All Forum Posts by: Abbey Landis

Happy New Year to all in BP
It's been a pleasure interacting with some of you so far and I look forward to a fantastic new year of sharing and ideas!

If I could have another year like 08, that would be just perfect for me (with a few extras, of course)

Look forward to reading some of the goals on here and seeing if I can help make them a reality!

Abbey :)

This just out:

12/24/08

RBS WorldPay Data Breach Hits 1.5 Million

Twenty years of payment processing history as well as social security numbers are compromised.

December 24, 2008
By Richard Adhikari: More stories by this author:
A hacker got into the computer systems of electronic payment processing services provider RBS WorldPay, compromising more than a million customers' records.

Formerly known as RBS Lynk, RBS WorldPay, which claims it has more than 20 years in the business, is the U.S. payment processing arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Personal and financial account information of about 1.5 million cardholders and other individuals, and the social security numbers (SSNs) of 1.1 million people, may have been accessed by the hacker, RBS WorldPay said in a statement announcing the break-in on Wednesday.

RBS WorldPay describes the break-in as a highly sophisticated cyber intrusion on its Website. It notified law enforcement agencies and federal regulators after the break-in was discovered on November 10.

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Among other things, RBS WorldPay offers pre-paid payroll and gift cards. So far, about 100 payroll cards, which are reloadable stored value cards companies use to pay their employees' wages, have been fraudulently used, the company said. These have been deactivated.

In response to the break-in, RBS WorldPay has brought in specialists to beef up its computer system security, according to a source at the firm who requested anonymity.

The company has also begun notifying people who may have been impacted about the incident and providing them a list of actions to take. These include remaining vigilant for up to two years, and reviewing credit reports carefully.

In addition, it is resetting the PIN numbers of its pre-paid payroll cards. Victims whose cards have been fraudulently used will not be held responsible for any charges rung up.

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RBS WorldPay is offering people whose SSNs may have been compromised a free one-year membership in a national subscription credit monitoring service provided they sign up by May 1.

It is also withdrawing pre-paid gift cards from retailer partners' shelves and destroying them, the source at the company told InternetNews.com. People who already have pre-paid gift cards can continue using them.

RBS WorldPay is working with law enforcement as well as outside experts on the case. However, the source declined to disclose details as the case is under investigation.

Thank you Jon - I understand the difference now what you mean by 'public' offering. This clarification helped.

Joseph - thank you for the link - and the further explaination. But even if you are advertising for potential investors in a vague way, usually within the first discussion or two it will lead to specifics, so I will get with my attorney on this business idea to make sure I am covered.

Let me know how I can help you fellas in return one day. You saved my butt :)

Abbey :)

Thanks all for the tips - didn't know.

So in essence, if I was having this conversation with someone in a local restaurant and an SEC guy overheard, I could get in trouble for stating a business idea I had?

Why would the SEC get involved if I wasn't putting investment groups together for the stock market?

I don't do business with the stock market. My investments are real estate related and non real estate (this is not stock market items, but private business ventures, ideas, etc)

Abbey

Good day!

One of my 09 goals is to form an investment group combining select individuals and their monies so they have the opportunity to invest in projects they normally wouldn't be able to b/c they only have xx amount of money.

I plan on forming two investment groups. One for commercial real estate related projects, and one for non-real estate related projects. The latter group I would like to actually form first, but I am flexible to form both at the same time.

If you or anyone you know is interested in getting involved in something like this, please contact me. I have a general plan about both of the groups in terms of how it would run, the selection of individuals, etc. etc. For a while it will be a work in progress that would develop more as interested individuals provide their input on how they would like the group to be. Over time once the pro's and cons are worked out, I will establish a base set of standards, requirements, rules. I estimate that will happen within 6 months of the groups forming. Then I will form more groups if the interest is out there. Each group would remain relatively small but large enough where the combined investment monies would be able to reach higher dollar value projects.

