In the regular season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), Philadelphia beat the San Antonio Spurs at home with a score of 133:123, a historic event took place, Azernews reports, citing foreign media outlets.
Day: January 24, 2024
New trend developing: both Azeri authorities, as well as Armenia’s own prime minister have stated that Armenia needs a new constitution. The latter due to “regional and global changes.” This right after the fall of Nagorno Karabakh.
Source: https://t.co/iiGyG1NSuf https://t.co/RJJiOYofv2
— Nagorno Karabakh Observer (@NKobserver) January 24, 2024
Scam with neural networks
Internet scammers have robbed gullible citizens of Armenia of half a million dollars with AI neural networks to create promotional videos in which famous people urge investing in various commercial projects and profit-sharing schemes.
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The story of a media literacy teacher who was victimized by scammers
“What I did is just stupid. I’m ashamed to talk about it because I was always sure I was an educated, informed person. A person of my type cannot fall victim to such a cheap deception. But it happened,” says 38-year-old Anush K.
She teaches social studies at a high school in Tavush province and fears that her students will stop trusting her if they learn about the incident:
“I also teach media literacy as part of the social studies subject. Can you imagine how ridiculous it is that a person who talks about safe behavior on the internet every day, gives their money to scammers?”
Anush, like thousands of other residents of Armenia, was the victim of an internet scam that was distributed on behalf of Gazprom Armenia.
According to the Armenian Investigative Committee, the victims have already “invested” half a million dollars in the non-existent financial system.
“With the help of neural networks, scammers created advertisements in which well-known figures – politicians and businessmen – call for investing in various projects or purchasing shares of various companies, including Gazprom Armenia CJSC.” The victims are mostly people who are not familiar with technology and agree to provide their bank details,” the Investigative Committee said.
Anush was “persuaded” to invest by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whose image was also used by the scammers.
“I knew that modern information technologies make it possible to duplicate the appearance and voice of any person. But I thought it was impossible to create such a video that would not differ at all from the real one. In the video I saw, Pashinyan’s voice, facial expressions and speech were absolutely real. It was my mistake to believe what I saw.”
Here is one such video that has been circulating on Facebook
How Anush “gave” money she had set aside to buy winter tires
After watching the video, Anush clicked on the link provided in the video description. A page appeared on her phone screen, asking her to enter her name, surname and phone number.
She says that if the first link had asked for bank details, she would have had doubts. Immediately after entering her personal details, she received a call via the WhatsApp app. A man named Andrei explained the details of the transaction in Russian. Anush says the young man’s words did not inspire confidence, she disconnected the call and did not respond to subsequent ones.
“It seemed suspicious to me that the call was from abroad, that the guy spoke Russian. I thought it wasn’t worth making a dubious deal. But a few hours later, the call came from an Armenian number. A young woman spoke to me in Armenian. She said that the program allowed me to invest starting from $300, after which I would get a significant profit.
She explained that specialists, who understand securities, instead of us, send our money to buy such shares, which in a few days are sold two or three times more expensive. Allegedly, that’s how the profits are generated. I agreed, but decided to take my time. Over the next two days, this woman kept calling and asking why I hadn’t invested the money. During the last conversation, she said that the stock market was changing from day to day and that it was impossible to delay.”
Following instructions, Anush posted her bank details on the website and received a notification that the money had been transferred from her card. A few days later, the phone numbers from which she was contacted – both Armenian and foreign – were unavailable.
At first she was ashamed to tell her husband about the incident, Anush admits. After all, she had transferred money she had set aside for winter tires for his car.
“Then we had to go to the bank, block this card and related accounts, get a new card. I realized that they already had all the data of this account, and any amount appearing on this card would immediately go to them.”
Her husband also insisted that she go to the police. The application was accepted, but she was warned that such cybercrimes are difficult to solve. Fraud groups operate from different countries using secure communications, so it is not easy to detect them or track their movements.
