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IPO ALERT: Brass Eagle, Inc. Available through Wit Capital
by fiona＠witcapital.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wit Capital Corporation is pleased to announce that we are able to provide first-come first-serve participation in the following initial public offering as described below: Issuer: Brass Eagle, Inc., a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of paintball products, including paintball guns, paintballs and accessories. Security: Common Stock Expected Size of Offering: 2,275,000 shares Expected Price Range: $10.00 to $12.00 Lead Underwriter: McDonald & Co. If you think you may be interested in this Initial Public Offering available through Wit Capital, please visit http://www.witcapital.com or call (888) 4wit-cap. You can view, print or download the Preliminary Prospectus from the New Issues Section of our website. To purchase shares, you must first open an account, which you can do online. Investing in public offerings is speculative and may not be appropriate for every investor. As with all of your investments with Wit Capital, you must make your own determination of whether an investment in this offering is consistent with your investment objectives and risk tolerance. To learn more about the risks of investing in initial public offerings please visit the New Issues Section of our website. A REGISTRATION STATEMENT RELATING TO THESE SECURITIES HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION BUT HAS NOT YET BECOME EFFECTIVE. THESE SECURITIES MAY NOT BE SOLD NOR MAY OFFERS TO BUY BE ACCEPTED PRIOR TO THE TIME THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT BECOMES EFFECTIVE. THIS COMMUNICATION SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF THESE SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL PRIOR TO REGISTRATION OR QUALIFICATION UNDER THE SECURITIES LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION. NO OFFER TO BUY THE SECURITIES CAN BE ACCEPTED AND NO PART OF THE PURCHASE PRICE CAN BE RECEIVED UNTIL THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT BECOMES EFFECTIVE, AND ANY SUCH OFFER MAY BE WITHDRAWN AND REVOKED WITHOUT OBLIGATION OR COMMITMENT OF ANY KIND, AT ANY TIME PRIOR TO NOTICE OF ITS ACCEPTANCE GIVEN AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE. AN INDICATION OF INTEREST IN RESPONSE TO THIS RESPONSE TO THIS ADVERTISEMENT WILL INVOLVE NO OBLIGATION OR COMMITMENT OF ANY KIND. A broker dealer or its agent may only transact business in a state after licensure or satisfying qualification requirements of that state. If you reside in a particular state that Wit Capital is not registered in as a broker dealer or has registered agents in, this message is not directed to you. Wit Capital will not open a brokerage account or sell securities to you until such time registration requirements in your home state are fulfilled. Thank you. Wit Capital Corporation Member NASD/SIPC

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FTC, Canada, Mexico officials launch "health claim surf day"
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[From Nov 5 Natural Healthline. --Declan] ****************************************** FTC Launches North American Health Claim Surf Day ****************************************** by Michael Evers The Federal Trade Commission recently joined with public health and consumer protection and information agencies from the United States, Canada, and Mexico to "surf" the Internet for potentially false or deceptive advertising claims concerning treatments or cures for heart disease, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. The FTC announced today that in just a few hours during the recently conducted North American Health Claim Surf Day, Internet surfers identified more than 400 World Wide Web sites and numerous Usenet newsgroups that contain promotions for products or services purporting to help cure, treat or prevent these six diseases. The FTC said that it sent hundreds of Web sites and newsgroups e-mail messages pointing out that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims. FTC staff will follow-up by revisiting the targeted sites in the coming weeks to determine if changes have been made. Suspected violators received an e-mail warning which said the following: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), its federal and state law enforcement partners, and public health and consumer protection agencies from Mexico and Canada are sending you (and hundreds of other Internet advertisers) this message based upon a review of the promotion you disseminated through the Internet. The FTC and its partners have NOT determined whether your Internet promotion violates United States federal or state laws, Mexican law, or Canadian law. Nevertheless, we want to