BusinessWeek.com reports that cyberscammers have taken to trolling for victims on social-networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. “Many [criminals] have now moved to computer networks,” said Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Investigations division, “because that’s where the victims have moved and, therefore, the opportunities.”

Email remains the scam artist’s favorite tool, but the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center report that criminals are increasingly turning to social networks and other websites to ply their trade. Internet crime in the U.S. rose 21 percent last year, according those agencies, costing victims $239 million. In 32.7 percent of those cases, the victim was initially contacted through a web page. In 2005, only 16.5 percent of the victims reporting an online crime were contacted that way.

The Businessweek.com story recounts the experience of an Australian citizen named Karina Wells, who received a message on Facebook from someone posing as her real-life friend Adrian. “Adrian” claimed he was stranded in Lagos, Nigeria without access to a telephone and that he needed Karina to wire him $500 for a plane ticket home. He even chatted with Karina in real time, using Facebook’s chat service.

Wells got suspicious and alerted both Australian authorities and Facebook; each organization initiated an investigation into the matter. Facebook officials assume that the criminal obtained Adrian’s log-in ID and password through a phishing scheme. “There’s an implied sense of trust [with social networks]” said the FBI’s Henry, ‘and there’s not the sense that we can be physically harmed.”

It’s relatively easy to trick even the security savvy, as two online security consultants recently demonstrated. Shawn Moyer of Fishnet Security and Nathan Hamiel of Idea Information Security posed as another consultant, Marcus Ranum, who garnered fame for building the White House’s first email server. Using Ranum’s name, resume, and photo, Moyer and Hamiel established connections on LinkedIn with security officers and chief information officers at large companies, the editor-in-chief of a security trade magazine, and other people Ranum might actually know.

The pair had no trouble getting people—even those victims who should have been the most security conscious—to accept “connect” requests from the fake Ranum; and the more professional connections they established, the more legit they appeared to the next target.

Most social networking sites prohibit users from posing as someone else, but that won’t go far to deter a criminal bent on committing fraud. And while Moyer admits it would be difficult for sites such as LinkedIn to prevent experiments such as the one he and Hamiel tried using Ranum’s identity, he does believe they could take measures to authenticate their users.

Read the entire story at BusinessWeek.com.

For a relatively conservative car company, Honda surprised nearly everyone with its latest fuel cell-powered sports car concept.

Unveiled at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, the Honda FC Sport is a design study model showcasing Honda’s hydrogen fuel cell technology in a high-performance package.

Although the technology has already been detailed in Honda’s rather plain-looking FCX Clarity sedan, the FC Sport concept retools the hydrogen power plant into “a lightweight sports car design with an ultra-low center of gravity, powerful electric motor performance and zero-emissions.” In other words, the FC Sport concept is to be Honda’s zero-emissions vehicle that won’t be a snooze to drive.

“The Honda FC Sport explores how to satisfy automotive performance enthusiasts in a world beyond petroleum,” said Dan Bonawitz, vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “People who love sports cars will still have a reason to love in a hydrogen-powered future.”

The FC Sport configures the majority of the weight between the axles, hopefully creating an even, mid-engine-like feel. Further helping handling are the battery packs’ placement as low in the car as possible, lowering the car’s center of gravity.

Besides plain physics, the FC Sport also features a desirable driving position in the middle of the windshield with two passengers set back and at the driver’s either side – a layout commonly associated with the McLaren F1.

Honda has traditionally shown off concept vehicles that are very close to the final production models, and we can only hope that the FC Sport, whenever it becomes a reality, will retain all the characteristics in the concept.

See the full press release and gallery at AutoBlogGreen.

With the holidays fast approaching, November is prime time when it comes to game releases. Whether it’s for PC, PS3, Xbox 360, or the Wii, the big AAA-titles usually hit store shelves sometime between mid-October to early December.

Not one to deviate from the norm, Activision-Blizzard released the latest expansion pack for World of Warcraft last week. While high sales numbers were expected, setting a new sales record for the year was an added bonus. Within its first 24 hours of sales, Wrath of the Lich King (or WotLK), sold an astounding 2.8 million copies, becoming the fastest selling PC title of 2008. The record was previously held by another World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million copies at release back in January of 2007.

