Free Republic

Banks have been sending out new chip-enabled credit cards, and stores have been installing new machines that require you to dip the new cards rather than swipe them. It's all aimed at keeping you safe from hackers. … new liability rules go into effect October 1 that shifts who pays for fraudulent charges. Banks used to cover any bogus transactions, but now the entity with less protection will have to cover the costs. For instance, if a chip-enabled card is used in a store that hasn't upgraded its payment system, the retailer is on the hook for any fake swipes.

Thousands of Ohioans are getting asked some curious questions online and over the phone lately, such as: How old is your grandchild? What brand of car do you have? How long is your mortgage? Many of these people have a question of their own: What is this—some kind of scam? The answer: The quiz is legit, part of an effort by the state to thwart … scams. Specifically, the filing of phony tax returns. Under the new program, some Ohioans who have filed their taxes get letters in the mail from the state Department of Taxation directing them to take...

The EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF will have to ask permission to enter the offices of elected and appointed members of the EU institutions under proposals by the European Commission. “For all the other staff, Olaf will continue to work as it has up to now,” European Commission spokesperson Emer Traynor told this website on Wednesday (18 June). […] The commission wants to create a so-called Controller of Procedural Guarantees. OLAF investigators will first have to ask the Controller’s permission before entering the office of a European Commissioner, an MEP, or a minister at the EU Council. Everyone else, including staff...

WASHINGTON – With thousands of fraud investigations under way, the FBI is considering shifting agents away from counterterrorism work to help sort through the wreckage of the financial meltdown. FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the bureau may reassign some of the positions that were reallocated to anti-terrorism work after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Such a move would be a further sign of the government breaking with the Bush administration's priorities, which pledged to assign every available resource to averting another terrorist attack.

<p>I have been losing my hair since I joined the California Legislature. It is not because of age; it is because of frustration. The more I hear about government, the more frustrated I get, and the more hair I lose.</p> <p>Let me give you an example.</p>

The EU's anti-fraud office [OLAF] is to send a team of investigators to Jerusalem to look into reports that EU money is funding Palestinian terrorist organisations, according to German newspaper Die Welt. Their investigations follow months of allegations and counter-allegations that money meant for the Palestinian Authority finds its way into terrorist channels. If the Olaf team confirms the allegation then there will be "serious and personal consequences", said French Socialist MEP François Zimeray. The German conservative MEP Markus Ferber said it was "very likely" that it would result in the resignation of External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten - who...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House defended on Monday its request for Congress to give the Securities and Exchange Commission $200 million less than was demanded by a new law to fight corporate fraud. Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates assailed the Bush budget request as an attempt to undercut the broad corporate crackdown law enacted this summer in response to a wave of accounting scandals. President Bush signed the law with much fanfare and a promise that his administration would go after corporate crooks as aggressively as it has hunted terrorists. The law created new penalties, including stiff prison terms,...