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“Vigilance will save the day”
The success of scammers lies in carefully thought-out advertising, says information security expert Samvel Martirosyan:
“They shoot high-quality videos using the faces of famous people. Then they distribute them using advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Many people say that all their pages should be blocked and they should not be allowed to create new ones. But this is impossible. After all, ads are placed through constantly changing and even hacked pages. Vigilance is essential.”
There are signs of deception that should alert people, the expert said. For example, when strangers suggest investing a small amount, but get a big profit. According to Martirosyan, before investing money, it is necessary to study a particular market, to understand what interest rates are offered here. Scammers usually offer much higher percentages.
“A normal business offers 10-20 percent annual return on investment. And when it comes to investing with getting 20, 30, 40 or more percent per week, believe me you are being scammed. Especially when the offer comes from a stranger.”
Methods of psychological pressure
As soon as a person invests an amount of money, he immediately finds himself “in the crosshairs of fraudsters”. They start working with him individually, using methods of psychological influence. Often those who made the first deposit are actually transferred a certain amount of money so that they tell others about it and attract more people.
“When someone receives a money transfer, they say, ‘If you tell your friends and acquaintances, you will get money for this. And when they get a certain number of people, they take all the money and disappear. But since they are not simple swindlers, they start calling the person again, demanding to invest the amount again, saying that the previous deposit is frozen.
After a certain period of time this person can even see his name and surname on some pages indicating the amount. And he thinks it is his money, but it is not. These are just drawn figures on which they are trying to build new frauds,” says Martirosyan.
And when the “victim” already intends to apply to law enforcement agencies, it even comes to threats.
According to the expert, scammers do not stop there. At the next stage, when a person realizes that all these steps are useless, they start calling him again with an offer of help. Some people present themselves, for example, as representatives of a large Swiss company, but are in fact from the same group demanding a fee for their services.
“Make you believe that dreams can come true”
The mass involvement of Armenian residents in this manipulative process is due to several circumstances, psychologist Hayk Baghdian believes. Among them are the high threshold of social insecurity, as well as psychological traumas resulting from the tragic events of recent years. The psychologist says that wars make people especially vulnerable and Armenia is no exception:
“First of all, a person with psychological trauma starts to be told what he can achieve with the help of this money. For example, they say that you will get rich, you will have the house of your dreams, you will provide everything you need for your family. They create in his perception a certain desired future, what he dreams of. The impact of this technique increases when a person has a feeling of emptiness and needlessness, when the present does not satisfy him. And he begins to think that if he accepts this offer, life will become full.”
Regarding videos distributed by fraudsters and their impact, Bagdyan emphasizes that any advertisement contains elements of manipulation. And advertisements created for this purpose are usually well thought out and have maximum impact on the subconsciousness of a person. That is why it is very difficult to refuse this temptation, and it requires attention and vigilance.
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Fraud using neural networks
In 2023, Georgia’s dependence on imports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (natural gas) from Russia and Iran increased compared to the previous year, while imports from Azerbaijan decreased. According to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the increase in imports was due to Georgia’s increased annual consumption of gas.
The data provided by the National Statistics Office of Georgia shows that in 2023 Georgia imported 486 thousand tons of gas from Russia, which is 69 thousand tons (16.54%) more than in 2022. In terms of US dollars, Georgia spent $131 million – $19 million (18%) more than in the previous year.
Imports from Iran also increased significantly, although its share in the total purchases is insignificant. In 2022, Georgia imported only 10.38 tons of gas, which increased by 606.5% to 73.28 tons in 2023. Similarly, only $30.65 thousand was spent on Iranian gas in 2022, which quadrupled to $142 thousand.
As for the decrease in imports from Azerbaijan, it was -3.99% decrease – 1.77 million tons instead of 1.84 million tons imported in 2022. The amount spent on the Azerbaijani gas in 2023 was $314 million, which is a decrease of 9.20%.
Commenting on the increased imports from Russia, the Ministry of Economy told Business Media: “In 2022-2023, Georgia’s annual gas consumption increased by 500 million m3 (up to 20%), and as a result, Georgia absorbed the maximum technical limit of supply from Azerbaijan, especially during the winter peak load. The increased demand and the system as a whole were balanced by Russian gas. However, the import was carried out with commercial expediency and served to ensure a stable and continuous supply of the system”.