For the release, over 15,000 stores worldwide opened their doors at midnight to sell WotLK to gamers. GameStop, one of the largest game retailers in the USA, was all about WoW for the expansion’s release day. "After a single day of availability, Wrath of the Lich King is already the bestselling PC game of 2008 at GameStop and ranks as one of our top-selling products so far this year," said Bob McKenzie, GameStop’s senior vice president of merchandising. "In keeping with the tradition established by their previous releases, Blizzard Entertainment has again created a product that not only reflects their high standards of quality but is clearly an instant hit with gamers around the country."

"We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead." Blizzard, who has already expressed interest in doing more WoW expansions , will likely make another announcement later this month regarding WotLK hitting five million units sold. With a user base of over 11 million, WoW doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime in the near future, and any expansion is a guaranteed hit.

If netbooks are not your cup of tea, but you still desire an inexpensive ultra-portable, MSI’s new VR220 YA Edition value notebook may be the right solution for you. The VR220 YA Edition features an Intel Pentium dual-core processor, a 12.1-inch display and weighs less than 4-pounds.

Available in four colors (blue, pink, green and black), the new MSI VW220 YA Edition notebook hopes to tap into casual consumer fashion sense. Unlike netbooks that often use an Intel Atom single-core processor, the MSI VW220 YA Edition uses the more powerful Intel Pentium dual-core processor, which should actually be able to handle Windows Vista properly.

Although the Intel Pentium dual-core processor may not be as powerful as the Intel Core 2 processors, nor as energy-efficient as the Intel Atom processors, it is rather affordable. With the MSI VW220 YA Edition priced at $699.99, it only slightly more expensive than the new Dell Inspiron Mini 12 netbook, which also features a 12-inch display. There is an 8-cell battery available for the MSI VW220 YA Edition as well, which should put aside concerns of poor battery life.

As for system specifications, the MSI VW220 YA Edition features a 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 LCD display, Intel GMA 4500M graphics, a full-sized keyboard and up to 2 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory. Also included is an optional TV tuner, a DVD burner, a 250 GB hard drive, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, a card reader, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth and gigabit Ethernet. There is no mention of which specific Intel Pentium dual-core processor the MSI VW220 YA Edition comes with. The system comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, weighs 3.96-pounds and has a thickness of 1.18-inches, which is just a tad thicker than the Dell Inspiron Mini 12.

Yahoo! began rolling out Glue to search results in the U.S. late yesterday. The company has been testing the feature in India and while in that instance the Glue search results were featured alongside the regular results, Yahoo!’s U.S. version will be separate from normal Yahoo! searching.

SearchEngineLand defines Glue Pages as structured search results, pulling content on particular queries or topics from a range of sources: Wikipedia, news, Yahoo Answers, image search, blogs and video. Basically, you’re looking at images, text and video results all on one search results page.

Julie Demsey, Yahoo! Glue project manager, explained in the company’s search blog why the company has decided to run Glue separate to search.

“For those that may be wondering, our intention with Yahoo! Glue™ beta is not to replace the Yahoo! Search experience in the U.S. We’re always challenging ourselves to explore innovative new ways to deliver great experiences,” she said. “Glue is one of those experiments, with a goal of giving users one more visual way to browse and discover new things from across the Web. We’ll be working to expand the number of Glue pages, improve the experience and incorporate your feedback into future versions,” Demsey concluded.

Check out Glue by heading over to http://glue.yahoo.com/. Bear in mind that it’s going to take a while to roll it out completely.

In keeping with the barrage of add-ons coming from Labs, the Gmail team has announced that you can now dress up your account with a theme, adding a splash of color to your email.

Gmail engineer, Annie Chen, announced the new skins, as usual, via the Gmail Blog. Chen says that seeing as how users have been building unofficial extensions to “spice up” their inboxes, there was no reason why it shouldn’t be made an integral part of Gmail.

Skins for your Gmail are abundant and come in all shapes and sizes. From a finished chrome look to fun characters that keep you company, the themes are actually really, really pretty. There wasn’t anything wrong with the classic Google look before (they’ve tweaked it a little to make it look sharper), but the themes will more than likely tempt new users away from some of the more blah interfaces users deal with on other sites.

