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'The Criminal in Your House - Internet Crime 2008,' May 07, 2009, #193
The Criminal in Your House – Internet Crime 2008
By Dr Dave McIntyre, Director Integrative Center for Homeland Security, 07 May 2009
Most discussions of cyber crime focus on national security. Recently out is a report about cyber threats to you personally, and how to defeat them. I will tell you more if you will give me Just a Minute for Homeland Security.
I’m Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center, a function of the US Department of Justice, has released its eighth annual compilation of criminal complaints, totaling more than 275,000 for the year 2008, up 33% over a year before. [1] Most involved fraud connected to email or webpages, and nearly half reported losses over $1000.
The victims were NOT, as some might assume, uneducated or greedy. Most were intelligent and well intended. So pay attention.
One of the most successful scams used emails purporting to be from the FBI or other law enforcement agencies, asking for help to catch thieves or terrorists transferring money on line. No money is requested – just some personal information that would help these supposed “good guys” set the traps. And this request or information does not come until a series of messages seems to establish legitimacy, using the real names of FBI officials or federal law enforcement offices. Americans who want to help might be promised a reward, and those who decline might be told their behavior makes them suspect and subject to investigation themselves. Whatever the details, the final act is always requesting information that grants access to accounts, identity and money.
Of course, simply failing to deliver goods after payment on line is a common fraud. Another scam involves searching address books for contacts that make an appeal on line seem more legitimate. So an email, including familiar details, might purport to come from a friend who has been robbed and needs money wired right away. In another very tricky approach, a person selling something on line might receive a check or money order for more money than agreed. The buyer apologizes for the mistake and asks for a wire transfer immediately returning the over payment. Except of course, the entire original payment was a fake, so the seller is out whatever money they “returned.”
The common characteristic here is that crooks gained the confidence of those they defrauded by working with them on line over time. And research indicates that only one in seven such frauds are reported, because victims, smart people like you and me, were too embarrassed to complain.
The solution is simple: keep your guard up and don’t trust people you do not know with personal information or financial transactions. And if you are a victim, contact www.ic3.gov to inform others.
This is Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M, inviting you to join us again next week on Just a Minute . . . for Homeland Security.
[1] _____, “2008 Internet Crime Report,” Washington, DC: Internet Crime Complaint Center, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2009. http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2008_IC3Report.pdf