Scam

"Fool Me Once

By Kelly Richmond Pope

(Harvard Business Review, 264 pages, $30)

You know the saying: "You can't cheat an honest man." It assumes that those who are the target of a cheat asked for it. The investment fund with the suspiciously high returns, the inside racing tip, the stock trade that's a "sure thing" -- the investors knew, or should have known, that something was off. The victims thought they were in on the con, and it turned out they were the marks.

The truth is that honest people can be and are cheated all the time. In "Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets From the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry," Kelly Richmond Pope explores how this happens. Small-business owners are blindsided when their bookkeeper turns out to have been cooking the books; multinational financial institutions find executives funneling out cash; the government of a small city discovers that an official has been skimming from its accounts for decades. Ms. Pope, a professor of forensic accounting at DePaul University, even includes a class of "accidental" perpetrator for those who start out as inadvertent beneficiaries of a mistake but who, rather than confessing, decide to lean into the opportunity.

As Ms. Pope argues: "We all have to understand the cycle of fraud because at one point or another you're either impacted by it, you did it, or you were in a position to expose it." She has spent time with fraudsters, interviewing the incarcerated and paroled, to understand why they made the choices they did. She has also spoken to victims, examining how they became vulnerable, and whistleblowers, who reported their co-workers, often at high personal cost.

Some of Ms. Pope's observations make intuitive sense, like the conclusion that community groups and churches are among the softest of targets: they're typically run by volunteers, hold lots of cash and apply very little oversight. But any organization can be vulnerable. Most of us ignore the red flags or don't even know what to look for. We don't want to treat our friends and co-workers with suspicion, and keeping a beady eye feels unnatural. That's why the perp is always the "trusted" employee. (The person everyone thinks is kind of shady is rarely given access to the bank accounts.) In my experience, systems designed to prevent fraud probably make scams more possible: Forcing users to change their passwords every 30 days results in passwords written on Post-it notes and found in obvious locations. Convoluted swipe-card systems end in doors propped open.

A threat can come from anywhere, given how much of our lives is online. Maybe you've seen the Facebook message saying your grandson has been mugged and could you please wire some money. I've received emails, purportedly from my boss, asking me to send him some gift cards. Ms. Pope notes how victims often don't report crimes like this out of shame and embarrassment. The thief didn't lift their wallet -- they willingly handed it over.

But this isn't a "protect grandma from getting scammed" book. It's a study of who does it, whom they do it to and who reports it. Ms. Pope's profiles of fraudsters include the typical corporate swindlers, but there's also one shocking case of a pharmacist who diluted cancer medicine for profit. (My gut instinct is to call this a homicide rather than fraud.) The diversity of the people in this book reminds us that almost anyone could perpetrate a fraud -- or be the victim of one.

"I'm fixated on how people cheat," Ms. Pope writes. The prevailing answer seems to be by taking advantage of opportunity and impunity. An ATM technician grabs a few handfuls of cash. An insurance-account manager creates fake transactions. If a novice cheater gets away with it the first time, he'll probably keep doing it.

The biggest fraudster in this book is Rita Crundwell, who stole more than $50 million from the city coffers as the comptroller of Dixon, Ill. She was caught when a colleague looked at some accounts while Crundwell was out of the office. According to Ms. Pope, a high proportion of fraud comes to light this way. We depend on these human monitoring systems as much as any password setup or background check.

Ms. Pope never interviewed Crundwell, although she made a documentary about the crime and its effect on the town. But the case raises the question of rationalization. Most of us could imagine justifying a small take: a meal on the company expense account; not confessing when we were given too much change. But how does one rationalize $50 million?

For this reason, I would have liked more on the psychology of fraud. Ms. Pope discusses the dark triad -- narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy -- that psychologists have identified in criminals. But many of today's embezzlers also have the patterns of addicts: They are compulsive gamblers -- perhaps they started stealing to cover their debts -- and the theft is another gamble. They keep believing they will "win it all back" and replace the funds before they are caught.

Crundwell had a lavish lifestyle, including a business breeding and showing champion quarter horses. Did she think such opulence was worth the crime? Or that she'd somehow repay the theft? Or that the people of Dixon (all 15,000 of them) were suckers who deserved to fund her choices? Dehumanizing the mark is another tendency of con artists.

