Archive for March 1, 2023

Guest Post: Americans lost nearly $4 billion to investment scams in 2022

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 1, 2023 by itnerd

Over the past few years, investment scams have become increasingly sophisticated and widespread, taking advantage of the rise of digital technologies.

According to data analyzed by the Atlas VPN team, Americans were scammed out of $3.8 billion through fraudulent investment opportunities. Compared to 2021, the amount of losses has grown by 116%. Many of these scams use social media platforms, websites, apps, and other channels to reach potential victims.

In the last 4 years, investment scams in the US have grown by nearly 4000%. In 2018, fraudsters stole $94.5 million using investment scams, and 8,392 (57% of all) fraud reports indicated a loss. By 2022, the number of reports had increased significantly, with 77,599 reports (74% of all) revealing a loss of money in investment scams.

Furthermore, scammers have been getting away with more and more money. In 2018, the median loss from investment scams was $2,262. Since then, it steadily grew from year to year, and now, in 2022, it has reached $21,727.

A few reasons for such growth are the increasing internet and social media use, which helped scammers find new ways to reach potential victims. Additionally, the rise of interest in crypto made people think they could get rich quickly by investing in it during economically unstable times.

​​Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN, Vilius Kardelis, shares his thoughts on the rise of investment-related scams:

“Overall, investment scams have grown significantly due to various factors, including technological advancements, economic instability, and the increased sophistication of scammers. Individuals need to be aware of these risks and take steps to protect themselves from such scams.”

How do scammers contact you?

Some states experienced much more scams than others, and fraudsters used certain contact and payment methods more commonly.

Most commonly, scammers contact Americans through social media when offering investment opportunities. People reported 27,611 attempts of fraud through social media. By far, the most common payment method in such scams was cryptocurrencies. People lost over $880 million worth of crypto throughout 30,162 reported investment fraud cases.

Another vital statistic is that Nevada was the most common target of scammers. Nevadans reported 316.5 investment-related scams per million population. Californians were second with 272.7 reports per million population.

To read the full article, head over to:

https://atlasvpn.com/blog/americans-lost-nearly-4-billion-to-investment-scams-in-2022

Wise unveils new look as it reaches 16 million customers served worldwide and continues global expansion

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 1, 2023 by itnerd

Wise, the global technology company building the best way to move and manage money is today rolling out a new look and feel. This comes as the company announced that it has reached 16 million customers served worldwide, and revealed plans for further global expansion.

The complete visual makeover features a fresh green palette and a bold new font, and draws from global currencies, languages, alphabets and places around the world. 

Designed to make the Wise customer experience consistent regardless of the place or language they sign up in, the look also underscores Wise’s mission to build money without borders and its ambition to create a fast, convenient, cost-effective and transparent global alternative to the traditional correspondent system.

With around 6 million active customers moving over £25 billion each quarter, the company welcomes around 100,000 new customers every week. 

Wise continues to take on the world

First launched in 2011, Wise continues to invest in expanding its unique international account offer and underlying infrastructure:

  • Wise Account: The world’s first international account for people, the account enables customers to send, spend, receive and hold money in 50+ currencies. Wise most recently introduced “Interest” in Assets in the UK, and “Balance Cashback” in Europe to the account 一 features to allow customers to earn a return on the money they hold in Wise, without compromising on their ability to instantly access their money when they need. Today, Wise also announced the launch of Assets in Singapore, and the feature will become available to customers in Europe next. In India and Israel, Wise has secured licences to launch more services including the multi-currency account and card soon. 
  • Wise Business: The one account for international businesses, Wise Business offers everything the personal account has along with business specific tools like multi-user access, approval workflows, integrations into accounting software like Xero and expense cards for employees. Wise Business is used by over 300,000 businesses each quarter. In the US, Wise has begun rolling out cards to LLCs and sole proprietors. 
  • Wise Platform: More than 60 banks and large businesses including GooglePay, Deel and Monzo offer their own customers faster, cheaper and more efficient international payments, powered by Wise, through Wise Platform partnerships. Wise Platform today also went live with Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest bank by assets.

Twitter Has Taken Yet Another Dirt Nap This Morning

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 1, 2023 by itnerd

Not that I am surprised by this as I have been saying for a few weeks now to expect increased instability at Twitter, but Twitter currently has issues according to Down Detector:

This seems to have started at 5AM and users are reporting the following:

  • Twitter is making it look like that all the people that you are following have been erased. But that’s not actually the case when you check your profile.
  • Twitter lists worked and show new tweets. but others don’t and show a “Welcome To Twitter Message”
  • The “For You” feed works, but not the main feed. But this doesn’t seem to be the case for everyone as for some nothing works.

Funny enough, trending topics are still working as #TwitterDown is visible on my trending topics feed. And this is some of what I see:

What is clear is that Twitter’s ability to stay online is declining. And what is also clear is that Elon can’t do anything to improve this situation. And strangely, even though Twitter has gone down multiple times this year, he’s said nothing. That’s likely because he has nothing to say as Elon Musk isn’t the genius that he markets himself to be. Let’s face it, Twitter is doomed and it’s only a matter of time before we can give it, and Elon’s reputation their last rites.