New Money Review podcast

There’s a big security loophole affecting plastic payment cards—called a replay (or pre-play) attack. Banks have known about this loophole for years. But they may still blame you, the victim, if a scammer makes use of it.In a 2022 fraud, a former British soldier holidaying in Brazil found that £20,000 had been charged to his bank card in eighteen separate transactions. The ex-soldier, Henry Williams, said he’d only used his card once and that most of the money had been taken from his account without his knowledge.His bank, a well-known British high street name, initially refused to compensate him, arguing he must have authorised all the payments. Only a year later did the bank agree to refund him—partially and with a grudging apology.Even after one of the UK’s best-known security experts intervened on behalf of the victim, the UK’s financial ombudsman, which is supposed to settle complaints between consumers and financial services businesses, sided more with the bank.How does a replay attack occur? Most plastic debit (or credit) cards contain a chip which is used to identify and authenticate the user. The chip comes into action when the user taps the card on a contactless payment terminal (or inserts the card into the terminal and then enters a PIN code).At this point, the payment terminal generates a number that is supposed to be unpredictable, ensuring that each payment transaction is a fresh one. Unfortunately, payment terminals can be tampered with and the supposedly unguessable number can be manipulated. This opens the door to replay attacks—and to more paydays for criminals.As many as half of all payment cards and half of all terminals may be vulnerable to exploitation, says my Unseen Money co-host Timur Yunusov, who demonstrates a card replay attack in this YouTube video.In the latest episode of Unseen Money from New Money Review, we explore replay attacks: how they occur, why the vulnerability is still there more than a decade after it was exposed, and why the payments industry is so reluctant to address the issue.

The UK prides itself in being open for innovative tech firms—and companies in general—to set up business. It takes only £12—and 15-20 minutes—to create a new company online.But the laxity of the country’s system for new company formations has made the UK a goldmine for scammers. And the problem is getting worse: fraud, much of it digital, now accounts for over 40 per cent of all recorded crime in England and WalesIn the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov and I discuss a recent Financial Times article about a London-based fraud victim, Livia Giuggioli Firth, who was conned by scammers into sending £325k from her company’s bank account.Instead of asking for compensation from her own bank for being a victim of an authorised push payment fraud, Ms. Giuggioli Firth took the unusual step of suing the scammers’ bank in court. This forced the disclosure of the names if not of the individual scammers, but of the network of companies they used to launder the stolen money.The court case unveiled some of the principal weaknesses in the UK’s system for deterring and catching fraudsters.In the podcast, we discuss:Why the UK is a heaven for digital fraudstersWhy Companies House is still making it easy for criminalsHow the fintech and AI booms have fuelled scamsWho’s responsible in the UK for fighting scammers?How criminals second-guess anti-fraud systems and the need for ongoing due diligenceThe role of cryptocurrency in laundering stolen moneyShould Zuckerberg and Musk reimburse digital fraud victims?Why AI-enabled scams are certain to become more dangerousWant to join Timur and me on a future episode of Unseen Money to talk about how scammers use Companies House registrations to aid their crimes? Drop me a line at paul@newmoneyreview.com.

In the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov and I discuss how to stop a bad dream turning into a real nightmare: when a phone snatcher has your mobile device and is trying to get hold of your money as well. We cover: How a phone thief can access your bank accountsThe security of contract and non-contract mobile phonesBest mobile phone security practices and what to keep safe at all costsMulti-factor authentication and avoiding single points of failureStopping a phone theft from becoming identity theftFace ID or touch ID to authorise payments?The unevenness of payment apps’ securityWhy little can stop the determined hackerWe also refer to these New Money Review articles in the podcast:A phone grabber could drain your bank account in minutesHow safe are payment cards?

Last week UK prime minister Keir Starmer said artificial intelligence could help fix potholes, teach our kids and slash the cost of public services.What he failed to mention is that AI is also a dream come true for scammers. Listen to the latest episode of Unseen Money as Paul Amery and Timur Yunusov discuss how AI-enabled fraud is rocketing and why.

The latest New Money Review podcast focuses on Trump, tariffs, deglobalisation and the currency markets. My guest, Mark Astley, is a former colleague, a currency and fixed income specialist who recently retired as chief executive of asset manager Millennium Global Investments. “We are living in an epochal time in the history of exchange rates and trade policy,” Astley says in the podcast.During the recording, Astley suggests the 53-year experiment with a dollar-based floating exchange rate system may be coming to an end—and he suggests that tariff wars and rising geopolitical turmoil may bring an end to dollar dominance as well.Listen in for a 30-minute discussion of the backdrop and outlook for global currencies. We cover:The benefits and costs of post-1971 exchange rate flexibilityThe great disinflation of 1981-2021 and the recent return to higher inflationTrump, tariffs, supply chains and interest ratesWhich global economies are least and most exposed to a trade war?Why dollar dominance may end slowly, then suddenlyThe breakdown of post-WW2 global institutionsImplications for currency markets, precious metals and cryptocurrencies

When, why and how do countries go bust? That’s the topic of the latest New Money Review podcast, where I’m joined by Greg Makoff, a former physicist, banker, government advisor and now senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.Makoff is the author of a recent book on what has been called “the most contentious default in history”—Argentina’s 2001-2016 debt restructuring.In the podcast, we discuss:When, why and how countries go bustWhat distinguishes a sovereign insolvency from a corporate or personal bankruptcyWho has jurisdiction over sovereign defaults?What brings governments and creditors to the table?Sovereign immunity and the negotiating power between debtor and creditorWhat went wrong in Argentina’s debt restructuring?How Elliott Capital Management made billions on defaulted Argentinian debtThe broader public policy lessons of Argentina’s debt restructuringChina, the IMF and the geopolitics of sovereign debtDefault risk in domestic and foreign currency bondsWhy sovereign debt problems will never go away

Want to know what happens when fraud is a core component of your business model?Want to know how a business idea described as an “economic fairytale” could be valued at $300m? Want to know how an unknown cryptocurrency exchange could end up with a $1bn a year marketing budget, rivalling that of Microsoft?Want to know how easy it is to corrupt auditors and journalists with crypto tokens?All this is in Crypto Confidential, a new book by Jake Donoghue that’s coming out in August 2024. I read a review copy, really enjoyed it and have invited Jake to talk to New Money Review podcast listeners.Donoghue describes his book as “a record of the sheer extravagance, excess and absurdity I bore witness to on a daily basis”.In the podcast we discuss:How an unviable betting start-up could be worth $300m on its first day of tradingWhy its founders switched focus from gambling to marketingDuplicitous tactics, shilling, pumping and dumping in cryptoThe confluence of politics and cryptocurrencyWhy did the cryptocurrency markets recover after the 2022 FTX/Terra/Luna frauds?From bitcoin to ICOs, NFTs and memecoins: how crypto has lost touch with its originsHow influencer crypto marketing hit its peak in 2022When Bybit’s reported $1bn a year marketing budget rivalled Microsoft’sThe innovation of crypto fundraisingWhy crypto journalism is an oxymoronTether and sanctions evasionWhy crypto projects are jumping onto the AI bandwagonWhat next for cryptocurrency?