Microsoft recently gave its Hotmail mail service a makeover and, while the company says it’s faster and more efficient, it’s pretty much more of the same. Nothing interesting or colorful about it. Same boring colors aside, most users weren’t exactly impressed with the new look.

Complaints flooded in from people unable to to view their inbox or users who have seen their sent items disappear since the changes. Comments range from desperate:

“please help i cannot read my email. cannot get hold of a person to speak to. tried my internet security but they said it is not them i need somebody do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

to disgusted:

“I must say, someone in your staff should think over the consequences of tinkering around just to get some silly little "Happy Faces" on our email. My whole system was messed up for days and I had no idea how to set it right. This has been going on for several years since the "Windows Live" started. Pity us poor Apple users, we are trying to use your service but spend most of our time working around your latest "improvement".”

Lets hope the Gmail themes don’t bring similar problems. Check them out in account settings. If you don’t see them yet, relax, they’re working on rolling it out over the next few days so it might take a while for themes to make its way to you.

Internal Microsoft emails are detailing a former co-president’s anger over Vista changes. The emails between then co-president Jim Allchin and CEO Steve Ballmer were made public as part of a class action lawsuit against Microsoft. Allchin calls the change in Vista labeling requirements “a mess” and he added that it was wrong for consumers.

Back in Jan 30th 2006, Microsoft lowered the hardware specifications required to garner a Vista “Capable” logo. Specifically, the company dropped graphic requirements to appease Intel because the Intel 915 integrated chipset couldn’t adequately run the flashy Aero interface in Vista. While the change made Intel happy, HP was furious over the decision because it had revamped its computer lineup with beefier video cards. HP figured that consumers would flock to its machines because of the Vista capable logo, but the requirement change now meant that almost every desktop was “Capable”.

In March 2007, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen sued Microsoft in federal court for intentionally misleading consumers. Namely, they alleged that Microsoft deceived customers by slapping Vista Capable stickers onto machines that could only run Vista Basic. Class action status was granted earlier this year.

Allchin and other Microsoft execs were locked in vicious email exchanges the day the company dropped the graphics requirement. Allchin wrote, “I am beyond being upset here,” and added, “We must avoid confusion. It is wrong for consumers.” Ballmer claimed he was out of the loop and blamed another executive for making the decision.

Allchin, who had been a 16-year Microsoft employee, stopped working for Microsoft the same day Vista launched.

Source - Seattle Times

With Sony busily working on PlayStation Home and Microsoft unleashing the NXE today, Nintendo is feeling left out and wants "in" on the community action too.

Like a lot of sputterings gaming officials briefly throw out as if viciously baiting eager fans simply for their amusement, sometimes it seems that companies also like to chime in on the success of their rivals. Case in point: just a few days before Microsoft released the New Xbox Experience, Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime comes out of the woodwork and claims that the company is working on a community concoction of its own.

"Nintendo has always had a vision on community," he says in this article even though the company forces consumers to use anonymous Friend Codes. "The issue is that we define community differently than our competitors. ... Our consumers do want a sense of community, and we’re going to deliver that—but in a way that is unique to Nintendo."

Given the company’s offbeat direction in regards to the Wii console and its approach to gaming on a whole, it will be interesting to see what the company will devise. The Wii console already offers a hint of "community" by allowing consumers to create avatars and share them with friends via the Mii Channel. Gamers can also participate in polls thorough the Everybody Votes Channel, participating in user-created surveys like "Do you believe an underwater civilization existed" and "What do you usually do first (shower or brush teeth)?" As uninteresting as it may sound, it’s curious to see the percentage of Wii users who voted one way and how many voted differently.

But as far as a true community is concerned, the Nintendo Wii currently doesn’t have it, and the lack of such a feature may or may not hurt the console in the coming months, depending on how well gamers take to the other two consoles’ offerings. Given the company’s present policy of policing communications between players, it will be interesting to see if consumers will take any attempt at launching a virtual community seriously, or as a complete joke. That will ultimately depend on Nintendo’s approach.

"Hey F7G3E8OA56TLEUD3."

"What’s up G9EI1N3J6O8B3H5D. And what’s up with your avatar. It’s blurred."

"You need a special "unblock" code to see it, and I lost it."

"Oh. That’s lame."

