Headline May 27, 2018/ ''' SWIMMING WITH SWINDLERS '''

''' SWIMMING WITH SWINDLERS '''

DANCE & TECHNOLOGY in a glimpse of the future at Google's New York Offices, a tiny room with bright green walls and a maze of wires -

Had been transformed into something resembling a science lab by way of a Danny Kaye movie.

But instead of microscopes and white coats, there were dancers and leotards.

The dancers bodies were wired to move, though not just for movement's sake : This was a laboratory for dance experiments.

Google - through its Google Arts and Culture website and app - is on a mission to find new ways of  braiding technology with culture.

For two weeks, this month it joined with the Martha Graham Dance Company for a residency in which members of the Graham team worked with artists and Google technologists on several experiments.

[Google has held several artists residencies in its lab in Paris., but this is the first time dance has been featured]. 

But at The World Students Society, in a glimpse of the future, we zero is with our movements on  Sharks and Swindlers, and we recap important bits and then move forward with the research and publishing. 

BIG AND HUGE BANKS are making it just so easy to zap money to your real friends. Maybe they are just making to far too easy.

Zelle, a service that allows bank customers to send money instantly to their acquaintances, is simply and plainly booming.

Thousands of new users sign up everyday. Some $75 billion zoomed through Zelle's network last year. That's more than twice the amount of money that customers transferred with Venmo, a rival money transfer app.

But the same features that make Zelle so useful for customers, its speed and ubiquity, have made it irresistible to thieves. Hackers and Con artists have used the system to steal from victims.

THE CATCH IS that the bank, like all others that use Zelle, consider a transaction fraudulent only if the customer did not authorize it.

When a customer knowingly sends money to someone, the bank simply offers no protection whatsoever.

''We're committed to ensuring consumers are aware of potential scams, including reminding them that Zelle  is intended  for sending for sending funds to friends, family or people they know,'' said Ms. Reiss, the Bank of America spokeswoman.

And Venmo - which, like Zelle, does not protect users if a seller does not deliver what they promised - upgraded its security policies in 2015 to better detect fraud, including by notifying  customers when someone adds an email address or new device to their account.

This year, the Federal Trade Commission criticized the company for not having those protection from the start. 

Customers have to hunt on Zelle's website to get to this red flag :

''Neither Zelle nor the participating financial institutions offer a protection program for any purchase or sale conducted using Zelle.''

Some banks, such as JP Morgan, don't notify customers when new recipients are linked to their Zelle account.

David Nowicki, a BB&T customer, discovered in March that someone had gained access to his  online accounts and used Zelle to steal $4,000.

Mr. Nowicki said he he had never received any email or phone notifications about the transactions, or about a new computer gaining access to his account.

After he filed a fraud claim with BB&T, and a police report, the bank refunded his loss.

''Clients are protected and reimbursed for any unauthorized transaction,'' Mr White said. Mr. Nowicki, however, said he was certain he had not received any.

Jane Butler, a Wells Fargo customer in Dowingtown, Pa, first heard of Zelle when it was used to steal $2,500 from her bank account.

The con was elaborate. First, a phishing email that appeared to be from Wells Fargo tricked her into entering her bank ID and password into a fraudulent website.

The next day, Ms. Butler got a call that appeared to be from Wells Fargo's fraud department.

The number she saw displayed on her phone screen matched the phone number on the back of her bank card - but it wasn't her bank on the other end of the line.   

The caller tricked her into handing over one-time passcodes that provided access to Zelle, which was then used to make six transfers from her account, ranging from one penny to $999.98.

Wells Fargo reimbursed Ms. Butler.

Cory McWilliams, a Wells Fargo customer in Houston, said that thieves had called him and fooled him into giving them authentication codes texted by the bank and then had stolen $1,000.

''The banker I spoke with was not surprised at all,'' Mr. McWilliams said. ''He said he was aware that this sort of scam was going around.''

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Law Enforcement Agencies, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

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