Americas

  • United States

Asia

Oceania

by CSO Contributor

Dutch Police Arrest 52 E-Mail Scammers; U.S. Government Offers Free Cyber Alerts; $116 Million Awarded in Terrorism Suit

News
Jan 29, 20042 mins
CSO and CISOData and Information Security

Dutch Police Arrest 52 E-Mail Scammers

According to The Register today, Dutch police have arrested 52 Nigerian email scammers at 23 locations in Amsterdam in what is believed to be the biggest raid of its kind. Several PCs, mobile phones, false documents and ¬ 50,000 in cash were confiscated. Dutch police believes the criminals sent 100,000 messages to victims in Japan and the USA. More arrests may follow. For the first time Dutch police confirmed close ties between Nigerian email scammers and drug smugglers from the Dutch Antilles, The Register says. Money taken from victims in e mail scams is used to finance narcotics smuggling, the Unusual Transactions Reporting Centre of the Netherlands believes.U.S. Government Offers Free Cyber AlertsYahoo yesterday, anyone who signs up with the new National Cyber Alert System will receive e-mails about major virus outbreaks and other Internet attacks as they occur, along with detailed instructions to help computer users protect themselves. The new alert system puts the government in direct competition with dozens of companies and organizations that already transmit similar cyber warnings, the story notes.

According to an AP story on

$116 Million Awarded in Terrorism Suit today reports that a Rhode Island federal judge has ordered the Palestinian militant group Hamas to pay $116 million to the family of an Israeli couple gunned down by terrorists in Israel. It was only the second time that a U.S. judge has awarded damages to the victims of nongovernment sponsors of foreign terrorism, and it was the first time that a judge has laid out a mechanism to determine what the damages should be and to specifically provide for emotional losses, the Globe says. The families of the couple became the first to file a lawsuit under a law Congress passed in 1991 allowing suits in US courts against foreign terrorist organizations. Their victory allows them to try to seize Hamas assets on U.S. soil.

The Boston globe