Mon. Jan 18th, 2021

Day: December 2, 2020

Hackers spoof Homebase CEO Damian McGloughlin in ‘£500 golden envelope scam’

Christmas shoppers are being targeted by a sophisticated social media scam, purporting to be from the Homebase CEO Damian McGloughlin offering a ‘free golden envelope containing £500’.

Researchers at the Parliament Street think tank’s cyber team uncovered the scam and issued a public warning on Wednesday 2nd of November via the group’s social media channels.

The scam, the core page of which is still live on Facebook, with CEO golden envelope posts now taken down, begins with a message from man with pierced ears and a short white ‘soul patch’ beard, clutching golden envelopes containing Homebase-branded literature.

The man does not resemble the company’s current CEO Damian McGloughlin, and yet includes the following message: “Hello everyone, we have a Christmas surprise for you all! I’m Damian McGloughlin, CEO of Homebase and on November 28th I’ll be giving these 25 golden envelopes away to 25 people who share

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By wyna 2 months ago

Debenhams website inundated as shoppers try to grab bargains from collapsing chain

Shoppers have been waiting in virtual queues for over an hour as they rush to snap up deals on the Debenhams website after the chain confirmed its collapse.

The department store chain is being wound down after JD Sports pulled out of talks on a rescue takeover, placing 12,000 jobs at risk in a horror week for UK retail.

Many hoping to get a deal have been left disappointed after customers complained on social media of having to wait for extended periods of time to get onto the website, with some then being “kicked out” of the queue.

“50 minutes to get onto the @Debenhams website then after 5 minutes get kicked off to the end of the queue because my time is up what stupidity is this?!” wrote one person.

Others commented they had seen up to half a million people waiting in the virtual queue ahead of

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By wyna 2 months ago

FT’s McCrum wins Schmidt Prize for Wirecard coverage

Dan McCrum

Dan McCrum, investigative reporter at the Financial Times, has won the coveted Helmut Schmidt Journalism Prize in Germany for his work uncovering one of the biggest accounting frauds in European corporate history.

This is the first time the prize has gone to a business journalist outside Germany.

The FT’s investigation into the technology company Wirecard sent ripples through the German financial regulatory system and led to the downfall of the prominent DAX 30 company.

Uwe Vorkoetter, journalist and member of the awards jury, remarked: “McCrum spent six years researching the Wirecard case. From his initial doubts about the company’s integrity to the collapse of this tissue of lies that had made it into the DAX30 circle. McCrum has had to overcome many obstacles; he has been investigated on suspicion of market manipulation, lawyers have been hired to intimidate him, his email account has been hacked, he

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By wyna 2 months ago