Aggregator

Scammers are extorting small businesses worldwide by threatening to flood their Google Maps profiles with fake one-star reviews or demanding payment to remove reviews already posted, according to The New York Times. Fraudsters target service businesses dependent on online ratings -- movers, roofers, contractors -- demanding hundreds of dollars per incident. The Times story documents many cases, including of one Los Angeles contractor Natalia Piper, who paid $250 to multiple scammers after her rating plummeted from 5.0 to 3.6 stars. Industry watchdog Fake Review Watch documented over 150 affected businesses globally. The scammers typically operate from Pakistan and Bangladesh using WhatsApp to contact victims. Google removes most fraudulent content but offers no direct support channel for targeted businesses.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Saudi government officials arrived in the U.S. nearly three years before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to reportedly serve as an 'advance team' for hijackers, according to newly declassified reports.

Tom Mannello (pictured) was moments away from taking off on 11 September 2001 when his flight was instructed not to take off from JFK airport.

Atlantic Council warns US investors are fueling a market that undermines national security

After years of being dominated by outsiders, the computer surveillance software industry is booming in the United States as investors rush into the ethically dodgy but highly lucrative field.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Verizon lost an attempt to overturn a $46.9 million fine for selling customer location data without its users' consent. The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected Verizon's challenge in a ruling (PDF) issued today. The Federal Communications Commission fined the three major carriers last year for violations revealed in 2018. The companies sued the FCC in three different courts, with varying results. AT&T beat the FCC in the reliably conservative US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, while T-Mobile lost in the District of Columbia Circuit. Although FCC Chairman Brendan Carr voted against (PDF) the fine last year, when the commission had a Democratic majority, his FCC urged the courts to uphold the Biden-era decisions. A ruling against the FCC could gut the agency's ability to issue financial penalties. The different rulings from different circuits raise the odds of the cases being taken up by the Supreme Court. Today's 2nd Circuit ruling against Verizon was issued unanimously by a panel of three judges, and it comes to the same legal conclusions as the DC Circuit did in the T-Mobile case. The court did not accept the carrier's argument that the fine violated its Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial and that the location data wasn't protected under the law used by the FCC to issue the penalties. "We disagree [with Verizon]," the 2nd Circuit ruling said. "The customer data at issue plainly qualifies as customer proprietary network information, triggering the Communication Act's privacy protections. And the forfeiture order both soundly imposed liability and remained within the strictures of the penalty cap. Nothing about the Commission's proceedings, moreover, transgressed the Seventh Amendment's jury trial guarantee. Indeed, Verizon had, and chose to forgo, the opportunity for a jury trial in federal court. Thus, we DENY Verizon's petition." Until 2019, the ruling said Verizon operated a location-based services program that sold customer location data through intermediaries like LocationSmart and Zumigo, who then resold it to dozens of third-party entities. Instead of directly managing consent and notifications, Verizon "largely delegated those functions via contract" to its partners, a system that came under scrutiny after a 2018 New York Times report exposed security breaches. One major misuse involved Securus Technologies, which "was misusing the program to enable law enforcement officers to access location data without customers' knowledge or consent, so long as the officers uploaded a warrant or some other legal authorization," the ruling said. Verizon argued that Section 222 of the Communications Act only covered call-location data, but the court ruled that device-location data also qualifies as protected customer information.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The pregnant comedian, 42, was joined by her mother, Julie McCarthy, 65, for the star-studded event on Thursday evening.

Abubakr Yusaf, 30, an optometrist from Manchester, allegedly crashed head-on into Rhys Jenkins while racing his brother Umar Yusaf, 34 on the A483 near Welshpool, on November 16.

Charlotte Winstanley, 27, had a 'romantic relationship' with convicted thug Jabhari Blair, 29, during her time working at HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire.

For whom the bill tolls

Content creation and delivery companies have introduced a digital licensing mechanism in an effort to compensate media makers when AI companies use their work.…

The chain has announced it will be shutting the doors at all 12 of its branches across the country just five years after launching.

Perplexity AI is the latest AI startup to be hit with a lawsuit by copyright holders, accused by Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster of misusing their content in its "answer engine" for internet searches. From a report: The reference companies alleged in New York federal court on Wednesday that Perplexity unlawfully copied their material and diminished their revenue by redirecting their web traffic to its AI-generated summaries.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

James Roscoe - who has worked for Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - lives in Washington DC with his wife Clemency Burton-Hill and their two young sons Tomos and Joe.

The Lancashire-based 'biohacking pioneer' who previously admitted that if she had 'one more drink, she could have died', has shared details of her new lifestyle in conversation with The Standard.

Lee Stinton, 45, claims he was 'kidnapped off the street,' subjected to medical procedures while shackled, and left traumatized after a month in U.S. custody.

Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned Spain's socialist prime minster for issuing what he called a 'blatant genocidal threat' against Israel.

Lisa Snowdon showed off her incredible figure in a skimpy pink and orange bikini on Wednesday as she shared an empowering message about body confidence.

Heartbroken boyfriend Stas Nikulytsia has spoken of his anguish after the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska, 23, on a train in North Carolina.

Okta uncovers new phishing-as-a-service operation with 'multiple entities' falling victim

Multiple attackers using a new phishing service dubbed VoidProxy to target organizations' Microsoft and Google accounts have successfully stolen users' credentials, multi-factor authentication codes, and session tokens in real time, according to security researchers.…

Experts now warn that Japanese knotweed is not the only invasive plant gardeners need to be worried about.

Sega allegedly orchestrated a police raid to recover Nintendo development kits it had accidentally disposed of during an office relocation from Brentford to Chiswick Business Park. An anonymous UK reseller purchased the items -- including Game Boy Advance, DSi, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U development consoles plus prototype games like Sonic Chronicles and Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games -- for roughly $13,575 from a removals worker handling Sega's office clearance. City of London Police arrested the seller July 14, 2025, on money laundering charges, deploying approximately ten officers to seize the hardware. The seller claims the search warrant was defective and authorized Sega representatives to participate in the raid. Nintendo development kits remain the hardware manufacturer's property regardless of possession, outlet Time Extension writes. Police requested the seller relinquish ownership two days after releasing him from eight hours in custody, which he refused. Sega has not responded to multiple legal letters or six separate pre-action protocol claims from the seller.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.