Still, so far the console’s financial trajectory takes it well past the sales of rival consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It’s unfortunate that Fils-Aime didn’t elaborate further on Nintendo’s community plans, but then again, it’s really no surprise. Don’t be surprised to see Nintendo’s big shocker reveal at E3 2009 (which coincidentally is supposed to go back to its massive overbloated roots).

Oh Mii.

During the summer Google launched a 3D chat application called Google Lively. Sort of like a mixture between Habbo Hotel and Second Life, the program was developed with help from Arizona State University students and launched in Beta about 4 months ago.

Well, Lively is no more, or at least will be no more. Let this be known as the Lively year because come 2009, you won’t be hanging out in your customized room, chatting with avatars created by your friends.

The Lively Team announced via the Google Blog that it would be shutting Lively down at the end of the year, explaining that, while Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because it’s the best way to create great products, accepting that not every bet is going to pay off is a huge part in taking these kinds of risks. The Lively team will all be moved to other projects and teams once the program is discontinued.

While the content in Lively was not user generated, users can also choose whether or not their room is listed in the public directory as well as the level of access visitors have in their room and whether or not guests are allowed to add furniture or objects.

Aside from encouraging users to take videos and screenshots of the rooms they created, the team offers little hope for users who actually use the program on a regular basis, if there are any. Check out the promo vid below, just for old times sake and let us know if you played Lively and what you thought of it.

Midway Games is struggling to stay afloat, and a few employees are blaming the company’s financial woes on its use of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3.

To Epic’s defense, it doesn’t sound like things went awry with the actual UE3 technology. What ultimately pulled Midway deep into pools of red was the company’s insistence to modify the engine, thus making development time longer than it should. It’s not uncommon for developers to purchase an engine license and then custom tailor the software to meet specific needs. But when a publisher requires multiple development houses to consistently modify one engine for ALL games in production, there’s bound to be trouble.

"The mistake we made was, instead of just taking the base Unreal 3 engine that ’Gears of War’ was made on and building games off of that, we let our tech and product development guys try to really modify the engine to add all these diff things," a Midway ex-employee told Variety. "It was a ton of new technology which they just weren’t capable of doing. It put all the games way behind schedule."

Game delays presented problems for Midway, as that meant an interruption in cash flow; the money well dried up as several quarters went by without releases. Another ex-employee explained that when money becomes tight, decision-making becomes focused on the all-mighty dollar rather than a great, competitive product. Thus, buggy, half-cooked results not only sell less (due to user feedback and press reviews), but creates a negative impression of the company that hinders further sales down the road. "This is a spiral of doom in videogame publishing because you can’t ship compromised titles against the exceptional quality level of competition that is on the shelves," the ex-employee said.

What also didn’t help Midway was the expense and eventual timing of Stranglehold, an original action title co-created by director John Woo. The game was delayed from late 2006 to fall 2007, and ultimately cost the company more than $40 million to make. Midway released Stranglehold just one week before Halo 3 hit store shelves, thus selling a measly 320,000 units in the USA alone. Strapped for quick cash, Midway thus rushed Blacksite: Area 51 through the oven, and it was in such bad shape with it hit store shelves, Harvey Smith, the game’s director, came out two weeks later and apologized.

Currently Midway’s market value is around $37 million, however with the release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, things may not look quite so bleak if the game does well this holiday season. But as it stands, the company may collapse under its current debt despite layoffs, canceling major projects and returning licenses. Was there a lesson learned here? Probably only in understanding that it’s best not to license one engine and throw it into everyone’s lap, expecting miracles. It’s like reading a book: you don’t know what it’s really about unless its read from cover to cover... the process takes time, and in the case of Midway, time and money it apparently couldn’t afford.

But if companies don’t have internal, proprietary engines of their own, what else is there to do other than license third party software and tear it apart? Perhaps the use of Epic’s UE3 software really isn’t the blame here, but the lack of spending time and money researching and developing a unique engine built and customized just for Midway’s use. That’s neither here nor there now, as bankruptcy could be in the company’s immediate future if Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe doesn’t knock out consumers with incredible gameplay over the next month.

Midway says that the UE3-based Wheelman title is expected to ship February 16, 2009.

Related Links

Stranglehold review @ Tom’s Games Blacksite review @ Tom’s Games