Free Republic

Oh, did we say Obamacare required 30 weeks of training for its “navigators”? We really meant 20: Opening day for the new health-insurance marketplaces is two months away, but efforts to recruit and train workers to help people enroll are barely off the ground in many states. With time running short before enrollment kicks off Oct. 1, the Obama administration last week cut back on training requirements for these ‘navigators.’ Officials were concerned there might not be enough time to do more-extensive training before the health-insurance exchanges open … Three weeks ago, the administration said navigators would need up to...

Today's high-end televisions are almost all equipped with "smart" PC-like features, including Internet connectivity, apps, microphones and cameras. But a recently discovered security hole in some Samsung Smart TVs shows that many of those bells and whistles aren't ready for prime time. The flaws in Samsung Smart TVs, which have now been patched, enabled hackers to remotely turn on the TVs' built-in cameras without leaving any trace of it on the screen. While you're watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world could have been watching you. Hackers also could have easily rerouted an unsuspecting user to a malicious website...

For nearly a decade, a band of cybercriminals rampaged through the servers of a global business who's who: Among the victims were 7-Eleven, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, JetBlue and JC Penney. Prosecutors say the hackers stole "conservatively" 160 million credit card numbers, and the dollar value of the crimes they helped facilitate is enormous — just four of the victims are out $300 million. The suffering caused to identity theft victims was "immeasurable," say prosecutors. On Thursday, five of the gang's members were indicted. One is in custody in the U.S., a second is awaiting extradition in the Netherlands, and three...

A mother of three, who taunted authorities to catch her as she stole about $20 million from the IRS, has been jailed for 21 years. Rashia Wilson, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft earlier this year, admitted to stealing more than $3 million but the figure is believed to be much higher. Tampa police were first alerted to the fraud in 2010 when they noticed a drop in drug dealing in the area.

The Interior Ministry has announced that Israel’s biometric database program will officially begin in two weeks. That’s when the government will start building a biometric database of all Israeli citizens by upgrading the folded blue plastic ID cards (“teudat zehut”) and other non-citizen Ids with fingerprints and facial recognition data. Not everyone is happy about this plan. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) expressed outrage in a statement by spokesman Marc Grey, who warned, “The police could use this information in all kinds of ways to avoid their constitutional responsibilities of due process – and then you have...

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Forgive the original post, please, but there is something that keeps bothering me that I just need to vent. In all this scandal news surrounding the IRS, all the hours and hours of televised commentary about it, I have never once heard anybody mention the recent (and ongoing) scandal involving Identity Theft at the IRS. Not only have tens of thousands of people had their identities stolen via the use by others of their social security numbers to file returns . . . I am a victim, myself . . . but, it is also the case that billions of...

Despite failing in courts across the country, Plaintiffs have continued to file lawsuits alleging that President Obama is ineligible to serve as the American President because he is not a natural born U.S. citizen. However, as set forth above, federal courts cannot grant Plaintiffs the relief sought because the issues which Plaintiffs raise in their pleadings are constitutionally committed to the jurisdiction of another branch of the federal government. If Plaintiffs believe that President Obama has violated the law, their remedy is to alert Congress to the alleged wrongdoing. Congress could then initiate impeachment proceedings with the aid of an...

As gratifying as it was to see the “news” media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the establishment press. On Wednesday, it was reported that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against a group of IRS agents who, according to the complaint filed by “John Doe Company” in the Southern District of California, “stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans,...

WASHINGTON, - Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts told a Maryland coffee shop cashier he was the victim of credit card information theft. Roberts, who normally pays for his morning coffee with a credit card, paid with cash Tuesday and explained to the cashier that he had been forced to cancel his credit card when someone was able to obtain his numbers, The Washington Post reported Friday.

A woman who lives on Stargazer Street here has been arrested for using the stolen identity of an Arizona woman, police said. Elena Baltazar Bartolo, 29, was arrested on Monday by Cookeville Police Officer Jeremy Lintz. She is charged with identity theft, a Class D felony. According to sources and a warrant on file in the case, an Arizona woman named Petra Fernandez recently learned that someone had stolen her identity, and an investigation revealed that the thief was living and working in the Cookeville area. Allegedly, Bartolo had been using Fernandez’s identity since 2004 and has been working at...

