Investigations are currently underway regarding a ring of credit card fraud. The scam is claimed to have racked up over $200 million in stolen funds from around the world. Eighteen people have thus far been charged in what analysts are calling one of the largest credit swindles in U.S. history.

The whole operation was launched upon fake credit scores, which scammers used to secure loan monies. Drawing upon thousands of fake IDs, the scam had international credit agencies hoodwinked for more than five years.

Originating in 2007 out of Jersey City, the scam extended through 28 states with money wired to Canada, Europe, the Orient and the Middle East.

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Yahoo! jumped into the bidding today for Web video destination Hulu, The Post has learned.

Sources close to the process say the bids from Yahoo! and half a dozen other suitors value Hulu north of a billion dollars.

If Yahoo is successful, it could be CEO Marissa Mayer’s second $1 billion deal inside a month. The company just acquired micro-blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion.

Yahoo said it doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.

Hulu has also attracted bids from DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Guggenheim Digital Media, among others.

Hulu’s owners, including Disney, News Corp. and Comcast, are hoping to move quickly to narrow down the bids in the coming weeks. (News Corp. also

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Enterprise resource management (ERP), as we know it, no longer matches the needs of the modern, highly-automated organization. Here’s a look at how the trend has changed and what to watch for in 2013.

Buyers still use the term ERP when describing what it is they’re looking for; however, that’s not what they actually need. Many companies require software as a service (SaaS) that is incredibly flexible and continuously upgraded with new features. The cloud platform is the best method of meeting this challenge, providing the ability to collect and measure a company’s revenue while managing its financials.

There are a number of companies who are set to carve out major positions in this field during 2013. Most of

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The company plans to use the retail hub as a testing ground for new digital, interactive tools aimed at combating online shopping and “showrooming,” where shoppers use brick-and-mortar stores to try out products before buying them online.

With new smartphone technology and a Wi-Fi network that will be installed throughout the planned $315 million mall, University Town Center shoppers will receive special discounts via apps developed in conjunction with retailers.

“Unlike our older properties that were designed and built before Wi-Fi was available, UTC will have interactive features built in, giving shoppers a whole new kind of experience,” Stephen Kieras, Taubman’s senior vice president of development, said at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual ReCon convention.

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While we Americans are still trying to understand our online gamer brethren, the MMORPG industry has reached national pastime status in the East. In Korea, League of Legends and Starcraft competitions are broadcast on the same networks as NFL, NHL and MLB events. Viewership during the 2012 championship games broke the 8 million mark, which is more than twice the number of viewers who watched the season premiere of Mad Men.

All of that advertising revenue leaves plenty of cash left over for the competitors. On top of commercial endorsements, professional gamers on a top 8 team make about $85,000 during the season. Professional online gaming is by no means a life of leisure; between prep time and competing, pros often work over 60 hours every week.

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Oman ticks all the right boxes for anyone wishing to start a business overseas – great banks, for starters, offering a range of international trade services ideal for start-up ventures; excellent location for easy access to both emerging and mature markets; a business-friendly and low-tax environment; and a mixed workforce of expatriates and friendly nationals more than capable of providing the sorts of expertise foreign companies are always on the lookout for. Yes, the commercial possibilities offered by Oman are worthy of serious investigation.

A good place to begin any investigation is by reading the publication Doing Business In Oman 2013, published by BDO International, the fifth-largest accountancy network in the world. F Full Post…

When is an employee not an employee? It seems like a strange question, but it could prove to be a costly one if you don’t answer it right first time. If the work you do as a contractor could be carried out by someone in employment with your client company, you might find yourself falling foul of the HMRC’s IR35 guidance.

Essentially aimed at preventing individuals from avoiding taxation through Pay As You Earn, IR35 is a section of the Finance Act 2000 with which you’ll want to be familiar if you want to avoid hefty penalties for employment when this doesn’t reflect the nature of your working arrangements. This br Full Post…

Does the amount of income tax you paid last year make you shudder? You can’t avoid income tax, but there are tax strategies that you may be able to use to reduce the amount of income tax you pay if you operate a small business in Canada.

Read through this list of small business tax strategies and see how many you’re currently applying to reduce your income tax bill – and which ones you can start applying right now to reduce the amount of income tax you’re going to owe this year. (Note that some of these small business tax strategies only apply to people who are running sole proprietorships or partnerships, who file their income tax using a T1 form.)

1) Always collect receipts for business-related activities.

I’m amazed by how some business people don’t bother to get or keep receipts for “little” things.

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