February 27, 2019

More fraudulent research from Tilburg University

Filed under: General,Religion,Science by Orangemaster @ 2:09 pm

Back in 2011, we told you about Professor Diederik Stapel who was disgraced from the Tilburg University for making up a whopping pile of research, and eventually went corporate in 2013.

The Tilburg University is back in the news with another PhD student making up research. Mohammad Nazar Soroush obtained his PhD with research into the lives of young Salafists in the Netherlands. However, he was caught faking conversations as well as visits to mosques that never happened, but may keep his PhD title. Professor Ruben Gowricham who helped Soroush can no longer be involved with granting PhDs and Soroush’s doctoral advisor has been reprimanded as well.

Gowricham has a business that makes money from doctoral candidates such as Soroush to the tune of thousands of euro a year. As well, Gowricham would receive 35,000 euro from Tilburg University per successful doctoral candidate. Two Islamist associations complained about the PhD, saying things in it were fabricated. Soroush used a supposed Salafist logo that is in fact not used by Salafists, and more of these kinds of details raised many red flags.

Although Soroush may keep his title, he has been asked not to distribute his thesis. He has also been asked to publish the fact that his thesis is based on insufficient evidence. People are surprised that he can still keep his title at this point, but the university claims that revoking it goes a bit too far. His credibility is definitely questionable, which will follow him around for a long time.

(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)

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December 9, 2013

Dutch banks invent rules to escape phishing damage claims

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 5:22 pm

Two weeks ago Emerce reported that the major Dutch banks had streamlined their terms and conditions with regards to theft resulting from phishing.

The new terms and conditions, which will come into effect on 1 January 2014, set out five conditions phishing victims must meet to be able to claim damages from their bank. Customers must:

  • Never give their passwords to anyone.
  • Never let others use their bank card.
  • Adequately protect the equipment they use for electronic banking (i.e. install virus scanners and so on).
  • Regularly check their bank statements.
  • Report incidents right away.

Financial news site Z24 believes that these new rules are bad news for bank customers—they will have to pay for the damages of phishing attacks themselves in a greater number of cases. The site quotes Jurgen Braspenning of Tilburg University who accuses some consumers of being lazy and careless. “It would seem that extremely unfair or dubious cases may still count on the kindness of banks in the future.”

A spokesperson for the Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken (Dutch association of banks) tries to downplay the effects of the new rules: “it is not our intention to make customers more often responsible for the costs and we don’t expect them to be.” According to Z24 the burden of proof is always with the bank.

See also: Dutch banks won’t employ anti-skimming hook.

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