remind you that when you make health claims in promoting a product, service, or treatment, those claims must be truthful and non-deceptive. Deceptive Acts or Practices Are Unlawful under the FTC Act In the United States, Section 5 of the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. § 45), prohibits deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. In addition, Section 12 of the Act (15 U.S.C. § 52) prohibits the dissemination of any false advertisement to induce the purchase of any food, drugs, or devices. An advertisement is misleading and deceptive if the advertiser makes an objective claim, either expressly or by implication, including through the use of consumer testimonials, without a "reasonable basis" to support that claim. As set out in the Commission's Advertising Substantiation Policy Statement, advertisements that specify the level of substantiation that the advertiser possesses (e.g., "tests prove" or "studies show") must be supported by at least that level of evidence. If the advertisement does not specify a particular type of substantiation, the Commission considers several factors in determining the appropriate level of substantiation. Typically, claims of the sort included on your Internet site must be substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. Competent and reliable scientific evidence is defined as tests, analyses, research, studies, or other evidence based on the expertise of professionals in the relevant area, that has been conducted and evaluated in an objective manner by persons qualified to do so, using procedures generally accepted in the profession to yield accurate and reliable results. Anecdotal evidence and consumer testimonials are not considered competent and reliable scientific evidence. You may want to review your advertisement in light of these standards. Possible Violations in Other Jurisdictions Unfair or deceptive acts or practices are also unlawful under various state statutes in the United States. The standards under these statutes may be different from those of the FTC's. In addition, by placing an Internet site on the World Wide Web, you may be subject to scrutiny in other countries where you sell your products. You should be aware that many countries, including Mexico and Canada, also have laws that generally require advertisements to be truthful and non-deceptive. "Hopeful and sometimes desperate consumers spend millions of dollars on unproven, deceptively marketed, and often useless 'miracle cures' and the Internet should not become the newest medium for this age-old problem," said Jodie Bernstein, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "In addition to wasting consumers' money, some products or treatments may even cause them serious harm or endanger their lives. Even when the advertised remedy is harmless, it can still have a detrimental effect if it causes consumers to stop or slow the use of proven treatments." In addition to today's effort to prevent health fraud, the FTC has recently conducted several other Internet Surf Days focusing on different types of fraud, including pyramid schemes and deceptive business opportunity offers. North American Health Claim Surf Day participants included: U.S. Food and Drug Administration Health Canada Competition Bureau of Industry Canada Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor of Mexico the Secretaria de Salud of Mexico Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Federal Communications Commission (Denver Office) Attorney General of Connecticut Attorney General of Illinois Attorney General of Kentucky Attorney General of Maryland Attorney General of Massachusetts Attorney General of Minnesota Attorney General of Missouri Attorney General of North Carolina Attorney General of Pennsylvania Attorney General of Tennessee Attorney General of Texas Attorney General of Vermont Attorney General of Virginia Attorney General of Wisconsin Arthritis Foundation American Heart Association American Diabetes Association Capital Area and Tristate AIDS Task Force Better Business Bureau serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. For more information, Federal Trade Commission Web site http://www.ftc.gov Tom Carter FTC Dallas Regional Director 1999 Bryan Street, Suite 2150 Dallas, Texas 75201 (214) 979-9350

