There does not seem to be any more detail, yet. To make this work,
the ‘vouchers’ must not be identifiable as part of the group
stolen. How would they track customer usage? Note: Another easily
identified and easily fixed bug?
China's
Pinduoduo reports theft of online discount vouchers to police
Chinese online
group discounter Pinduoduo Inc said on Sunday that an online
collective exploited a loophole on its platform to “steal” tens
of millions of yuan worth of discount vouchers.
In a statement on its official Weibo account,
Pinduoduo said it
immediately rectified the bug and reported the incident to
police.
Sounds more like the mafia? Are they this good?
What, beside the Hong Kong bank account, points to China?
Cyber Fraud
by Chinese Hackers Makes Headlines in India
… The cyber fraud scam started with a
fraudulent email from Chinese
hackers, spoofed to appear as if it were coming from the CEO
of the company in Italy. The message was written in the tone and
style of the CEO, and raised the prospect of a “secretive” and
“highly confidential” acquisition that could only be pulled off
if funds were wired to bank accounts in Hong Kong. After follow-up
emails, there were then
telephone conference calls between Italy and India, with
Chinese fraudsters impersonating top executives and lawyers. They
convinced the local Indian office that regulatory rules prevented a
direct payment from corporate HQ in Milan; thus, the onus was on the
local Indian operation to fund the acquisition. Payments were sent
in three separate tranches of $5.6 million, $9.4 million, and $3.6
million. However, just before the fourth and final payment was about
to be made, the real chairman of the Italian company showed up in
India for a year-end visit. It’s not hard to imagine what happened
next.
… But here’s where there is still a lot to
explain: how did Chinese fraudsters impersonate top European
officials, including one claiming to be a top Swiss lawyer? At some
point, wouldn’t really bad accents or awkward phrases tip off the
Indian officials that someone was being conned?
… In short, instead of a few hackers in
pajamas trying to hack into computer systems from their basements, we
may be seeing the rise of sophisticated global crime syndicates and
hacking groups that are far more formidable adversaries for corporate
IT directors.
No more “fake news” broadcasts? Of course if
each of the five recipients forward the message to five friends, who
each forward to five friends…
WhatsApp
globally limits text forwards to 5 chats to curb rumours
Facebook Inc's WhatsApp messenger service is
globally limiting message ‘forwards’ to five chats at a time, a
practice it had introduced in India in July last year to crack down
on spread of rumours and fake news through its platform.
… The messaging platform—which counts India,
Brazil and Indonesia among its major markets—said it will continue
to listen to user feedback on their experience, and “over time,
look for new ways of addressing viral content”.
… The move comes at a time when governments
and regulators across the world are looking at effective ways to curb
the spread of fake messages through digital platforms.
(Related) Is this a reversal of the limits above?
Facebook
launches petition feature, its next battlefield
Gather
a mob and Facebook
will now let you make political demands. Tomorrow Facebook will
encounter a slew of fresh complexities with the launch of Community
Actions, its News Feed petition feature. Community Actions could
unite neighbors
to request change from their local and national elected officials and
government agencies. But it could also provide vocal interest groups
a bully pulpit from which to pressure politicians and bureaucrats
with their fringe agendas.
Community Actions embodies the central challenge
facing Facebook. Every tool it designs for positive expression and
connectivity can be subverted for polarization and misinformation.
… The question will be where Facebook’s
moderators draw the line on what’s appropriate as a Community
Action, and the ensuing calls of bias that line will trigger.
Facebook is employing a combination of user flagging, proactive
algorithmic detection, and human enforcers to manage the feature.
But what the left might call harassment, the right might call free
expression. If Facebook allows controversial Community Actions to
persist, it could be viewed as complicit with their campaigns, but
could be criticized for censorship if it takes one down. Like fake
news and trending topics, the feature could become the social
network’s latest can of worms.
Only after the rider gets off.
… Details are, as TechCrunch noted, “scarce,”
but there’s a lot of speculation that Uber is investigating
autonomous versions of the scooters and bikes of the short-term
rental type that have already taken over many major cities. The
Telegraph reported that Uber has begun hiring for the
Micromobility Robotics team, which it wrote had the goal of
developing scooters and bikes that can drive to charging stations
themselves, or possibly to go and pick up riders after the prior
passenger disembarks.
… like competitors Bird and Lime (the latter
of which Uber owns
a minority stake in) the logistics of using a small army of
contractors to pick up the scooters after rides are already a major
money-burner.
… As TechCrunch noted, Uber Jump recently
unveiled a series of upgrades to give some of its bikes
“self-diagnostic capabilities and swappable batteries,” designed
to minimize downtime. Self-driving scooters are an obvious way to
further streamline the business.
Might be fun to install on someone’s computer
without telling them.
This
incredibly simple tool gives every website you visit a 'dark mode'
… Go to darkreader.org
and click on the web browser you use. You'll be taken to your
browser's extensions store where you can download and install Dark
Reader for free.
Once you install it, the vast majority of websites
you visit will have a dark gray or black color where they used to be
white.
I gotta share this with my PhD friends.
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