Splittr group expense splitting

So you usually travel with friends and have a hard time figuring out who paid what and who owns whom how much? Then you'll definitely need to check out this Splittr app.

Ethereum up more than 300% in a single month

The Bitcoin phenomenon is back, but this time applied to the digital currency Ethereum, that is up more than 300% in less than a month.

Apple has $250 billion in cash

It's not easy to try and imagine just how much money a billion is, but Apple makes it even harder, by having $250 billion in the bank.

Apple is working on a Venmo-style service for 2016

After Apple Pay, Apple is now working to make it easier for anyone to transfer money between friends or colleagues. This Venmo-style service should be introduced next year, and become part of the existing iMessage service.

BMO Harris has an app to withdraw cash from an ATM

While most Europeans have bank cards with embedded electronic chips, on the US the older magnetic strip cards are still the norm. Now, there's a bank that hopes to skip around the "skimmers" problem completely, by removing the need of an actual plastic card when withdrawing cash from an ATM.

VISA to start using geolocation to thwart fraud

There's been a lot of talk lately about mobile payment methods and it's enhanced security features, but now VISA is promoting a technique that may be one of the most effective (and that I've been suggesting for years, if I may say): using geolocation to check if you're actually at the place you're shopping at.

Portuguese Supreme Court condemns Bank in phishing case

We all know online security is of extreme importance these days, and more so when it comes to money related issues such as online banking. Today the Portuguese Supreme Court has condemned BPI (a portuguese bank) in a phishing case that ended up with one of their customers losing €13,000 and ultimately being forced out of business due to being blacklisted.

The customer, a small company, used the online banking system regularly, and was a victim of "pharming" - a kind of phishing attack that infects the computer (or router) and redirects users to fake sites. So, when you enter your bank url and think you're login in in the real site, you're in fact doing it in a fake site that is collecting your data and acting as a middle-man (the so called "man in the middle" attack) between you and your bank.

That means that when you logoff and think you're done for the day, the attackers will still be logged in and able to perform all kind of transactions as if it were you. Currently, most money transfer operations require you to enter a security code from a card or a SMS sent to the registered phone number; but I don't know if that was the case back then - when the attackers were able to transfer €13,000 from that account.

For the bank, this kind of attack is indistinguishable from a real user doing those operations - but the court stated that if they offer online banking services is up to them to ensure they're secure enough not to put their customers at risk. The only thing I imagine that to be possible is if any and all operation were to be validated via SMS confirmation codes - but even then, there have been attacks where accomplices in the telecommunication operators clone SIM cards that allow attackers to receive the security codes intended for the real customer, so...  even that wouldn't be enough to be 100% sure someone is who they say they are.

Hacked ATM Machines had anti-thieves malware

No need to deny it: how many times have you wished there was a special secret code you could key in a ATM machine and get money for free? For most of us, that's nothing but a dream that will never come true, but for some tech-savy thieves and hackers... that dream did in fact come true.

This crew attacked some European bank ATM machines and although it involved drilling a hole into the machine, they weren't trying to get into the machine's money vault. Instead they aimed for a seemingly innocuous USB port... and with a single USB pen with specially designed malware, they infected the machines. Of course, afterwards they fixed the hole so the machine looked like new, allowing them to keep using it for as long as possible.

From then on, they could just simply type a special 12 digit code in the ATM keypad and enter a special operation mode that allowed to see how much money the machine had and have a "free-buffet". But... if you're in charge of such an operation, would you really trust a thief with your valuable malware infested USB pen? Who's to say your crew wouldn't go on a rampage and install it on every other ATM machine without your knowledge (and your cut)?

The "master mind" did think about that. After inserting the primary secret code, you'd have to insert a second security code, that was always changing. The only way to get it was by making a call or text the "boss" in order to receive the single use code for that "withdrawal".

... Looks like there really isn't any honor among thieves... :)

$27 in Bitcoins turn man into millionaire 4 years later

We've all read about how much money we could have if instead of buying a laptop a decade ago we bought Apple stock, or Google's, or a few other tech companies. But even then, that would require you to spend several thousand dollars, and even if today you'd have several times that amount, you'd still be quite far from being a millionaire. But there are cases where even a few bucks could in fact do that for you... as Christopher Koch found out.