These groups would have first access to the projects I get (mostly off market/privvy) and over the years would be able to invest in more as their ROI's come to fruition.

Thanks for your time to read this.

Abbey :)

A comment on Blackwater, Dave -

one of my special ops marine buddies is close with the owner of this company. I just had a discussion with him a month ago about Blackwater.

To this date, not one person has been killed under Blackwater's protection.
Not one injured. There is no other statistic like this! Blackwater have lost some of their own, but whoever uses them, you are pretty much truly guaranteed safety.

I live about across the bridge from D.C., and a mile from the Pentagon. Many of my acquaintances and friends in this town interact with individuals in Blackwater and/or use their services. More rely on Blackwater and it's capabilities than the military for overseas protection, just b/c the military is underfunded and they are overused.

Blackwater is absolutely held accountable - I am not sure where you got the information from that indicates they aren't otherwise.

Everyone in this town knows who they are, it would be hard not to hold them accountable, especially for the individuals and companies they are protecting.

Every agency and company dealing with national security does things that aren't always held completely accountable or are just not able to be 100% monitored.

As an fyi: CIA and FBI do more corrupt things and are held less accountable than Blackwater. The other difference is Blackwater's is to keep you uninjured and alive. FBI and CIA unaccountability usually falls int he realm of about making themselves look good and scapegoating big mistakes.

Abbey :)

Jon - exactly! I didn't know this happens through craigslist though. Thanks for that tip.

Wow, sorry to hear Mr. Investor! The good thing is you are so much wiser to this and can prevent someone else from getting involved in it :)

Abbey :)

Gregrey
LOL - that would require the company to stay the same all the time within the Trust.
So far 2 companies have dropped from it, over the months, and now there are 2 more working 'with it' - now a part of the Trust.

It would be hard to even track your own money to audit/oversee yourself on this one.

Yes, as with a discussion I had today with the Principal on a project who is involved in this, I informed him even if they end up providing the money to him, I would be very hestitant to use it b/c it is probably laundered.

Abbey :)

Thank you Richard
I would presume if anyone had info about something negative relating to a company/person - especially in this highly scamming industry, they would share it :)

Abbey :)

Hi All

This is about a person, not a company.

There is a person who goes by the email address
[email protected]

She claims she is in Alabama, USA.

She states she has $7M US Dollars to invest in real estate opportunities.

So I say, okay, I'll bite --- let's see what this is about. :)

So I ask questions, research, etc.

She tells nothing about herself except she is in her early 20's.
She doesn't have a phone or a cell phone or live in an apartment She lives in a refugee camp and there is an overseas number you can get her at, but you have to call and ask for her and the pastor will come and get her. I actually spent the money to call, and they told me to hold on, they would get her. I hung up. I was surprised she actually gave a working number!

What 20 year old has that kind of money?
If she does, why can't she afford a cell phone to do business? And a place to live?
Oh, and who knows of any refugee camps in Alabama, USA. ?

So, I asked her these questions and some more - like how this all works --by email. She didn't answer any of them except how the business (if you can call it that) part works.

You have an investment for lets say $5M USD, she gives you all $7M to cushion you in case their are unexpected costs. She wires it into your bank account, (red flag #1 - you need to give your bank account number) and then when the deal closes, you pay her back the amount you didn't use, plus interest for xx amount of months you had the money.

So, forwarded all this info to my money laundering expert friend in the government. He looked into it:

Result: She is a Nigeria scam.

The site I was contacted by her on got her IP address and banned her from the site and we notified all government officials in the US and Interpool.

It's too hard to 'catch' people like this b/c they make up names for email addresses and never reveal their own and their IP addresses come from different locations.

So, if you ever hear of her or something similiar to this - stay far away!

Sometimes, this business is comically amusing!

But I would hate to know someone got caught up in this mess.

Also to inform: Nigeria is known to be the worst in terms of online business scams.

Abbey :)