black market

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Hackers Bidding 5 Figures for Old Phone Raises Eyebrows

(Newser) - Phonemaker Nokia is flummoxed as to why hackers are offering more than $32,000 in underground forums for old handsets, NetworkWorld reports—though bank fraud is a distinct possibility. “We have not identified any phone software problem that would allow” misuse, the company said. But a 2003 model manufactured...

Blackwater Faces Hefty Fine for Iraq Gun Violations

Contractor shipped firearms without permit; some may now be on black market

(Newser) - The government will hit security firm Blackwater USA with a multimillion-dollar fine for shipping hundreds of unauthorized guns to Iraq, McClatchy reports. A lengthy State Department investigation has concluded that the security contractor shipped some 900 weapons to the country—some of which likely wound up on the black market—...

9M% Inflation Crushes Zimbabwe
9M% Inflation Crushes Zimbabwe
Jul 18, 2008 9:56 AM CDT

9M% Inflation Crushes Zimbabwe

As cash becomes worthless, citizens face starvation

(Newser) - The political violence that ravaged Zimbabwe has subsided since Robert Mugabe's sham reelection, but another devastation continues unabated: economic meltdown. Zimbabwe's inflation rate has now hit 9 million percent, and a $50-billion Zimbabwean note is worth just 34 cents and falling in American currency. The Guardian investigates the surreal economic...

'Sketchy' Plane Parts For Sale Online

Unauthorized vendors in China, US offer uncertified Boeing, Airbus hardware

(Newser) - Spare Boeing and Airbus parts of dubious origin have been found for sale on Internet sites such as Craiglist, BusinessWeek reports. The parts, including vital valves and gears, are being sold by at least 24 vendors—mainly in China and the US—without FAA approval or documentation that they've been...

Burmese Buy Up Black-Market Cyclone Videos

People want 'to see what's happening,' says vendor

(Newser) - Black-market videos of floating bodies, famished survivors, and cyclone-ravaged villages have become best-sellers in Burma, AP reports. The tapes are illegal because the nation's military junta wants to hide the extent of the devastation. "People buy them because they are interested in seeing what happened out there," said...

Steal the Pipes, Ditch the House

As metal prices soar and housing prices dives, thieves find value in copper

(Newser) - Rising metal prices have rendered some foreclosed homes worth less than their plumbing, and thieves are stripping the vacant abodes of copper, aluminum, and brass to fuel a lucrative overseas trade. Several states have hardened penalties for metal theft, but skyrocketing nonferrous metals prices have thieves risking steel cages for...

Cheating Is No Longer Child's Play
Cheating Is
No Longer
Child's Play
Dec 26, 2007 8:24 PM CST

Cheating Is No Longer Child's Play

Jobseekers flock to web for answers to professional exams

(Newser) - Crib sheets have gone high-tech, the Boston Globe reports, as legions of job seekers from would-be medical technicians to school bus drivers resort to the Web for a leg-up in passing professional qualifying exams. The result is a booming black market for “braindumps,” or exam answers. Some are...

iPhone Ignites 'Love Craze' in China

Black market phones flooding country from Hong Kong

(Newser) - The iPhone is not sold in China yet, but already black market iPhones—known as "Ai Feng" or "Love Craze"—have flooded in from Hong Kong. Wired News reports computer superstore shelves are full, and supplies so plentiful the black market price is plummeting. "It's like...

Cubans Ignore Static on Illegal TV
Cubans Ignore Static on Illegal TV
Jul 12, 2007 7:54 AM CDT

Cubans Ignore Static on Illegal TV

Even committed commies crave US satellite shows despite Castro ban

(Newser) - Cubans are turning to black-market satellite TV to watch soap operas, US news and music videos, and even the Chicago White Sox—in defiance of a national ban on the programs, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "If there is censorship, there is business," said one  provider who faces...

Kidney Sales Brisk On India's Black Market

Desperate tsunami survivors sacrificing their kidneys, getting ripped off by doctors and dealers

(Newser) - Women impoverished by the catastrophic tsunami of 2004 are selling their kidneys on India's lucrative black market in ever increasing numbers. Wired reports on an international organ-donor scandal in which desperate donors are often ripped off by unscrupulous doctors and dealers who take the organs and keep the money.

Stories 21 - 30 | << Prev