When I heard Clinton was picked by the Obama administration to serve as the Secretary of State, I was curious if anyone in the Senate confirmation hearings would bring up her political ties with Ram Ranjan.And since her confirmation, Clinton has now put blame on Sri Lanka for the death of civilians. For those who don't know who Ram Ranjan is, he was involved with a political fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. Ram Ranjan is a supporter of the Tamil Tigers. The Tamil Tigers are considered a terrorist group. In the above hyper link you will find the following: Update II:...

A crafty, millionaire identity thief will spend at least four and a half years in prison after admitting today that he paid waiters at some of Manhattan's fanciest restaurants to skim the AmEx cards of wealthy customers. Between 2010 and 2011, some 265 diners had their Black and Platinum AmEx card information stolen by waiters at Smith & Wollenski, Capital Grille, Wolfgang's Steakhouse and JoJo, all thanks to Luis Damian Jacas, who pleaded guilty on the brink of opening statements in his now-scuttled enterprise corruption trial at Manhattan Supreme Court. Jacas, 42, of Manhattan, paid waiters $500 per Black card,...

Hezbollah in Yucatán Posted on January 30, 2013 by Baron Bodissey As mentioned here many times in the past, the southern border of the United States is porous not just to Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans, but also to Islamic terrorists. Operatives from Al Qaeda and Hezbollah acquire a Latin American passport and enough Spanish to allow their swarthiness to pass as Latino.This latest report concerns the arrival of a Hezbollah associate in Mexico. Many thanks to Iz-M (via Vlad) for the translation from Diario de Yucatán: More signs of the presence of HezbollahLabboun Rafic Mohammed, the Muslim cleric allegedly linked...

Air National Guard Maj. Zane Purdy was making more than $100,000 a year working for a defense contracting company when his identity was stolen and sold to a tax fraud ring. Now, Purdy makes $7.25 an hour at a Krystal restaurant in Trussville to support his two children. “It has been a struggle, and it has been very damaging,” the former Montgomery resident said of the identity theft, which has left him thousands of dollars in debt and fighting to clear his credit report. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson on Wednesday sentenced Angeline Austin, 41, of Montgomery to 65 months...

Oh my, it happened again. Last time, it must have been almost 10 years ago, I had a keystroke capturing malware on the 'puter and some bastard from L.A. ordered a couple of hundred dollars of computer memory from a computer company, which then put me on its mailing list where I remain to this day receiving daily spam while never having bought anything from them. But that was all. The bank replaced the credit card, it didn't cost me a cent, and the culprit probably got away with it. The cops told me they get a couple of hundred...

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says it's notifying about 5,000 people after an employee accessed their driving and motor vehicle records without authorization. The agency said in a statement Tuesday that the employee is no longer employed by the DNR. Spokesman Chris Niskanen says he can't elaborate on that. The DNR says it has asked the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate. No charges have been filed so far. The DNR says its own investigation found no indication the data was sold, disclosed to others or used for criminal purposes. But the agency is advising the 5,000 affected people...

Over the past month or so, a couple strange things have happened. First, somebody attempted to hack into my facebook account from somewhere in Arizona. Then a couple weeks later, I got a call from an Arizona number, but when I attempted to call it back 15 seconds later I got a disconnect message. I then attempted to call my voicemail, but get this, the pin on my voicemail had been changed. It appears somebody may be trying to steal my identity. Why, I'm not sure, as I don't even want to be me half the time. But I'm still...

Another step to a one-world financial system. The reciprocal agreements mean no citizen of any participating countries will be able to escape those countries as they will seize their money. What is now happening is European banks are closing out American customer accounts. Thus even if Americans try to escape Obama, this new law will make sure they can't.

Reference: ‘Anonymous’ is the name of a collective group of activist hackers who originally posted videos scheduling the Occupy Wall Street protests. These videos spread virally and played a significant role in the O.W.S. grassroots campaign. The hacker collective ‘Anonymous’ says it has stolen four thousand emails, passwords and credit card details from a US-based security think-tank “Stratfor”. Stratfor’s clients include the US Department of Defense, US Air Force, Apple, law enforcement agencies and media organizations. Anonymous said the list it had posted was a small slice of the 200 gigabytes worth of plunder it stole from Stratfor and promised...