With "Fool Me Once," Ms. Pope reveals the vulnerabilities that we all share and offers advice on how to guard against those who would prey on us. Her deeper message is that there is no victimless fraud: "Someone, somewhere, is always left holding the bill."" [1]

1. Scam Filter
Gulliver, Katrina.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 20 Mar 2023: A.15.

Kur bus riba: kvantinė technologija ilgainiui pašalins daug spėlionių iš biochemijos, kuri yra visos biologijos pagrindas

„Prieš porą savaičių gavau malonią staigmeną iš naujienų fizikos svetainėje, staigmeną pavadintą „Eksperimentinis kvantinės persidengiančios tomografijos realizavimas“. Joje buvo pranešta apie Zhengning Yang ir kolegų iš Nanyang technikos universiteto, įgyvendinusių Džordano Cotlerio ir mano 2020 m. pasiūlytą techniką, proveržį.  Šių darbų tikslas – susidaryti aiškų vaizdą apie sunkiai suprantamą kvantinį pasaulį.

 

     Kiekvieną iš trijų kvantinės persidengiančios tomografijos (KPT) žodžių reikia šiek tiek išpakuoti, kad suprasti, kas tai yra ir kodėl tai svarbu.

 

     Pirmiausia pažiūrėkime į K. Geram kvantiniam paveikslui reikia labai didelės drobės, net kai vaizduojamas kažkas labai mažo. Pavyzdžiui, dviejų iki penkių elektronų sistemų bangų funkcijos egzistuoja erdvėse nuo šešių iki 15 matmenų. Tai pastato fizikus į savotišką situaciją. Žinome, kokios yra atitinkamos lygtys, tačiau, naudodamiesi dabartiniais superkompiuteriais jas galime išspręsti tik labai apytiksliai. Jei galėtume geriau suprasti kvantinę tikrovę, chemiją ir medžiagų mokslą, įskaitant vaistų ir katalizatorių kūrimą, galėtume pakelti į naujus lygius. Daugiaelektroninių sistemų bangų funkcijose yra visa reikalinga informacija.

 

     Kvantiniai modeliai ir kvantiniai kompiuteriai turi įveikti šį iššūkį.

 

     Idealiu atveju jie gali įkūnyti visą sistemos, kurią tikitės suprasti, kvantinės-mechaninės bangos funkciją, kaip savotišką mastelio modelį. Tačiau su tuo problema bus išspręsta tik pusiau. Reikalas tas, kad nelengva perskaityti banginių funkcijų informaciją. Kvantinėje mechanikoje, liūdnai pagarsėjęs faktas, kad bangos funkcijos matavimas ją „sugriauna“ ir sugadina tolesniam naudojimui.

 

     Štai kur T, reiškiantis tomografiją. „Tomografija“ yra kilęs iš graikų kalbos „tomos“, reiškiančio „pjūvis arba dalis“. Tai taip pat yra T kompiuterinės tomografijos metu. Kompiuterinėje tomografijoje plokšti, dviejų dimensijų vaizdai, surenkami į tikslų 3-dimesijų kūno vidaus vaizdą. QOT idėja yra padaryti kažką panašaus didesnėje kvantinėje srityje.

 

     Kvantinės bangos funkcijos informacijos skaitymo problema yra panaši į iššūkį, kurį kelia tokie žaidimai kaip Wordle ir Mastermind. Tuose žaidimuose pateikiate kelias užklausas (panašiai į matavimus) ir iš kiekvienos iš jų gaunate tik dalinę informaciją. Bet dabar įsivaizduokite, kad Wordle yra tūkstančiai simbolių arba Mastermind šablone tūkstančiai kaiščių ir daugybė spalvų.

 

     Taip pereiname prie kitos raidės P dėl persidengimo. Gera kvantinio matavimo problemos strategija yra atlikti matavimus, kurie atrenka bangų funkciją skirtingomis raiškomis. Taip gaunami persidengiantys vaizdai, kuriuos galite sujungti į išsamesnį vaizdą. Nanyang mokslininkai išbandė algoritmus, kuriuos mes su daktaru Cotleriu sugalvojome, parodydami, kad jie tiksliai ir efektyviai grąžino sudėtingą bandomąjį vaizdą.

