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Thursday, September 08, 2022

Is the most isolated island in the world, where there are only penguins, a tax haven? The women who shaped Henry Lawson’s illustrious but tragic career

Henry Lawson was granted the first state funeral ever awarded to a mere literary figure in Australia after he died 100 years ago on September 2, 1922. The service – as reported by the Herald was attended by both dignitaries (prime minister Billy Hughes and future NSW premier Jack Lang, his brother-in-law) and down-and-outs.

Henry Lawson


In 2021, tax records pointed out that almost 2.5 million Australian dollars (equivalent to around R$8.9 million) in Australian bank accounts belonged to citizens living in Bouvet. Since penguins don’t pay taxes, is Bouvet a new tax haven?

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO), equivalent to our Internal Revenue Service, had another explanation, says the Australian website ABC News. The agency also noticed that other uninhabited islands had bank account records that together amounted to many thousands of Australian dollars.

It is the most isolated island in the world. It is more than 2 thousand kilometers from any human settlement, and was only discovered in the 18th century, only to be lost again for decades.

Yet, apparently, it has become a tax haven. Even if the only existing institution on site is a scientific station with a capacity for six people to spend a maximum of four months.

The oldest mention of the island is from 1739, when French navigator Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier discovered it on the first day of the year. At that time, the Catholic Church celebrated, on January 1, the circumcision of Christ (today the date is remembered only by the Orthodox). Therefore, the peninsula seen by the French was named Cape Circumcision.

Is the most isolated island in the world, where there are only penguins, a tax haven?


Testy moment Qantas CEO Alan Joyce rips into an ABC reporter over his 'disrespectful' questions - before he's escorted out by security


Berri Estates, largest winery in Southern Hemisphere, celebrates century of history


Washington Post: Some 100 native tree species could die out amid an onslaught of invasive insects, a surge in deadly diseases and the all-encompassing peril of climate change



Science Advances, Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media – Inoculating against misinformation techniques. Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden, Beth Goldberg, Steve Rathje and Stephan Lewandowsky. Published August 2022 Volume 8I Issue 34: “Online misinformation continues to have adverse consequences for society. Inoculation theory has been put for-ward as a way to reduce susceptibility to misinformation by informing people about how they might be misinformed, but its scalability has been elusive both at a theoretical level and a practical level. We developed five short videos that inoculate people against manipulation techniques commonly used in misinformation: emotionally manipulative language, incoherence, false dichotomies, scapegoating, and ad hominem attacks. In seven preregistered studies, i.e., six randomized controlled studies and an ecologically valid field study on YouTube, we find that these videos improve manipulation technique recognition, boost confidence in spotting these techniques, increase people’s ability to discern trustworthy from untrustworthy content, and improve the quality of their sharing decisions. These effects are robust across the political spectrum and a wide variety of covariates. We show that psychological inoculation campaigns on social media are effective at improving misinformation resilience at scale.”


Ohio Attorney General identifies and sues the two men behind robocalls claiming to extend your car warranty; part of larger efforts to end such calls;  warranty calls drop from 5 million/day to 1 million/day
 
Six things not to do on Facebook

  • Accept friend requests from people who you are already friends with
  • Respond to “friends” who tell you you’ve won a lottery
  • Respond to “friends” who tell you can get a grant from the government that you don’t have to pay back
  • Respond to “friends” that claim that they have made money by investing in bitcoin or other crypto, and claim that you can too
  • Buy items advertised in your Facebook feed; they are probably counterfeit
  • Respond to ads on Facebook marketplace; it is rife with scams

Need an expert witness for consumer protection or fraud issues?  Let me know.
 
Fraud Studies. Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraud, romance fraud; BEC fraud, sweepstakes/lottery fraud,  tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud, gift cards,  job scams,  online shopping fraud, and crypto scams
 
Fraud News Around the world

Humor 

FTC and CFPB  

Virus Benefit Theft

Social media

Business Email compromise fraud 

Ransomware  

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency

IRS and tax frauds 

Jamaica and Lottery Fraud

Romance Fraud and Sextortion




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