What the newspapers say: April 1, 2009

Romania was ranked 10 in a world online fraud top and this is not an April 1 stunt. In politics, President Basescu is ready to assume the IMF loan together with the government. Romania, simply surprising: while Bucharest mayor cannot decide which shampoo to use to wash city streets, citizens living in the outskirts don’t even have concrete roads or sidewalks.

Gandul reads about a 2008 IT fraud report made public by an NGO under the patronage of the FBI which ranks Romania on 10 in an online IT frauds. The first foreigner condemned in the US for IT felonies is a Romanian, American dailies read. His lawyer declared that the hacker was trying to gain some money to buy his mother pills.

The first two positions are dominated by the US with 66% of the felonies and England with 10%. The first condemned foreigner for IT frauds, Romanian Ovidiu Ionut Nicola Roman, aged 23 stole a file containing personal information data of thousands of Americans.

In Romania, IT frauds mushroom even faster than policemen can adapt to counter the phenomenon. According to a national report, last year, there were some 1,000 claimed IT frauds and 671 people investigated while 80 arrested.

Even if Romanians seem to be on top of things, they are only at the beginning with only 0.5% felonies committed. However, there are few IT hackers who become renowned worldwide and among these there is Vladutz, a Romanian hacker wanted by the Secret Service and captured by the Romanian secret services or the Romanian Mathematics Olympic arrested in Italy for 200,000 euro worth frauds who was later recruited as an online cop.

In politics today, Cotidianul reads that Traian Basescu is ready assume the IMF loan, with or for the government and declared that Romania’s 2009 state budget will have a negative 4% growth estimate.

Basescu admitted that he got too much involved in what concerns the international financial agreement but he explained that he only reiterated the common EU stand assumed by all EU presidents. Basescu added that politicians need, at their turn, to support the economic environment.

Basescu stressed that the IMF loan will allow the Central Bank to manage the exchange rate and the national currency without crushing exports or reducing the value of the population’s revenues.

Last but not least, Evenimentul Zilei talks about the lack of infrastructure in Bucharest’s outskirts. The paper reads that while Bucharest mayor, Sorin Oprescu, cannot decide what shampoo to use when washing city streets, citizens in the outskirts have no concrete roads or pavements. What is more, those living in Straulesti don’t even benefit from a proper water infrastructure.

Back in downtown Bucharest, authorities blame the situation on the contracts signed with a private company 10 years ago that was supposed to manage all needed infrastructure. And the situation will continue for another 15 when these contracts expire, the newspaper concludes.