Hackers plead guilty in fake Xbox One scam
Five people have been charged with stealing code for Microsoft’s recently-introduced Xbox One console, as well as some of the unit’s flagship games, with the aim of making counterfeit versions of the device. The five men are reported to be members of an international hacking ring and are also accused of stealing software used to train Apache helicopter pilots that was being developed by Zombie Studios, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
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Canada’s combating counterfeit products legislation nears passage
On October 2, 2014, Bill C-8, the Combating Counterfeit Products Act, passed the House of Commons, and proceeded to a first reading in the Senate. Originally introduced in March 2013 as Bill C-56, and re-introduced during the current session on October 28, 2013, the Combating Counterfeit Products Act is intended to give trademark and copyright owners additional options for dealing with the importation and sale of counterfeit goods. In announcing the passage of the Bill to the Senate, Minister Moore commented the Act will “give our border guards the tools they need to work with Canadian rights holders to stop illegal counterfeit goods from entering the country”.
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Lear MoreCigarette Smuggling and Cyber Security: Low-Tech Crimes Fund High-Tech Threats
You may not connect the cheap cigarettes sold under the counter (or out of a trunk, bodega or by a street vendor) with the mysterious charges on your credit card that you don’t remember making or the cash that has, somehow, just disappeared from your bank account. You also may not connect that website selling cheap cigarettes made in second and third world countries with Shellshock or whatever the fashionably scary cyber-threat of the day is when you’re reading this. But the Russian mafia and other Transnational Criminal Organizations and Foreign Terrorist Organizations understand the connections quite well. Criminals around the world know that tobacco trafficking is a lucrative, low risk way of raising cash that can be used to fund narcotics deals, arms smuggling, human trafficking and, more recently, the theft of credit card and banking data.
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Customs files smuggling raps vs Batangas rice importer
MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Customs (BOC) filed on Thursday smuggling charges against a Batangas-based trader who allegedly imported illegally from Vietnam more than 12.8 million kilograms of rice worth P513 million in 2013. The respondents to the cases filed by the BOC before the Department of Justice were Bold Bidder Marketing and General Merchandise representative Ivy M. Souza, as well as the company’s customs brokers Denise Kathryn V. Rosaroso, Elbert V. Lusterio, Francis Rudolfh V. Forneste and John Kevin Cisneros.
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Renewed clampdown against rice smuggling
AS part of measures to successfully tackle rice smuggling, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has acquired Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) and fine-tuned its security strategy. Under the new approach, the NCS is to place more emphasis on intelligence gathering, security of its personnel and “take the battle to the door steps of smugglers”.
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Cross border co-operation hailed
Stormont’s Justice Minister David Ford and Dublin’s Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald joined PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton and interim Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan at a conference in Belfast that highlighted the co-operation between law enforcement agencies in both jurisdictions. The annual cross border organised crime seminar was held a week after Irish and British authorities worked together to intercept a yacht trafficking around a tonne of cocaine off the Cork coast.
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DOJ backs Senate bill on smuggling as economic sabotage
MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Justice (DOJ) has thrown its support behind a Senate bill that would redefine smuggling as a form of economic sabotage and impose heavier penalties on offenders. In a letter to Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, ways and means committee chair, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she believed the measure amending Presidential Decree No. 1464, or the 1978 Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, was timely.
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A Glum Sign for Apple in China, as Smuggled iPhones Go Begging
HONG KONG — When Apple’s latest iPhones went on sale this month in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York, among the hip urbanites and tech-obsessed was another group clamoring for the devices: Chinese scalpers looking to make a premium by flipping the phones to smugglers. But the gray market for the new iPhones has already dried up, even though they will not officially go on sale in China for a few weeks, at the earliest. Wholesalers who helped orchestrate the smuggling of tens of thousands of the phones into the country are now slashing prices to move inventory. At an electronics market in central Beijing, one retailer was recently selling the low-end iPhone 6 and 6 Plus for 6,500 renminbi to 8,800 renminbi ($1,060 to $1,436), down from 12,000 renminbi to 15,000 renminbi ($1,960 to $2,450) just after the release.
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Customs Training Programme, Chennai
26/09/2014 | Chennai
Smuggling and counterfeiting in India are growing in scope and magnitude with every passing day. The extent and effects of smuggling and counterfeiting are of such significance that they compel strong and sustained action from governments, enforcement agencies, business, media, legal experts and consumers.
More effective enforcement is critical in this regard, as we need to build public support to combat smuggling and counterfeiting. With this view,FICCI CASCADE organised a training program of Customs officers to sensitize them on the menace of smuggling and counterfeiting,in Chennai on September 26, 2014.
Mr. BidhanChantra, Joint Commissioner of Customs, Chennai, while inaugurating the programme, shared his views and insights on the menace of counterfeiting and smuggling. Mr. Chantra observed that taking advantage of the technology revolution, counterfeiters and smugglers were coming up with very good imitation products, and active interaction between industry and customs was the key to mitigate this growing illicit trade. Welcoming the training programme for Customs officers organized byFICCI CASCADE, he said that these forums proved useful for industry-customs collaborationin understanding and tackling the growing menace of illicit trade practices, and these programs should be organized across the country
Mr. Dipankar Barkakati, Head, FICCI CASCADE in his special address, highlighted the initiatives taken by FICCI CASCADE so far. He also emphasised on the need to curb smuggling and counterfeiting by strengthening the legal and regulatory frameworks, enhancing enforcement and generating awareness of the consumers on the need to fight the twin menace.
The training programme was attended by over 75 customs officials, and provided a useful platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences in the detectionand preventionof the entry of counterfeit and smuggled goods into the country.
Representatives ofMicrosoft, Dow Corning and Puma gave presentations and exhibited samples of their original products alongside the counterfeit copies. The objective was to inform the participating Customs officials about the growing problem of counterfeiting and smuggling in the respective industry segments, and to highlight key technical aspects of their products which could facilitate the detection of counterfeit products. The participating Customs officials found the presentations constructive and interacted actively both with the company representatives and among themselves.
This initiative of FICCI CASCADE was supported by Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd and Ranjan Narula Associates, IP Attorney.
Vietnam appeases Big Tobacco with toothless taxes
Vietnam’s latest bid to raise its tobacco taxes will do little to curb consumption because it fails to hit the country’s die-hard smokers where they hurt most – their pockets, health groups say. At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly – Vietnam’s legislature – on Thursday, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung put forth a proposal to raise the excise tax on tobacco from 65 percent to 70 percent in January 2016 and 75 percent in 2019.
The finance ministry said the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey found that around 15.3 million people actively smoke in Vietnam, exposing an estimated 46.8 million, mostly women and children, to secondhand smoke. Smoking caused around 40,000 deaths in Vietnam in 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, which warned that this figure could surge to 70,000 by the end of 2030 if drastic measures are not taken.
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