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Crazy Isreali's... [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > CHILD HEIRESS AT THE CENTER OF TWISTED PLOT > > Onassis November 7, 1997 > Web posted at: 7:50 p.m. EST (0050 GMT) > > JERUSALEM (AP) -- As part of a battle over a young girl's $2.4 > billion trust fund, former Israeli secret service agents tracked her > father's movements using paragliders and cameras hidden in trees. > > At least, that's the Israeli version of what happened to Athena > Roussel, the granddaughter of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle > Onassis. > > Swiss authorities, however, suspect the Israelis may have been > involved in a plot to kidnap the 12-year-old girl and want them > arrested. > > Much of the story, hushed up for months, remains shrouded inmystery, > though bits and pieces have emerged in the Israeli media. > > The daily newspaper Maariv ran a banner headline Friday about"An > operation to save the Onassis fortune." Next to it was apicture of > an angelic-looking Athena wearing a white dress and a garland of > white flowers in her honey-colored hair. > > Athena is the only child of Christina Onassis, the shipping > magnate's daughter, and her fourth husband, Thierry Roussel. The > couple divorced 1987 and Christina Onassis died a year later. > Roussel has remarried and has three children with his new wife. > Athena lives with her father and his new family in Switzerland and > France. > > Athena stands to inherit some $2.4 billion when she turns 18,and in > the meantime her father and the Greek executors of hermother's will > have been fighting over control of the money. > > Roussel receives $5 million a year for personal expenses, under his > ex-wife's will. Expenses for Athena are confidential. > > Roussel recently sued the charitable Alexander S. Onassis Public > Benefit Foundation, accusing it of having mismanaged and embezzled > millions of dollars. A Greek court acquitted the foundation earlier > this year. > > Israeli police said that at some point, Greek trustees turned to > Israeli private investigators and asked them to find evidence that > Athena's father was involved in "immoral acts." > > The seven Israelis -- among them former top agents in Israel's Shin > Bet security service -- began by preparing surveillance on the > Roussel mansion near Geneva, according to Maariv and the Yediot > Ahronot daily newspaper. > > This was a complicated task, the newspapers said, sinceintruders > could easily be spotted near the heavily guarded,isolated compound. > One solution the agents came up with, saidYediot, was to use > paragliders to fly over the Roussel home and take pictures from the > air. > > Another scheme to avoid drawing attention was to have > agentsmasquerade as environmentalists driving around in a > vanplastered with "green" stickers. > > The Israeli team also proposed to hide surveillance cameras in the > trees of the compound and use state-of-the-art laser technology to > wiretap Roussel's home and office, Maariv said. > > In a second stage, the surveillance team hired another Israeli > investigator to check out Roussel's Paris apartment, the newspaper > said. The agent learned, said Maariv, that Roussel was running a > modeling agency there, and at one point hired a British model to try > and infiltrate Roussel's business. > > The surveillance efforts came to light when an Israeli businessman > and a friend of the Paris agent found out about it and tried to sell > the information for profit. The businessman was questioned by Swiss > police who began an investigation. > > It was at this stage, said Maariv and Yediot, that the Greektrustees > ordered the Israeli team to drop its efforts. > > In a statement Friday, the Onassis Foundation accused Roussel of a > campaign to remove his daughter from the control of the trustees, > "even in matters of security." > > However, foundation officials refused comment on the record when > asked whether trustees had hired the Israelis. > > Last month, Swiss police officials came to Israel to questionseveral > of the Israeli investigators who had since returned home. > > Israeli police said they decided to close the case because they had > no evidence of wrongdoing. An Israeli police investigator said he > was convinced the Israeli agents had simply carried out surveillance > and were not involved in a kidnapping plot. > > But a Swiss judge investigating the kidnapping suspicions said he > doubted the Israeli version. > > "It's their way of seeing things and it's convenient forthem," said > Judge Jacques Delieutraz of Geneva. "They don't have all the facts > we have."

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Free Website for Any Business
by inbiz＠ultramax.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I will give you a FREE FOREVER website for ANY BUSINESS (except porn or illegal, of course) just for visiting my website. That's right, I'm trying to generate traffic to my website, so as an incentive to get you there, I'll GIVE you your very own website. (There's even a cool page wizard that makes it a snap to create your webpage). Email me back and I'll tell you the address to go to. Best Wishes to you in everything you're doing! Lisa If you'd like to be removed from this mailing list, please hit reply and type remove in the subject line.

