Internet fraud: little tricks and large losses
Date: March 19, 2004Source: Computer Crime Research Center
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Computer related crimes may cause weighty circumstances: irreparable loss of especially high-value information, break of important technical facilities, e.g. defence systems, navigator systems. In cases like that if caught and convicted the hacker could face up to 7 years of jail.
Most computer wreckers pursue more trivial aims. Their lot is little dirty tricks. However, these tricks are not so trifling for victims: people and companies that became victims of hackers. Malware is created for the damaging, deletion, deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer information. This allow to commit a number of other crimes, involving crimes related to violations of privacy, copyright and allied rights, illegal obtaining of credit, fraud, disclosure of commercial or banking information and many others.
Nowadays identity theft, machinations with securities, credit card theft are as easy as it had never been before due to the Internet. According to Business Week estimations carried out on the basis of law enforcement and analysts' data, financial frauds in the net cost $22 billion to firms and consumers annually. Id thefts caused $12 billion losses, specialists of Identity Theft Resource Center informed. SEC complained investors lost $1,5 billion as a whole because of Internet fraud on the exchange. Authorities think it is possible to disclose only 1 in 10 accidents of Internet fraud. $10 billion losses are quite probable in this view.
It is relatively simple to become a victim of swindlers. For example a merchant put up an item for online auction. Fraudster, having obtained illegally initial data on the user of online payment system, let's say PayPal, asks on behalf of the authorized user to deliver the item to his friend to, for instance, Ukraine, to an address where the fraudster lives. Thus merchant ships the item, fraudster receives it and the payment is cancelled after a fraud check.
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| 2005-09-02 10:24:43 - Very nice Milen |
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