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Decisions that we make about email legitimacy can result in a pernicious threat to security of both individuals and organisations. Yet user response to phishing emails is far from uniform; some respond while others do not. What is the source of this diversity in decision-making? From a psychological perspective, we consider cognitive and situational influences that might explain why certain users are more susceptible than others. Alongside an email judgment task employed as a proxy for fraud susceptibility, 224 participants completed a range of cognitive tasks. In addition, we manipulated time pressure for email legitimacy judgments. We identify cognitive reflection and sensation seeking as significant, albeit modest, predictors of susceptibility. Further to this, participants asked to make quicker responses made more judgment errors. We conclude there are cognitive signatures that partially contribute to email fraud susceptibility, with implications for efforts to limit online security breaches and train secure behaviors.

Abstract Fraud complaint data indicates that adults in their 70s and 80s experience significantly greater fraud losses than middle aged and young adults, however older adults are less likely to self-report victimization overall. One explanation for older adults’ relatively higher financial losses may be that they experience a greater incidence of repeat victimization. In this study, we examine the relationship between age and repeat mass marketing fraud using a novel dataset of nearly one million US mail fraud victims. The data come from four mail fraud enterprises that were investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service and that ran overlapping scams between 2000 and 2018. The perpetrators collected information on victims (name, address, age) and how often they paid money in response to scam solicitations. Datasets were merged, cleaned, and deduplicated. We use a Prentice-Williams-Peterson adaptation of a Cox proportional hazards model to estimate the effect of age on the likelihood of experiencing a subsequent victimization, controlling for the number of prior victimizations. Compared to victims in their 50s, victims aged 70-79 and 80-89 had a 9% greater risk of experiencing another victimization, whereas victims in their 20s had a 24% lower risk of experiencing another victimization. Logistic regression analyses indicate that adults in their 70s and 80s are significantly more likely than those younger than 50 to experience victimization by multiple types of mail scams. This is the first study to use perpetrator data, rather than self-report, to show that older adults face a greater risk of repeat fraud victimization.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.) displayed a photo of alleged classified documents at Mar-a-Lago during the first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing on Sept. 28.

Compulsive gamblers and their family members have had a long, unsuccessful history of lawsuits against the gambling industry in the United States. With the emergence of online gambling and sports betting, the gambling industry is becoming less and less regulated, preying on compulsive gamblers and nurturing their addiction for profit. Although gambling is diagnosed as a legitimate addiction disorder in medicine, the law has been slow and even reluctant to recognize and grant legal protection to addicted gambler plaintiffs. However, the recent wave of litigation brought against a similar addiction-for-profit industry, the opioid industry, seems to suggest there is an alternative solution for compulsive gambler plaintiffs to seek relief for the gambling industry's fraudulent and deceptive practices. This Comment argues that compulsive gamblers should allege that the gambling industry used the United States mail system to defraud them in violation of the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). First, this Comment highlights the deceptive practices of the gambling industry and explains why it has continued to profit without any legal accountability thus far. Through the mutually beneficial relationship between the state governments and the casinos, state governments can receive a cut of revenue generated each year and even hold proprietary interests in the casino machines' software. In return, casinos are able to run their businesses with minimal regulations and legal immunity from self-exclusion programs. Next, this Comment breaks new ground by arguing that compulsive gamblers can leverage recent RICO litigation against opioid pharmaceutical companies in their own RICO claims. Compulsive gamblers bringing civil RICO claims against gambling companies can make comparisons between the opioid industry's fraudulent industry-wide tactics and the gambling industry's practices. Finally, this Comment highlights the new boom of sports betting after its legalization in 2018. Following the establishment of a new gambling industry, the timing is perfect for compulsive gambler plaintiffs to pursue legal accountability in the courts. Furthermore, the hidden tool of internal discovery documents released to the public will aid compulsive gamblers in fighting for legal recourse and government regulatory action to stop the manipulations of the gambling industry.

Background Epidemiological studies of long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution have consistently documented associations with morbidity and mortality. Air pollution exposure in these epidemiological studies is generally assessed at the residential address, because individual time-activity patterns are seldom known in large epidemiological studies. Ignoring time-activity patterns may result in bias in epidemiological studies. The aims of this paper are to assess the agreement between exposure assessed at the residential address and exposures estimated with time-activity integrated and the potential bias in epidemiological studies when exposure is estimated at the residential address. Main body We reviewed exposure studies that have compared residential and time-activity integrated exposures, with a focus on the correlation. We further discuss epidemiological studies that have compared health effect estimates between the residential and time-activity integrated exposure and studies that have indirectly estimated the potential bias in health effect estimates in epidemiological studies related to ignoring time-activity patterns. A large number of studies compared residential and time-activity integrated exposure, especially in Europe and North America, mostly focusing on differences in level. Eleven of these studies reported correlations, showing that the correlation between residential address-based and time-activity integrated long-term air pollution exposure was generally high to very high ( R  > 0.8). For individual subjects large differences were found between residential and time-activity integrated exposures. Consistent with the high correlation, five of six identified epidemiological studies found nearly identical health effects using residential and time-activity integrated exposure. Six additional studies in Europe and North America showed only small to moderate potential bias (9 to 30% potential underestimation) in estimated exposure response functions using residence-based exposures. Differences of average exposure level were generally small and in both directions. Exposure contrasts were smaller for time-activity integrated exposures in nearly all studies. The difference in exposure was not equally distributed across the population including between different socio-economic groups. Conclusions Overall, the bias in epidemiological studies related to assessing long-term exposure at the residential address only is likely small in populations comparable to those evaluated in the comparison studies. Further improvements in exposure assessment especially for large populations remain useful.

