| 31st Jan, 2007 @ 20:17 What is an internet fraud? |
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What do I mean by an internet "fraud"? Well, there's a bunch of different types. I suppose I see three different levels:
The lowest level is the kind of fraud that doesn't even need the internet. Things like selling an item on eBay that turns out to be very much not as described. For example, they say it's a "brand new"/"unused" iPod they got as an "unwanted Christmas present". The buyer receives it, and it turns out to be a 2 year old iPod that doesn't work properly and is thoroughly out of warranty. I say this doesn't need the internet because an unscrupulous person could just as easily pull this off through newspaper or magazine small ads.
The internet works both ways with these kinds of frauds. On the one hand, it's easy to hide behind a bunch of different "seller" IDs to hide your dubious dealings. The fact that you can receive money through PayPal or other online transfer services without giving your real postal address really helps in this. And whenever eBay suspends one of your IDs for dodginess, you can just set up another. On the other hand, large corporations like eBay and PayPal do have Buyer Protection Policies, and it is occasionally possible to get a full or almost-full refund from them when sellers mess you about.
The highest level is the kind of fraud involving thousands of UK pounds or US dollars. These are things along the lines of "Nigerian" scams or 419 scams, when a person sends out bulk, unsolicited email claiming they will give someone a large sum of money in return for a small service. This is major crime that can cause victims to lose many thousands of pounds or dollars, destroy credit ratings and even lose their homes. Nowadays, I receive "Nigerian" scam email at my personal domain several times a week, and it seems the scammers aren't just restricting themselves to locations in developing countries - an American acquaintance received a "Nigerian" spam from a scammer claiming to be in the UK.
It's obvious why these major frauds are a problem, I think - anything where people lose large sums of money is a bad thing. Fortunately, the police and secret services of various countries are alert to them, and will prosecute if enough information can be obtained to track down the scammer. Unfortunately, that's a helluva big "if".
In the middle are scams of social engineering. These most commonly involve members of an online community telling lies to other members of that community; making increasingly outrageous claims for sympathy, attention or even financial reward. In my opinion, these are actually the worst kind of internet frauds, because they involve people who are supposedly your friends. Many people who consider themselves far too savvy to be taken in by a "give me $10,000 to receive $1 million later"-type scam will fall for "omg, my cat's sick and I need to find $1000 for the bill"-type scam, because while you don't trust some complete random who emails you out of the blue, you do trust your friend that you've been chatting to online for a couple of months. I consider these fake internet deathers as absolutely sick. I'll talk about why in my next post. |
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internetfraud's journal