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Major security flaw in Cybercash 2.1.2 (fwd)
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text From: Bob Antia <antia(a)leftbank.com> Subject: Major security flaw in Cybercash 2.1.2 (fwd) To: mjbauer(a)leftbank.com (Michael Bauer), rah(a)shipwright.com Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 10:04:14 -0500 (EST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Approved-By: aleph1(a)UNDERGROUND.ORG Message-ID: <f58bccfc52aba91d0973f9bf33160ddd(a)anon.efga.org> Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 22:54:16 -0500 Reply-To: Anonymous <anon(a)ANON.EFGA.ORG> Sender: Bugtraq List <BUGTRAQ(a)NETSPACE.ORG> Comments: This message was remailed by a FREE automated remailing service. For additional information on this service, send a message with the subject "remailer-help" to remailer(a)anon.efga.org. The body of the message will be discarded. To report abuse, contact the operator at admin(a)anon.efga.org. Headers below this point were inserted by the original sender. From: Anonymous <anon(a)ANON.EFGA.ORG> Subject: Major security flaw in Cybercash 2.1.2 To: BUGTRAQ(a)NETSPACE.ORG CyberCash v. 2.1.2 has a major security flaw that causes all credit card information processed by the server to be logged in a file with world-readable permissions. This security flaw exists in the default CyberCash installation and configuration. The flaw is a result of not being able to turn off debugging. Setting the "DEBUG" flag to "0" in the configuration files simply has no effect on the operation of the server. In CyberCash's server, when the "DEBUG" flag is on, the contents of all credit card transactions are written to a log file (named "Debug.log" by default). The easiest workaround I've found is to simply delete the existing Debug.log file. In my experience with the Solaris release, the CyberCash software does not create this file at start time when the DEBUG flag is set to 0. The inability to turn off debugging is noted on CyberCash's web site under "Known Limitations". The fact that credit card numbers are stored in the clear, in a world readable file, is not. --jet -b Bob Antia antia(a)leftbank.com The Left Bank Operation, Inc. http://www.leftbank.com TCP/IP Internetworking LAN/WAN/NT/UNIX Admin PGP fingerprint 9B 70 FF 2D 03 CC 5F C1 3E 29 6E D4 16 79 44 A8 --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Re: Bay Area Cypherpunks meeting announcement
by Colin Plumb 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Additionally, there will be a release of the PGP 5.0 Unix Specific Source Code Update at the public meeting. -- -Colin

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DO YOU WAGER / GAMBLE ON SPORTS ?
by 99001680＠msn.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

MR ACTION HAS THE WINNERS FOR SUNDAY & MONDAY NFL & BASKETBALL GUARANTEED TO WIN !!! UP NOW AT 1-900-484-7777 $18.00 per call Under 18 years of age ?? Don't Call!!! This is a guaranteed pick line. If you do not have a winning day with these selections we will replace the selections or make a refund!!

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Content controls
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: hutchinson(a)click.ncri.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:29:04 -0500 To: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> From: hutchinson(a)ncri.com (Art Hutchinson) Subject: Content controls Cc: whgiii(a)invweb.net, dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hutchinson(a)ncri.com (Art Hutchinson) >>>A whole bunch of people are now talking about these cash-settled recursive >>>auction processes, and they're a direct, and now obvious, consequence of >>>bearer (or at least instant) settlement markets for information on geodesic >>>networks. When you add anonymity to the transaction, you pretty much have >>>the final straw for "rights" tracking. Watermarks just tell you who the >>>information was stolen from, for instance. So, one more industrial >>>information process bites the dust. > >>Whoa! Hang on here. Sure, watermarks will tell you who information was >>stolen from, but they're just a stalking horse... a weak second cousin to >>*persistent* content control technologies (such as IBM's Cryptolopes and >>Intertrust's Digiboxes). These allow rightsholders to manage a wide >>range of parameters (including price, usage context, and any other >>variable for which you can imagine having a certificate). Whats >>fundamentally different about what are generically referred to as secure >>envelopes, is that they can maintain controls *indefinitely* >>(persistence), across an un- >>known, ad hoc, web of distribution over which one otherwise has no >>control. And yes, this can all work even in a completely disconnected >>environment (laptop at 35,000 feet). > >>They allow rightsholders, if they so choose, to *continue* being rights- >>holders in a highly networked, digital world, and in a wide range of new >>ways, based on entirely new (or old) business models, that take advantage >>of rich/elaborate conditions for usage (e.g. you can view this picture >>anonymously, but it will cost you 2X as much, and you can only get it at >>low resolution, and you can't view it at all unless you can prove that >>you don't live in the Middle