Once we gain more technology, we begin dealing with those who use this technology for criminal reasons. We are much better equipped to invent the technology then we are in dealing with the criminals which spring up as a result of the new technology.
The internet is something which everyone has access too these days. It is a crucial part of our society. It has changed how we communicate and interact with each other. It has become a vital media source.
Everyone has heard and seen a great deal of information published in the media and on line about E-mail scams. There are not many people who go on the internet today that should not be unaware of these scammers and what problems they cause. We all use spam protection and other tools to help avoid these potential threats. Yet, they are still happening and people are still falling for the hyper bull of these criminals.
You visit a site you think is safe and give them your personal information and before you know it you have had money taken from your account. Some have even ended up with their identities stolen or worse.
Many times it is learned the information was used for something much more devious and evil. Something very precious is stolen, the innocence of a child or the very life of a loved one is taken by an Internet Predator. Children are being found dead or molested because of Internet Predators who obtained their personal information from the internet.
This is an article which will look at why this is still happening, and why people are falling for scams? There are examples placed in the article of some of the E-mail scams being used to rob people of their money and information. It addresses some of the other ways people are obtaining personal information about people they either wish to scam or wish to harm.
This article addresses the dangers of the Internet. It looks at the real threats that lurk in the shadows of cyberspace.
What are these scammers trying to accomplish, and what can we do to stop it? Are other questions which will addressed in this article.
This article is not meant to stop people from using the Internet. There are many safe places on the Internet, but we are never 100% sure that our information is being used properly. We need to be real careful where we put our information, and we must know how it will be used.
The Internet is a wonderful place, but there is a risk. There are risks to everything we do in life. We should not quit living because there are risks, but we can protect ourselves. This, also, applies to the Internet.
The main purpose of this article is to increase awareness and to help everyone understand that safety on the Internet is just as important as safety in your homes or communities. It very easily can show itself in human form and in the face of someone ready to do harm to those who may not have been ready for the danger. We do not know the true identity of the people we may be communicating with on the Internet, so we must proceed with caution. Strangers are everywhere and dangers exist everywhere. We must be aware of them.
The tips and links are spread throughout this article to act as helpful aides to readers. This articles is a compilation of some of the resources available to help people. The support links will offer more help and resources to help readers to understand the topics listed in this article, and to help victims of Internet crime.
Real Examples of Some E-mail Scams
The scams mentioned here are usually about taking you money or your identity. Many times, as you may see with some, there is also physical danger involved. It is not that big of a stretch to go from robbery to murder. It just is a matter of how desperate the criminal becomes to reach their desired goal. Money still remains a big motivator in all types of crime.
These should be in most people’s spam folder as with this writer, but there are still people who are becoming victims of these scams. Scams only exist where there is a response. If everyone quits responding to them, they will loose their power.
Please, do not respond to these scams and visit Scam Busters http;//www.scambusters.org/ to get a more complete list so you can protect yourself from these criminals and their scams.
* SCAM: The Nigerian Advance Fee Scheme (Taken from Scam Busters at the following link.
www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html)
The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam has been around for quite awhile, but despite many warnings, continues to draw in many victims. In fact, the Financial Crimes Division of the Secret Service receives approximately 100 telephone calls from victims/ potential victims and 300-500 pieces of related correspondence per day about this scam!
Indications are that the advance fee fraud grosses hundreds of millions of dollars annually and the losses are continuing to escalate.
The Nigerian Advance Fee Scheme (also known internationally as “4-1-9” fraud after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses fraud schemes) is generally targeted at small and medium sized businesses, as well as charities. This global scam (recently seen in Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the US) involves the receipt of an unsolicited letter purporting to come from someone who claims to work for the Nigerian Central Bank or from the Nigerian government. (The Central Bank of Nigeria denies all connection to those who promote this scheme.)
In the letter, a Nigerian claiming to be a senior civil servant will inform the recipient that he is seeking a reputable foreign company into whose account he can deposit funds ranging from $10-$60 million which the Nigerian government overpaid on some procurement contract.
The goal of the scam artist is to delude the victim into thinking that he or she has been singled out to participate in a very lucrative — although questionable — arrangement. The intended victim is reassured of the authenticity of the arrangement by forged or false documents bearing apparently official Nigerian government letterhead, seals, as well as false letters of credit, payment schedules and bank drafts. The scam artist may even establish the credibility of his contacts, and thereby his influence, by arranging a meeting between the victim and “government officials” in real or fake government offices.
Once the victim becomes confident of the potential success of the deal, something goes wrong. The victim is then pressured or threatened to provide one or more large sums of money to save the venture. For example, an official will demand an up-front bribe or an unforeseen tax or fee to the Nigerian government will have to be paid before the money can be transferred. Each fee paid is described as the very last fee required. The scheme may be stretched out over many months.
Here is a sample of a letter a victim may receive:
(Note: The letter that is sent is all in capital letters.)
