Last December, an accounts payable clerk at a midsize company got an urgent text from her “CEO”: “Buy $3,000 worth of Apple gift cards for clients, scratch the backs and e-mail the codes". It sounded odd, but the request came from the boss’s name, and it was in the middle of peak holiday chaos.
Even in good times, scammers circle around generosity. But during the holidays, when giving increases and emotions run high, they’re especially quick to exploit it.
A few years ago, a massive telefunding fraud was shut down after authorities discovered that the perpetrators had made 1.3 billion deceptive donation calls and collected over $110 million from unsuspecting donors.
Every year, there’s a new flood of apps, gadgets and “game-changing” technology. Most of it feels more like a distraction than a breakthrough. But this year, a few simple tools actually lived up to the hype – saving small business owners time, money, and the occasional headache.
Known as Mr. Wonderful but filled with catchphrases like “Stop The Madness!” and “Know Your Numbers,” Kevin O’Leary is a staple on Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs can pitch him and fellow multimillionaire investors (“sharks”) to help expand their business in exchange for a stake in the company.
His story is so compelling that Ryan Phillippe starred as him in a movie.
Eric O’Neill is a former FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative. In 2001 he helped capture Robert Hanssen, an infamous spy passing United States intelligence to the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, the worst breach of that type in US history.