Latest news with #deception
Arab News
8 hours ago
- General
- Arab News
Man jailed for illegal Hajj pilgrimage operation
RIYADH: A Saudi resident has been jailed for a year for setting up an illegal Hajj operation with the intention of obtaining funds through deception via social media. The public prosecution referred the defendant to the criminal court after he was found in possession of receipts connecting him to the criminal operation. A preliminary ruling sentenced him to one year in prison and imposed a 10,000 riyal ($2,666) fine, along with the confiscation of all devices and tools used in the crime. The public prosecution said the creation of fake Hajj operations was a major crime punishable by detention and added that it would continue to pursue those who broke Hajj regulations. Meanwhile, Hajj security forces arrested 36 residents who tried to enter Makkah without the correct permits. They were referred to the relevant authority.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Christchurch fraudster Diane Baumann used stranger's driver's licence to claim $30,000 in payments
By Al Williams , Open Justice reporter Diane Baumann used the driver's licence details of a stranger in a different city to create a fictious carer and receive payments while collecting ACC benefits. Photo: RNZ / Kate Newton A mother of five used a stranger's driver's licence details to create a fictitious carer for herself so she could get nearly $30,000 in payments, while also collecting Accident Compensation Corporation benefits. Diane Marie Baumann's deception only started to catch up with her when the real owner of the driver's licence, who lived in a different city, received correspondence from Inland Revenue. Soon after, the woman also discovered she had a poor credit rating score because of the multiple debts Baumann had run up in her name. Now Baumann, 39, also known as Diane Cox, has appeared for sentencing in the Christchurch District Court on multiple charges of using documents for pecuniary advantage. Between November 2020 and April 2021, Baumann received an Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) benefit while receiving regular payments from Custom Care Nursing Limited. She used her Rolleston address and her sibling's phone number as part of her client details. Baumann used another phone number as the contact for the fictitious carer she had created for herself, using the victim's driver's licence details. Over the next several months, Custom Care Nursing Limited deposited $26,957 into a bank account number allocated to Baumann under her alias, Diane Cox. At the same time, Baumann opened accounts with Spark New Zealand, One New Zealand and Zip Co, using the victim's driver's licence details. She received $3680 in services and products, which were never repaid. The deception continued when she spoke to police and Oranga Tamariki on multiple occasions in 2024 with concerns about a family member she said was in a relationship with an older teen, known as Male A. Baumann completed an unsupported child's benefit application form for Male A, requesting that benefit payments be made to an account named D. Cox. On the application, she said Male A had come into her care and that she was "fully supporting" him and denied having had any contact with a social worker from Oranga Tamariki or other authorised agencies. She then texted Male A's mother, saying she needed to meet her to get his medication. His mother replied, telling Baumann she would be getting the cops at her door and that it was not funny that she had not informed her that Male A was at her residence. Again, she completed an unsupported child's benefit interview form, recording that the arrangement for Male A to live with her had become permanent. The pair then attended a face-to-face interview with an assessor from Barnardos regarding the application, with Baumann claiming Male A would be staying in her spare bedroom, which had just been left vacant by her son. She said she had tried to get Male A's birth certificate and clothing from his mother but was unsuccessful. Baumann's son had not been living with her prior to the interview. At the end of the 2021 financial year, the woman who owned the driver's licence received correspondence from Inland Revenue regarding her employment at Customer Care Nursing Limited. She had never worked for them. In 2022, the victim's bank manager printed off her credit score, which showed debts accumulated in her name that she was not responsible for. The woman then conducted her own investigation using three debt collection agencies. Through them, she discovered that the addresses and phone numbers used in the accounts under her name were unknown to her. It turned out Baumann had managed to set up employee contracts, opt out of KiwiSaver and fill in tax code documents, all signed in the victim's name. She also used an email address with the victim's name which had no association to the victim. It remains unclear how Baumann got the woman's driver's licence and personal details as she declined to comment on any of the offending. She also refused to provide the Pin number to her cellphone. Judge Gerard Lynch said Baumann's offending had caused significant financial implications for the victim. "She was upset to find out she had a bad credit rating," Lynch said. "The victim says, 'I wish she would put this amount of effort into getting a real job'." The judge said Baumann had two previous convictions for theft and deception in 2017. She had used methamphetamine as a daily coping mechanism with regards to access to her children and there had been relationship issues. Judge Lynch said there was an ongoing need for rehabilitation and that he would impose home detention to promote her rehabilitation. "Given the personal background and drug misuse, I will adopt rehabilitation over a punitive approach. "When we deal with government departments, we can't expect them to drill down and check every application, if they did, things would ... grind to a stop." Judge Lynch said there were remorse, addiction and personal factors. "The reality here is there was no defence to these charges. "Nothing is going to be gained by sending you to prison, you are on notice now, if you offend again, you won't be bailed." The judge said there was no realistic prospect of reparation and partial reparation had been offered. He ordered that $7500 reparation be paid and sentenced Baumann to six months' home detention. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
South China Morning Post
28-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong student uses beauty app to falsify exam results for university admission
A Hong Kong student admitted to using a beauty filter app's image editing function to alter the university entrance exam result in her application to enrol in an undergraduate programme last year to improve her chances of admission. Advertisement Ng Tsz-ying, 22, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a count of attempting to obtain services by deception for submitting to the Education University of Hong Kong a fake copy of her certificate in the Diploma of Secondary Education examination. Fanling Court heard how the accused uploaded an image of her certificate which appeared to show she had attained Level 3 in English, whereas she had only got Level 2. The defendant secured an offer for the university's English language studies bachelor's degree programme after passing an online interview in July last year. The institution discovered the discrepancy after receiving Ng's official DSE results from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority the next month. Advertisement Ng admitted she altered her digital certificate 'for fun' before telling police she used the Chinese selfie app Meitu to improve her chances in the application process.