Four years ago, Christopher Koch has writing is thesis about encryption when he decided to buy 5000 bitcoins for $27 (under the disapproving eyes of his girlfriend, who though he was just throwing it away). Christopher never gave it much though about it, until recently he remembered his old bitcoin loot and decided to track it down and see how much they were worth.

You can imagine his surprise when he found out that his $27 aquisition for 5000 Bitcoins was worth over $880,000 - and that's according to last April valuation. Today, it's actually worth over $1 million!

I know that looking back on this kind of stuff it's easy to "imagine how much money you could have made". But even so... can you wonder being somewhat crazy and decided to put $2700 in Bitcoins just four years ago? You'd be looking at an earth shattering $100 million return today.

... That's sure to make a lot of people look at digital currency in a completely different way!

US Dollar Sticky Note Memo Pad

Tired of jotting down your notes on the usual yellow sticky notes? Think your ideas are worth a lot more?

How about writing your notes of US currency... and I don't mean a lowly 1 dollar bill, but in a 1000 US dollars bill! That's something you can do - for a lot less than you'd might expect - with this US Dollar Sticky Note Memo Pad. :)

With this memo pad, you can spread around thousands of dollars to all your friends and colleagues without worrying about your credit rating, not to mention that your notes will be bound to get a lot more attention than it would otherwise.

This funny way to lift up your office spirits can be had for less than $4, and I can guarantee it will put a lot of smiles in people faces.

... You just have to take extra care if you happen to put one of these in your wallet... and try to use it to pay for your bills! :)

Google Wallet

Google is finally pushing forward into mobile payments using the NFC (Near Field Communications) technology introduced with the Nexus S: with the now announced Google Wallet.

This wireless system will allow you to use your smartphone as a payment method, and although it sounds "high-tech", it is actually quite common in several different countries around the world: particularly in Japan, where it is already being used for several years. (Here in Portugal we have several "wireless" payment cards for transports, but nothing for regular commerce... yet.)

Using such a system comes with several advantages, allowing for loyalty programs and discounts to be automatically processed without requiring the extra "loyalty cards" that quickly fill up our wallets.

Google says there will be NFC stickers that will allow non-NFC Androids to use the system, and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about the Google Wallet in the upcoming weeks and months.

Money Viewer for iPhone

It's a pity this App works only with US dollar bills (it would be nice if it could recognize Euro and GB currency) but for many thousands of blind or vision-impaired users, that will be more than enough.

This Money Reader by LookTel allows you to simply point your iPhone camera to a dollar bill and immediately hear what bill it is.
It's such a simple task most people won't even realize just how useful it will be for everyone not being able to see as well as we do.

You can expect the App to reach the Android platform soon - and besides the extra foreign currency bill detection, I also suggest adding coin recognition. :)



[via NYT]

Dollar ReDe$ign Project

Tired of looking at the same old dollar bills? What if currency could be rejuvenated and made a bit more modern - although not forgetting the American heritage?

That's the goal of the Dollar ReDe$ign Project.

The Dowling | Duncan winning proposition shows us new dollar bills with a vertical design (we actually do handle bills in vertical mode more than horizontally), each note has the same width but varies height according to its value and has its own distinctive color.

Also, each note motif is closely related to its actual value:

• $1 - Obama, the 1st Afro-american President
• $5 - The 5 biggest native american Tribes
• $10 - The 10 first amendments of the USA Bill of Rights
• $20 - 20th century events in the USA
• $50 - the 50 states (although they're actually more...)
• $100 - the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt, to which every new President achievements are now compared.

A nice approach... but which will never see the light of day (highly unlikely).

Life and Death of the One Dollar Bill

The amazing story of the dollar bill, from birth to death:

How Much is a Trillion Dollars?

We often hear talking about trillions of dollars like it was... nothing.

Here's a short video that might help putting that amount of cash into perspective:


... and it's no secret who's actually paying for all that... right?