 

     Geros naujienos iš Nanyang eksperimento sugrąžino malonius prisiminimus apie ilgą vasaros pasivaikščiojimą prie Baltijos jūros už Stokholmo, į kurį su daktaru Cotleriu leidomės prieš keletą metų.

 

     Ten, reaguodami į puikaus kinų fiziko Jian-Wei Pan iššūkį, išsprendėme problemą, kaip bangų funkcijos matavimą padaryti pakankamai praktišku.

 

     Žinia atėjo kaip tik tada, kai atsigavau po tulžies pūslės operacijos. Tai buvo keistai poetiška, nes kompiuterinė tomografija patvirtino mano diagnozę. Ši technologija pašalino daug spėlionių dėl operacijos.

 

     Kvantinė technologija, galiausiai, padarys tą patį biochemijoje. Galų gale, tiekiant naujus stiprius vaistus, operacija netgi gali būti nereikalinga." [1]

 

1. REVIEW --- Wilczek's Universe: A New Way To See the Quantum World
Wilczek, Frank.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 18 Mar 2023: C.4.

Where will be the limit: Quantum technology will eventually take a lot of the guesswork out of biochemistry, that is a basis of all biology

"A couple of weeks ago I got a nice surprise from a news story on a physics website headlined "The Experimental Realization of Quantum Overlapping Tomography." It reported on breakthrough work by Zhengning Yang and colleagues at Nanyang Technical University, who implemented a technique suggested by Jordan Cotler and me in 2020. This line of work aims to get a clear image of the notoriously hard-to-view quantum world.

Each of the three words in Quantum Overlapping Tomography (QOT) can use some unpacking to understand what is and why it matters.

Let's look at the Q first. A good quantum picture needs a very large canvas, even when it's depicting something very small. For example, the wave functions for systems of two to five electrons exist in spaces ranging from six to 15 dimensions. This puts physicists in a peculiar situation. We know what the relevant equations are, but using current supercomputers we can only solve them very approximately. If we could do a better job of understanding quantum reality, we would be able to take chemistry and materials science, including the design of drugs and catalysts, to new levels. Wave functions of multi-electron systems contain all the needed information.

Quantum simulators and quantum computers are meant to rise to this challenge. 

Ideally, they can embody the complete quantum-mechanical wave function of the system you're hoping to understand, as a sort of scale model. But with that, the problem will only be half-solved. The thing is, it's not easy to read the information that wave functions contain. In quantum mechanics, infamously, measuring a wave function "collapses" it and spoils it for further use.

That's where the T, for tomography, comes in. "Tomography" derives from the Greek "tomos" meaning "slice, or section." It is also the T in CT scan (Computer-assisted Tomography). CT scans assemble the information from many 2-D X-rays into an accurate 3-D rendering of the body's interior. The idea with QOT is to do something similar in the vaster quantum realm.

The problem of reading quantum wave function information is something like the challenge posed by games like Wordle and Mastermind. In those games, you make multiple queries (akin to measurements) and get back only partial information from each one. But now imagine that the Wordle contains thousands of characters or the Mastermind template thousands of pegs and dozens of colors.

That brings us to the other letter, O for overlapping. A good strategy for the quantum measurement problem is making measurements that sample the wave function with different resolutions. This gives you overlapping images that you can weave together into a fuller picture. The Nanyang researchers tested the algorithms that Dr. Cotler and I came up with by showing that they gave back a complicated test image accurately and efficiently.

The good news from the Nanyang experiment brought back pleasant memories of the long summer walk by the Baltic Sea, outside Stockholm, that Dr. Cotler and I took a few years ago. 

There, responding to a challenge from the brilliant Chinese physicist Jian-Wei Pan, we cracked the problem of making wave function measurement reasonably practical.

The news came just as I was recovering from gallbladder surgery. That was weirdly poetic, since it was a CT scan that had nailed my diagnosis. That technology has taken a lot of the guesswork out of surgery. 

Quantum technology will eventually do the same for biochemistry. Eventually, by supplying potent new medicines, it might even take the surgery out of treatment." [1]

1. REVIEW --- Wilczek's Universe: A New Way To See the Quantum World
Wilczek, Frank.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 18 Mar 2023: C.4.