Internet Crimes
The Internet has opened a number of opportunities for hackers and various new problems for law enforcement agencies. What is striking is the size of the Internet market and the relative ease, high speed and low cost with which a scam can flourish over the Internet. Victims may never have the chance to see or even speak to the attackers.
Credit Card Frauds
Credit card fraud is the most common Internet crime. Main reason is approximately 95% of Internet transactions originate from credit cards. Due to this, various different methods to perform credit card fraud on Internet have been created. The most popular methods for acquiring credit card information include stolen credit card numbers, and credit card number generators software. Although these are the most popular methods today, Internet crime is constantly increasing and fraud perpetrators are developing new advanced methods as merchants create new procedures to fight against fraud.
Stealing credit card numbers is the most common and the easiest way to perform Internet crimes. Majority of the stolen credit card numbers used on the Internet normally come from the physical shops. There are very few cases of credit card numbers being stolen over the Internet. Any person can pick up old statements or receipts, or can even be a waitress or waiter who processes your dinner bill. Apart from credit card numbers, a fraud perpetrator can also get personal information of any person. With this personal information and credit card number, fraud perpetrator can purchase expensive items over internet.
Credit card number generators are free softwares that are easily available on the Internet. These softwares are used by fraud perpetrators to create valid credit card numbers by brute force method or by stolen algorithm. These generated credit card numbers can easily pass the majority of online transaction. Combined with free or anonymous email accounts, these card numbers can also be used to make illegal purchase over Internet.
Online Auction Frauds
People may not deliver products, or their price may be overstated. In 1998, the National Consumers League (NCL) placed auction crimes at the top of its list of Internet crimes and warned all users to investigate any seller or auction site before placing a bid. The FBI, which received more than 15,000 complaints about Internet auction crimes in 1998 and 1999, has also issued similar warnings.
Email Fraud
Email fraud is related to spamming, online users are bombarded with unwanted fake commercial or personal email (called “spam”) advertising fraudulent products or investment schemes. Thousands of email messages can be sent out in a very short amount of time. Fraud perpetrators can easily purchase email address lists from other legal companies. They also can use widely available email address locator software to conduct nationwide or worldwide searches of chat rooms and Internet directories in a very short period of time. In this way, fraud perpetrators can easily collect millions of valid email addresses for individuals or companies likely to be vulnerable to certain types of fake schemes. “Nigerian 419 Fraud” is one of the popular email frauds.
Spammers can also get email addresses from online membership directories of any Internet service providers (ISP). Some spammers also use free software that randomly generates email addresses. Thus, online users can get spam even if they have never entered information in any directory or chat groups.
Web Police
Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) of FBI is dealing with majority of internet and other computer related crimes.
IFCC’s purpose is the following:
· “To develop a national strategy to address Internet fraud;
· To develop criminal Internet fraud cases and refer for criminal prosecutions companies and individuals responsible;
· To reduce the amount of economic loss by Internet fraud throughout the United States;
· To receive, analyze and refer all fraudulent activity identified on the Internet;
· To identify current crime trends over the Internet;
· To track fraud facilitated by the Internet and provide analytical support of Internet crime trends
Criminals have adapted the advanced computer technology to enhance their activities. Unfortunately, their actions have defeated the ability of web police to respond effectively. Rules must be developed for web police that address various categories of computer crime. They should know the materials to search and seize the electronic evidence to recover. Without question, web police must be better prepared to deal with the many aspects of computer related crimes. Government should train, increase and coordinate their resources. ISP should also help web police by maintaing their customer’s email and session record. Online vendors should be prohibited from storing information regarding customers without proper protection of privacy interests.
Ways to Protect Computer and Information
In this growing world of technology if we want to be safe and protect our personal information then we must consider some precautions like storing personal information in encrypted format, constantly checking activities performed in computer, using hard-to-guess passwords, monitoring credit card and bank account activities regularly, and monitoring activities of our children. Computer usage can also be restricted by using passwords on sensitive information like credit card number. Apart from these methods they are other commercial software, called “firewall”, to protect any computer from hackers. A firewall can monitor all activities performed on the computer; it can also restrict access to the computer.
There are many issues of computer crime such breaking in to computer systems just for fun, attacks by company employees, virus creators, illegal software distribution and internet frauds. Computer crime is still one of the main problems faced by law enforcement agencies.