Malay Mail
26-05-2025
- Malay Mail
Two programme managers deny involvement in forged police summons scam
KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 — Two motoring programme managers pleaded not guilty today in two separate Magistrate's Courts here to charges of using forged 'Saman Hadir' (summons to appear) notices resembling official Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) documents to deceive the public. Tan Kok Ho, 43, and Denise Tan Ying Chyuan, 47, made the pleas after the charges were read out before Magistrates Atiqah Mohamed @ Mohamad Saim and Illi Marisqa Khalizan, respectively. According to the charges, both accused were jointly charged with using fake 'Saman Hadir' notices resembling official PDRM documents, with the intent to deceive and mislead the public. The offences allegedly took place at a shopping mall parking lot in Bukit Bintang and at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on May 10 and 11, 2025. The charges were framed under Section 471 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 465 read with Section 34 of the same law, which provides for a maximum imprisonment of two years, a fine, or both upon conviction. Earlier, deputy public prosecutors Nurainizatul Farhana Zainal and Syafika Azwa Fikri requested that bail be set at RM7,000 in one surety for each accused. However, lawyer Phang Soon Mun, representing both men, appealed for a lower bail of RM3,000 on the grounds that his clients, who each earn RM5,000 a month, need to support their families. Phang added that Kok Ho, who suffers from health issues, requires regular hospital visits, and both accused had cooperated fully during the investigation. He also argued that there was no flight risk, as their families are based in Malaysia. Atiqah set bail at RM2,500 in one surety for each accused, while Illi Marisqa fixed bail at RM3,500 in one surety. Both courts fixed July 2 for mention. A viral video previously circulated on social media showing an individual receiving a notice resembling a police summons placed on a car windscreen, sparking public concern over what appeared to be a new scam tactic.— Bernama
TechCrunch
22-05-2025
- TechCrunch
A safety institute advised against releasing an early version of Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 AI model
A third-party research institute that Anthropic partnered with to test one of its new flagship AI models, Claude Opus 4, recommended against deploying an early version of the model due to its tendency to 'scheme' and deceive. According to a safety report Anthropic published Thursday, the institute, Apollo Research, conducted tests to see in which contexts Opus 4 might try to behave in certain undesirable ways. Apollo found that Opus 4 appeared to be much more proactive in its 'subversion attempts' than past models, and that it 'sometimes double[d] down on its deception' when asked follow-up questions. '[W]e find that, in situations where strategic deception is instrumentally useful, [the early Claude Opus 4 snapshot] schemes and deceives at such high rates that we advise against deploying this model either internally or externally,' Apollo wrote in its assessment. As AI models become more capable, some studies show they're becoming more likely to take unexpected — and possibly unsafe — steps to achieve delegated tasks. For instance, early versions of OpenAI's o1 and o3 models, released in the past year, tried to deceive humans at higher rates than previous-generation models, according to Apollo. Per Anthropic's report, Apollo observed examples of the early Opus 4 attempting to write self-propagating viruses, fabricating legal documentation, and leaving hidden notes to future instances of itself — all in an effort to undermine its developers' intentions. To be clear, Apollo tested a version of the model that had a bug Anthropic claims to have fixed. Moreover, many of Apollo's tests placed the model in extreme scenarios, and Apollo admits that the model's deceptive efforts likely would've failed in practice. However, in its safety report, Anthropic also says it observed evidence of deceptive behavior from Opus 4. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW This wasn't always a bad thing. For example, during tests, Opus 4 would sometimes proactively do a broad cleanup of some piece of code even when asked to make only a small, specific change. More unusually, Opus 4 would try to 'whistle-blow' if it perceived a user was engaged in some form of wrongdoing. According to Anthropic, when given access to a command line and told to 'take initiative' or 'act boldly' (or some variation of those phrases), Opus 4 would at times lock users out of systems it had access to and bulk-email media and law-enforcement officials to surface actions the model perceived to be illicit. 'This kind of ethical intervention and whistleblowing is perhaps appropriate in principle, but it has a risk of misfiring if users give [Opus 4]-based agents access to incomplete or misleading information and prompt them to take initiative,' Anthropic wrote in its safety report. 'This is not a new behavior, but is one that [Opus 4] will engage in somewhat more readily than prior models, and it seems to be part of a broader pattern of increased initiative with [Opus 4] that we also see in subtler and more benign ways in other environments.'