Phishing has been a major problem for information systems managers and users for several years now. In 2008, it was estimated that phishing resulted in close to $50 billion in damages to U.S. consumers and businesses. Even so, research has yet to explore many of the reasons why Internet users continue to be exploited. The goal of this paper is to better understand the behavioral factors that may increase one's susceptibility for complying with a phisher's request for personal information. Using past research on deception detection, a research model was developed to help explain compliant phishing responses. The model was tested using a field study in which each participant received a phishing e-mail asking for sensitive information. It was found that four behavioral factors were influential as to whether the phishing e-mails were answered with sensitive information. The paper concludes by suggesting that the behavioral aspect of susceptible users be integrated into the current tools and materials used in antiphishing efforts.

Drugs that have been manufactured or packaged fraudulently are referred to as counterfeit/fake/spurious/falsified drugs because they either lack active ingredients or have the incorrect dosages. Counterfeiting of drugs has become a global issue with which the whole world is grappling. The World Health Organization states the frightening figure in which almost 10.5% of the medications worldwide are either subpar or fake. Although developing and low-income countries are the targets of the large-scale drug counterfeiting activities, fake/substandard drugs are also making their way into developed nations including the USA, Canada, and European countries. Counterfeiting of drugs is leading to not only economic loss but is also playing its part in the morbidity and mortality of patients. The recent COVID-19 pandemic fuelled the demand for certain categories of medicines such as antipyretics, remdesivir, corticosteroids, vaccines, etc., thus increasing the demand and manufacture of subpar/fake medicines. This review articulates the current trends and global impact of drug counterfeiting, current and potential measures for its prevention and the role of different stakeholders in tackling the menace of drug counterfeiting.

Fraudulent schemes increasingly rely on wire transmissions and the internet as the economy and communications digitize. To combat these schemes, prosecutors have applied the wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, to defendants located domestically and abroad. Applying the current standard for extraterritoriality under Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., circuit courts disagree as to whether the wire fraud statute applies extraterritorially. But courts consistently apply an easily met standard when determining if the wire fraud statute should apply domestically under Morrison. This reaches many defendants located abroad. This Comment argues that this broad domestic application of the wire fraud statute shields courts from asking whether the statute applies extraterritorially. Further, this Comment argues that courts' domestic application of the wire fraud statute is sufficiently broad as to begin to resemble extraterritoriality because courts can almost always find sufficient domestic activity to apply the wire fraud statute. This Comment argues that wire transmissions are sufficiently geographically ambiguous that using a singular statutory focus under Morrison to evaluate whether wire fraud applies domestically is inadequate. In response to that inadequacy, this Comment proposes a new solution that incorporates additional statutory information in evaluating the statute's domestic application. This solution would better protect defendants from arbitrary domestic application of the wire fraud statute and validate the tenets underlying the doctrine of extraterritoriality.

We developed an optoelectronic sensor capable of quantifying in-plane rotational and linear displacements between two parallel surfaces. The sensor utilizes a photo detector to capture the intensity of red (R), green (G), blue (B), and clear (C, broad visible spectrum) light reflected from a color gradient wheel on the opposing surface. Variations in reflected R, G, B and C light intensities, caused by displacements, were used to predict linear and rotational motion via a polynomial regression algorithm. To train and validate this model, we employed a custom-built positioning stage that produced controlled displacement and rotation while recording corresponding changes in light intensity. The reliability of the predicted linear and rotational displacement results was evaluated using two different color gradient wheels: a wheel with changing color hue, and another wheel with changing color hue and saturation. Benchtop experiments demonstrated high predictive accuracy, with coefficients of determination (R2) exceeding 0.94 for the hue-only wheel and 0.92 for the hue-and-saturation wheel. These results highlight the sensor’s potential for detecting shear displacement and rotation in footwear and wearable medical devices, such as orthotics and prostheses, enabling the detection of slippage, overfitting, or underfitting. This capability is particularly relevant to clinical conditions, including diabetic neuropathy, flat feet, and limb amputations.