East). No certificate for these conditions? >>Sorry, no content. > >>They are based the same basic stuff (public key cryptography of course) >>that *can* fuel wild anarchic visions of anonymous exchange. ;) > >>But they aren't at all deterministic of any particular economic model. > >Well how exactly does one prevent data from being stolen once it has been >unlocked? I pay my 2X to view the picture anonymously and now I copy it >save it and distribute it worldwide. I fail to see how any >encryption/watermark scheme can prevent me from doing so. The control technologies to which I referred earlier turn the lock/unlock idea into far more than a binary choice. This is what I meant by "persistence". The content cannot be used without its accompanying control set (which again, *might* include payment). Part of the control set I may impose on anonymous viewers could include preventing them from copying or saving the content directly in digital form. This is counter-intuitive to those of us who are used to having cut/paste available at our fingertips in most applications, but its relatively trivial to disable these functions on a file by file basis. Alternatively, I might impose controls that permit anonymous users to see *only* lower reso- lution versions. (by analogy, if you're going to wear a ski mask into a jewelry store, you aren't likely to be shown the expensive stuff - if they let you in the door in the first place). If you were really determined, you could always take a photo of the screen, re-scan it, do some image enhancement to get rid of the graini- ness, re-save it and post it on your web page for all to see, (the so-called digital-to-analog-to-digital work-around), but this is darned inconvenient. Also, try doing that with music or movies.... while avoiding the roving automated net 'bots that will be out looking for illegal copies of content (these are already common). Not worth it. For most people. If it were, we'd already have massive illegal scanning operations in third-world countries, and plenty of demand for their wares. Sure, this exists, and may even grow a bit around the fringes, but this hardly proves the case for a single vision of an anarchic Robin Hood future for all content (Sell today else I rip you off tomorrow!!) As a non-disclosed third party, I'm not at liberty to discuss the 'guts' of either the Crytolope or Digibox technologies (though I have seen them) Both are covered, as you might imagine, by a fairly extensive array of active and pending patents. If you want to learn more, I'd recommend contacting them directly: www.intertrust.com (or their partner, Softbank NetSolutions) www.infomkt.ibm.com Cheers. - Art Art Hutchinson hutchinson(a)ncri.com Northeast Consulting Resources, Inc. phone: (617) 654-0635 One Liberty Square fax: (617) 654-0654 Boston, MA 02160 www.ncri.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Working at the intersection of business and IT strategy to help organizations embrace electronic commerce opportunities" For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Re: Hughes Markets? (finally some stimulating debate on dcsb)
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: hutchinson(a)click.ncri.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:28:21 -0500 To: "R. Jason Cronk" <listmanager(a)orange.redmans.com> From: hutchinson(a)ncri.com (Art Hutchinson) Subject: Re: Hughes Markets? (finally some stimulating debate on dcsb) Cc: dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hutchinson(a)ncri.com (Art Hutchinson) I wrote: >>Whoa! Hang on here. Sure, watermarks will tell you who information >>was stolen from, but they're just a stalking horse... a weak second cousin >>to *persistent* content control technologies (such as IBM's Cryptolopes >>and Intertrust's Digiboxes). These allow rightsholders to manage a wide > ><SNIP> > >>They allow rightsholders, if they so choose, to *continue* being rights- >>holders in a highly networked, digital world, and in a wide range of new To which R. Jason Cronk replied: >"if they so choose" and here is where I submit the two camps divide. Yep. I couldn't agree more. There will be at *least* two, (and probably more like 2000) 'camps'. And here is where I think we diverge.... >Sure, you can decide to try to hold on to the rights, but it is going to be >market suicide. Your best bet is to sell it all off, get what you can for >it and do it again. In other words, a recursive auction market. With more sophisticated tools for rights management, the market contest can move to another level, with content business models *themselves* vying for attention. Recursive auctions are merely one of these models. They may make perfect sense for the kind of content that is going to decline in value over time anyway (news, for example). Not all content works this way though. Recursive auction markets are exciting because for the most part, they haven't been possible in 'copyright' industries until recently. Its easy to say that they will be more important than they are today. They will. But to say that they are fore-ordained as the only way for creators to get compensated is much too narrow. This view would only make sense if detaching copies from usage controls were easy. Today it is, and there is a common misconception that this will continue. But it won't. Cryptographers especially should understand this. The same base technology that makes it extremely difficult to mint one's own digital coins in someone else's currency will make it extremely difficult to use someone else's digital content without complying with their controls (including payment). It is inconsistent to say that digital money can have persistent value and digital content cannot. Both are information. Both based on a common faith in a 'brand': either the U.S. Treasury or Disney. Same idea. Best, - Art Art Hutchinson hutchinson(a)ncri.com Northeast Consulting Resources, Inc. phone: (617) 654-0635 One Liberty Square fax: (617) 654-0654 Boston, MA 02160 www.ncri.