However, the statistical data show that total gas imports in 2023 were slightly lower than in 2022. In total, 2.254 million tons of gas were imported into Georgia in 2023, which is about 0.2% less than in the previous year.
The share of each country in the total number of imports is the following:
- Azerbaijan – 78.47% in 2023 (81.55% in 2022);
- Russia – 21.53% in 2023 (18.45% in 2022);
- Iran – 0.0033% in 2023 (0.0005% in 2022).
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On January 24, Georgia and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on the establishment of an Intergovernmental Coordination Council, during the visit of Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili to Saudi Arabia. The decision was made during a meeting between Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the Crown Prince/Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
According to the agreement, the Council will hold regular meetings. In addition, the mentioned document envisages the creation of working groups, which will hold meetings and consultations on issues of common interest. The press release of the Foreign Ministry of Georgia notes that the document “will contribute to the deepening of political and economic cooperation between the two countries and will bring the existing relations between the two countries to a qualitatively new stage”.
It was a pleasure meeting my colleague @FaisalbinFarhan during my first official visit to Saudi Arabia. As there is a high potential for expanding friendly and positive cooperation agenda between our countries, we signed the Agreement Regarding the Establishment of the… pic.twitter.com/4S5KV1qb5C
— Ilia Darchiashvili (@iliadarch) January 24, 2024
According to the MFA, during the ministerial meeting, the parties also emphasized the strong partnership and friendship between the two nations, with a focus on deepening ties in trade, economy, tourism and cultural exchanges. Minister Darchiashvili briefed his counterpart on Georgia’s economic potential. The counterparts also reviewed the current regional situation and challenges.
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On January 24, the so-called “fuel association” of Abkhazia, which includes about 40 local companies, held a rally (branded as a community meeting in announcements) in Sokhumi. The rally was prompted by the fuel crisis in the occupied region, caused by the Russian government’s decision on December 16, 2023 to grant Kremlin-controlled Rosneft the exclusive right to export fuel to the occupied Abkhazia, as well as occupied Tskhinvali region.
Because of this decision, most gas and petrol stations in occupied Abkhazia are either closed or unable to function properly due to a lack of fuel. Fuel companies in occupied Abkhazia see the Russian government’s decision as a threat of monopolization, and refuse to sign exclusive contracts with Rosneft.
It is noteworthy that the text of the alleged decision of the Russian government has not been published, as it is “for official use only”.
As a result of the new policy of the Russian government, since December 21, 2023, the quantities of fuel “already purchased and declared” have also been stopped at the “customs checkpoint” on the Abkhaz section of the Russian-Georgian border in Psou, thus aggravating the crisis.
On January 23, the de-facto “energy minister” of the occupied Abkhazia announced that “the government of the Russian Federation government has amended the December 16 decision”, which will allow “in the immediate future” to bring in the occupied region those volumes of petroleum products that have passed customs clearance. However, the so-called fuel association of Abkhazia, reportedly said that the measure was not enough, as it did not solve the larger problem of the new restrictions.
“The essence of these restrictions, as we know, is a single supplier with exclusive rights, which we do not agree with,” Adamyr Gabunia, head of the leading fuel company in occupied Abkhazia, was quoted by the media as saying. He also stressed that the amount of fuel, which the company will be able to bring in thanks to today’s decision, will be enough for mere two or three weeks.
The article may be updated…
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At least 39 people have been killed and nine injured in a fire that started in the basement of a shop in the Chinese city of Xinyu, the BBC reports.
State media said the fire started on Wednesday afternoon local time in the city in Jiangxi province.
President Xi Jinping has called for an investigation into the blaze.
He also demanded the “resolute containment” of similar deadly incidents in the country.
Wednesday’s fire comes days after 13 children died when a fire broke out in a school dormitory in the central Henan province. Seven members of staff were later arrested by police.
In November, 26 people died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province.
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