Tens of thousands of fraudsters splurged on Lamborghinis, vacation homes, private jet flights and Cartier jewelry by fleecing the PPP loan system in a $200 billion heist — and did it because the COVID loan scheme was so easy to milk. Approximately $1.2 trillion was rushed through Congress in 2020 and 2021 in COVID bailout cash Read more about PPP fraud is ‘worst in history’: $200B stolen, splurged on Lamborghinis and bling[…]

Millions of people get phone calls from scammers and wonder who is at the other end. Now we know: rather than someone in a call centre far away, a “bright young man” living in a lush flat in London has been unmasked as the mastermind behind so many of these calls. Tejay Fletcher’s trial exposed Read more about How a 35-year-old weed smoker behind 10 million scam calls made his fortune[…]

YouTube has begun showing a pop-up to some viewers warning them that “ad blockers are not allowed” on the video-sharing site. The banner, which you can see below, appears if the Google subsidiary reckons you’re using some kind of content blocker that prevents videos from being interrupted by or book-ended with adverts. According to YouTube, Read more about YouTube begins warning: ‘Ad blockers are not allowed’[…]

South Korea’s antitrust regulator has fined Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google 42.1 billion won ($31.88 million) for blocking the release of mobile video games on a competitor’s platform. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said on Tuesday that Google bolstered its market dominance, and hurt local app market One Store’s revenue and value as a platform, Read more about South Korea fines Google $32 mln for blocking games on competing platforms[…]

obuaki Kobayashi, the trustee for the Mt. Gox bankruptcy, has announced that the deadline for repayment selection and registration of payee information for its creditors has been moved from Jan. 10 to Mar. 10. According to Kobayashi, the change was made due to “various circumstances such as the progress by rehabilitation creditors in respect of Read more about Mt. Gox creditors now have until March to register for payouts[…]

The vast majority of companies taking part in the world’s largest trial of a four-day week have opted to continue with the new working pattern, in a result hailed as evidence that it could work across the UK economy. Of the 61 companies that entered the six-month trial, 56 have extended the four-day week, including Read more about Four-day week: ‘major breakthrough’ as most UK firms in trial extend changes[…]

Merchants on Amazon Marketplace are paying the company a commission fee of more than 50% of each sale. A new report by Marketplace Pulse revealed Amazon raised the total cost sellers are required to pay out toward storage fees at company warehouses, packaging and delivery, and advertising on the site. The commission fee has gradually Read more about Amazon Is Pocketing Half of Retailers’ Sales[…]

Now that Microsoft has launched its Teams Premium service, it’s shaking up the free offering for work — and not everyone will be happy. The company is retiring the existing Teams Free version for small business in favor of the similarly-titled Teams (free) on April 12th, and legacy data won’t carry over. Your office will Read more about Microsoft will wipe free Teams business users’ data if they don’t upgrade to a paid tier[…]

We recently wrote about Cory Doctorow’s great article on how the “enshittification” of social media (mainly Facebook and Twitter) was helping to lower the “switching costs” for people to try something new. In something of a follow up-piece on his Pluralistic site, Doctorow explores the process through which basically all large companies eventually hit the Read more about How The Friedman Doctrine Leads To The Enshittification Of All Things[…]

[…] Customers have been reporting steep price increases across a number of items from Royal Canin – with one saying her food had increased by £15 for a 10kg bag in less than a year. Zooplus, an online pet food seller that stocks Royal Canin – among other brands – said it did not want Read more about Pet food retailer Zooplus hits out at Royal Canin’s ‘excessive’ price increases – and offers customers 10% off its competitors[…]

Moderna is considering raising the price of its COVID-19 vaccine by over 400 percent—from $26 per dose to between $110 and $130 per dose—according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Ars has reached out to Moderna for comment but has not yet received a response. The plan, if realized, would match the previously Read more about Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on COVID vaccine “consistent with the value”, Pfizer-BioNTech thinks so too[…]

In a far-reaching move that could raise wages and increase competition among businesses, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday unveiled a rule that would block companies from limiting their employees’ ability to work for a rival. From a report: The proposed rule would ban provisions of labor contracts known as noncompete agreements, which prevent workers Read more about US Moves To Bar Noncompete Agreements in Labor Contracts[…]

The law affects every company with more than 15 employees looking to fill a job that could be performed from the state of California. It covers hourly and temporary work, all the way up to openings for highly paid technology executives. That means it’s now possible to know the salaries top tech companies pay their Read more about Californian law forces salary disclosure for companies > 15 people – fair and inclusive[…]

[…] Months of reporting tied to lawsuits filed by Hertz renters falsely accused of theft should now come to a halt. Maybe. Here’s the company’s statement on the multi-million dollar settlement, which doesn’t say much about Hertz’s culpability, nor any plans it has in place to prevent something that has only occurred with this rental Read more about Hertz Shells Out $168 Million To Settle 364 False Theft Reports[…]

U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said they have charged eight individuals in a securities fraud scheme, alleging they reaped about $114 million from by using Twitter and Discord to manipulate stocks. The eight men allegedly purported to be successful traders on the social media platforms and then engaged in a so-called “pump and dump” scheme by Read more about U.S. authorities charge 8 social media influencers in pump and dump plan[…]