuspecting users.

Security, GitHub, Software Development, Fraud

31 points by emreb 66 days ago | 2 comments

South Korean adoptees and families rocked by fraud allegations (apnews.com)
Her greatest fear, dormant for decades, came rushing back in an instant: had she adopted and raised a kidnapped child?

Adoption, South Korea, Fraud, Family

8 points by achristmascarl 68 days ago | 0 comments

$4.3B+ distributed, Nearly Full Recovery, to 40k+ Victims of Madoff Ponzi Scheme (justice.gov)
The Justice Department announced today that the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) began its 10th and final distribution of over $131.4 million to victims of the Bernard L. Madoff fraud scheme.

Finance, Law Enforcement, Fraud, Ponzi Schemes

18 points by gnabgib 68 days ago | 6 comments

CFPB sues Chase, BofA, and Wells Fargo for allowing fraud to fester on Zelle (consumerfinance.gov)
Americans have lost hundreds of millions of dollars to fraud tied to payment network’s shoddy safeguards

Finance, Lawsuits, Fraud, Banking

46 points by impish9208 78 days ago | 6 comments

Slync Founder Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Fraud (justice.gov)
Slync founder Christopher Kirchner was sentenced today to 20 years in federal prison for defrauding investors of tens of millions of dollars, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Fraud, Business, Law, Finance, Criminal Justice

7 points by nigelgutzmann 90 days ago | 2 comments

Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain (theguardian.com)
The World Beekeeping Awards will not award a prize for honey next year after warnings of widespread fraud in the global supply chain.

Beekeeping, Food Industry, Fraud, Awards, Supply Chain

203 points by a_w 98 days ago | 232 comments

Triangle fraud in brick and mortar retail (getcho.app)
A while back, Krebs dropped a piece about a guy caught in triangle fraud scheme; below is the infographic he used.

Fraud, Security, Infographics

84 points by jackconsidine 99 days ago | 42 comments

Macy's employee hid as much as $154M in expenses (npr.org)
A former Macy's employee allegedly hid up to $154 million in delivery expenses for nearly three years, the retailer announced on Monday.

Business, Fraud, Retail, Finance

7 points by geox 103 days ago | 1 comments

Macy's says an employee hid up to $154M in expenses (apnews.com)
Macy’s reported weaker-than-expected sales for the third quarter and said it’s delaying the release of its full quarterly results after it discovered an employee intentionally hid up to $154 million of expenses over several years

Business, Finance, Retail, Fraud

6 points by malshe 103 days ago | 0 comments