We should be extremely concerned about the scope of the credit card fraud problem involving terrorists. There is limited or no empirical data to gauge the extent of the problem. However, there are compelling signs that an epidemic permeates. [1]
Recently, there has been a string of articles in the main steam media attempting to link Digital Gold Currency and terrorist financing. However, the reality of the situation is that no Digital Gold Currency has ever been connected to a terror financing case or crime. Last month, even one very visible government report on Digital Currency stated, "Such emerging electronic payment systems are vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing." [2]
As far back as January 2006, the main stream media began an effort to connect terrorist funding and Digital Gold Currency. This trend seems to have started when a BusinessWeek "investigative report", quoted some dialog from Mr. Phil Williams, a professor of international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and consultant to the United Nations on terrorism financing.
The article points out that while discussing digital currency, Mr. Williams says, "At some point, this is going to be used" by terrorists. Of course it is obvious from his comment that Mr. Williams has never seen the extensive Customer Verification Process required by GoldMoney, e-dinar or Crowne Gold. It is also doubtful that Mr. Williams has ever transacted an exchange of dollars into e-gold digital currency using a professional exchange agent.[3](Businessweek Article By Brian Grow, John Cady, Susann Rutledge, and David Polek)
Credit card fraud has become an ever present tool for funding terror networks while Digital Gold Currency has never even been mentioned during the prosecution of a terror crime. Look at the facts as far back as 2001.
Ali Al Marri was arrested in Illinois in December 2001 for having lied to FBI Agents about having contact with facilitators of the 9/11 terrorist attack. At the time of arrest, Al Marri had 36 credit card numbers and account information in his possession. A subsequent search of his computer found he had compiled over 1,000 credit card numbers and other identifying information. [4]
Doesn't "The truth" still have a place in main stream media? Isn't it important to discuss the facts as received directly from law enforcement professionals and not the suspicions and gossip of investigative reporters?
The facts show us that for many years credit card fraud has been used to fund murderous bombings and acts of terror. The facts also show us that companies like e-gold which have been in business for over a decade, have never been connected to an act of terror funding.
The October 2002 the Bali nightclub bombings killed 202 people, most of whom were just visiting tourists.
Iman Samudra, convicted and now awaiting execution for taking part in the 2002 bombings of two Bali nightclubs...urges Muslim youth to obtain credit card numbers and use them to fund the struggle against the United States and its allies. *John Rollins & Clay Wilson, Specialists in Terrorism and International Crime, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division - "Terrorist Capabilities for Cyberattack: Overview and Policy Issues" Updated January 22, 2007, CRS Report for Congress
The next time that your credit card is used to buy gas, dinner at a restaurant, clothing, or for online shopping please recognize that your card numbers and personal information just might end up buying plan tickets, binoculars or a GPS system to outfit a terrorist and equip an extremist planning to kill innocent civilians. This is the everyday reality of credit card fraud.
That decade old bank "customer not liable for fraud" technology, along with the magnetic stripe and the 40 year old plastic card design is widely abused by criminal every waking moment of every day. Card fraud is a decades old global epidemic. Credit card fraud has been omnipresent throughout the past 3 decades.
The Nigerian credit card fraud problems of the late 1970s and 1980s attests to this. Epidemics can only be treated and eliminated through detective and preventive treatment. [5]
What is your bank doing to prevent such crimes? Why doesn't the media focus more on correcting this global epidemic?
Tariq al-Daour, is one of three British residents who pleaded guilty in July of 2007 to using the Internet to incite murder.
Investigators said al-Daour and his compatriots made more than $3.5 million in fraudulent charges using credit card accounts they stole via phishing scams and the distribution of Trojan horses -- computer programs embedded in innocent-looking e-mail messages or Web sites that give criminals control over infected computers. On a computer seized from al-Daour's West London apartment, investigators said they found 37,000 stolen credit card numbers. Alongside each credit card record was other information, such as the account holders' addresses, dates of birth, credit balances and credit limits. ...[Tsouli] and his two associates used at least 72 stolen credit card accounts to register more than 180 domains at 95 different Web hosting companies in the United States and Europe. Investigators said he became the de facto administrator of the online jihadist forum Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami, which once was the main Internet public relations mouthpiece of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed last month. [6]
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