You are browsing the archives of 2008 April.

Telephone scammers in Mexico are capitalizing on the fears of parents in Mexico by committing “Virtual Kidnapping”, a phone scam that creates the impression that a child is held hostage. 
From the New York Times: 
The phone call begins with the cries of an anguished child calling for a parent: “Mama! Papa!” The youngster’s sobs are quickly [...]

The Philippine embassy in Singapore stated that the trafficking of Filipina women into the country is continuing. 
From The Inquirer (Philippines):
The Philippine embassy said the trafficking of Filipinas in Singapore “continues unabated.”
The embassy’s admission came six month after INQUIRER.net first reported the sharp increase in the incident of the transnational crime in the island-state.
In the report [...]

59 human trafficking victims were recorded in 2005.
125 victims were recorded in 2006. 
212 recorded in 2007. 
Source: Veronica Uy, “Trafficking of Filipinas in Singapore ‘unabated’-embassy,” Inquirer.net, April 28, 2008.

The Untied States Trade Representive is accusing China and Russia of flooding the global marketplace with counterfeit and pirated goods
From AFP:
The United States on Friday named China and Russia as among the worst protectors of intellectual property rights, flooding global trade with counterfeit items such as DVDs, designer bags, medicines and software.
In an annual report [...]

The difference between the illicit trade in infants and legitimate intercountry adoptions is at times difficult to monitor. As Ethan Kapstein writes in Foreign Affairs, “the difference may be clear conceptually, but it is not always clear in reality.”
“Buying infants is illegal covering the cost of raising then until they are adopted is not,” Kapstein [...]

Due to rising food prices, citizens of Haiti are increasingly attempting to be smuggled into the United States.
From Reuters (via Yahoo News):
Acute hunger and the rising cost of living could send a new wave of boat people from Haiti, where rising food prices set off deadly riots two weeks ago and drove the prime minister [...]

The United States Attorney General stated that organized crime groups are targeting energy and financial markets.
From CNN:
ttorney General Michael Mukasey warned Wednesday that organized criminal networks have penetrated portions of the international energy market and tried to control energy resources.In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, he said similar [...]

A $20 million virtual fence on the US-Mexico border has been shut down after two months for failing to work.
From the AP (via Google News):
The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted “virtual fence” on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal [...]

Several countries are striving to make the act of paying for sex a crime to eliminate the demand of human trafficking.
From Reuters:
The rise of international sex trafficking is causing many countries to rethink their laws on prostitution and re-examine legal frameworks that for decades have treated the purchase of sex as a social nuisance or [...]

The Associated Press is reporting that European Union companies are lose €21 billion, or $33.3 billion, to pirated goods each year.
From the AP (via IHT):
Violations of intellectual property rights, trademarks and patents held by EU companies and researchers will be high on the agenda when European Commission President Manuel Barroso leads a large delegation into [...]