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Working at the intersection of business and IT strategy to help organizations embrace electronic commerce opportunities" For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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E-Peso's for tractors - McCaffrey on banking
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text From: "Blair Anderson" <blair(a)technologist.com> To: "dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu" <dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 09 Nov 97 01:53:59 +1300 Priority: Normal MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: E-Peso's for tractors - McCaffrey on banking Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: "Blair Anderson" <blair(a)technologist.com> 06:24 p.m Nov 05, 1997 Eastern U.S. drug czar appeals to banks to track laundering By Anthony Boadle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bankers, watch those ``smurf'' accounts. That was the message drug enforcement authorities gave the American Bankers Association and the American Bar Association at their annual money laundering conference Wednesday. Any innocent-looking person could be depositing a drug baron's cash parceled into amounts smaller that the $10,000 reporting threshhold to avoid suspicion, so get to know your customer, they warned. Traffickers hire individuals or ``smurfs'' who open small accounts at U.S. banks in their own or fictitious names. Once in the system, drug money becomes very hard to trace, White House drug policy director Gen. Barry McCaffrey said. Americans spend $49 billion a year on illegal drugs and much of that cash has to go through banks and corporations to get back to the Colombian cartels that ship cocaine and heroin to the the United States, he said. McCaffrey said drug traffickers were becoming increasingly sophisticated in laundering their proceeds, resorting to high tech communication encryption and ``cybercash'' transactions over the Internet. ``We are not going to find dumb guys stumbling into bank branches in New York City with cardboard boxes full of $20 bills that test positive for cocaine,'' he said. ``We are losing contact with the enemy,'' the general said. ''The government cannot follow laundering by itself. You are going to have to help.'' McCaffrey said the drug trade was moving into new areas such as the securities industry to launder its profits. Treasury Department Undersecretary for Enforcement, Raymond Kelly, said Colombian cartels were using a black market peso brokering system to send home their profits. Cartels sell their dollars at a discount to Colombian businessmen who need to buy goods in the United States. The dollars go to pay the U.S. manufacturer or exporter. The pesos never leave Colombia and end up in the drug baron's account. A hooded Colombian woman testified in Congress last month that she had laundered money through large U.S. banks and corporations unwittingly used by black market peso brokers. She cited the case of drug dollars going to pay for a tractor for a Colombian farmer. Keely, a former New York City police commissioner, warned that money laudering was corroding financial institutions. ``It is the source and the product of a burgeoning global parallel trading system that serves the emerging criminal holding companies,'' he told the bankers and lawyers. Kelly said the Clinton administration has worked to lessen the burden of the Suspicious Activity Reports that banks are obliged to file under the Banking Secrecy Act. The banking industry complained it had to file 12 million such reports in 1996, a time consuming and costly activity. New regulations exempts banks from reporting on certain customers, such as corporations listed on stock markets and their subsidiaries. But a new set of rules exempting additional businesses has caused an uproar among bankers because they would have to track the daily currency operations of these businesses for one year and project their annual currency needs. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Blair Anderson (Blair(a)technologist.com) International Consultant in Electronic Commerce, Encryption and Electronic Rights Management "Techno Junk and Grey Matter" (HTTP://WWW.NOW.CO.NZ [moving servers, currently inactive]) 50 Wainoni Road, Christchurch, New Zealand phone 64 3 3894065 fax 64 3 3894065 Member Digital Commerce Society of Boston ---------------------------- Caught in the Net for 25 years ---------------------------- For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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