LAGOS, NIGERIA.
ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/CEO
DEAR SIR,
CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE NIGERIAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS. THE ABOVE SUM RESULTED FROM AN OVER-INVOICED CONTRACT, EXECUTED COMMISSIONED AND PAID FOR ABOUT FIVE YEARS (5) AGO BY A FOREIGN CONTRACTOR. THIS ACTION WAS HOWEVER INTENTIONAL AND SINCE THEN THE FUND HAS BEEN IN A SUSPENSE ACCOUNT AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA APEX BANK.
WE ARE NOW READY TO TRANSFER THE FUND OVERSEAS AND THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INFORM YOU THAT AS CIVIL SERVANTS, WE ARE FORBIDDEN TO OPERATE A FOREIGN ACCOUNT; THAT IS WHY WE REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE. THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE SHARED AS FOLLOWS: 70% FOR US, 25% FOR YOU AND 5% FOR LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPENSES INCIDENT TO THE TRANSFER.
THE TRANSFER IS RISK FREE ON BOTH SIDES. I AM AN ACCOUNTANT WITH THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION (NNPC). IF YOU FIND THIS PROPOSAL ACCEPTABLE, WE SHALL REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS:
(A) YOUR BANKER’S NAME, TELEPHONE, ACCOUNT AND FAX NUMBERS.
(B) YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS — FOR CONFIDENTIALITY AND EASY COMMUNICATION.
(C) YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER STAMPED AND SIGNED.
ALTERNATIVELY WE WILL FURNISH YOU WITH THE TEXT OF WHAT TO TYPE INTO YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER, ALONG WITH A BREAKDOWN EXPLAINING, COMPREHENSIVELY WHAT WE REQUIRE OF YOU. THE BUSINESS WILL TAKE US THIRTY (30) WORKING DAYS TO ACCOMPLISH.
PLEASE REPLY URGENTLY.
BEST REGARDS
Be careful. This scam can be physically dangerous as well as dangerous to your finances. Victims are almost always requested to travel to Nigeria or a border country to complete a transaction. Victims are often told that a visa will not be necessary to enter the country. The Nigerian scam artists may then bribe airport officials to pass the victims through Immigration and Customs. Because it is a serious offense in Nigeria to enter without a valid visa, the victim’s illegal entry may be used by the scam artists as leverage to coerce the victims into releasing funds. Violence and threats of physical harm may be employed to further pressure victims. In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing.
* Foreign Grants (From my own E-mail Account)
Foundation’s Officer,
Association Of European Charity Foundations,
Amsterdam,The Netherlands.
Dear Sir,
NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID.
This is to notify you that you have been chosen By the Board of trustees of
the above International charity organization branch in the Netherlands as
one of the final recipients of a Cash Grant/Donation for your own personal,
education and business development.
The international registered Foundation is named after 5 top company owners
put together. The charitable foundation was reported by the business
newspaper, the Economist between the year 2000-2007 to be technically, one
of the world’s wealthiest charity foundation- worth billions of US$ – but
its primary purpose is, by some, believed to be BRINGING INNOVATIONS IN
HEALTH AND LEARNING TO THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY. George Soros is chairman of the
foundation. Having been rated as the founder and chairman of a network of
foundations,the foundation has decided to randomly select email addresses
that would benefit from this year’s donation/award.
Association Of European Charity Foundations in conjunction with the
European Union , is giving out a yearly donation of One Hundred Million
United States Dollars as specific Donations/Grants to 50 lucky international
recipients worldwide in different categories for their educational pursuit,
health care, personal Business development and uplift of their enviroment.
These funds are freely given to you to use for your business educational and
personal development, and at least 30% to be used by you to develop a part
of your enviroment, as this is a yearly program, which is a measure of
universal development strategy, and eradication of poverty.
Please kindly note that you are not the only beneficiary in your country
this year, and your country is not the only country that is benefiting from
this donation, as beneficiaries have been chosen from countries from all
continents.
The idea of this donation is that within ten years from now, there will be
notable richness amongst many unusual people around the world.
This will give many people the opportunity to get their lives to a stage
where they had always wanted. Kindly note that you will only be chosen to
receive the donation once. which means that, subsequent yearly donation will
not get to you again, so its your choice to spend the donation wisely on
something that will last you a long time. And please do not bother following
up this email, if you have benefited from this donation in previous years.
Based on the random selection exercise of internet service providers(ISP)
and millions of Super market cash invoices worldwide, you were selected
among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of US$2,000,000.00 (Two
Million United States Dollars) as charity donations/aid from the Association
Of European Charity Foundations and the UNO in accordance with the enabling
act of Parliament. Note that, your email was selected from either the
internet, or a Shop’s cash invoice around your area in which you might have
purchased something from.
You are required to expeditiously Contact the Executive Secretary below for
qualification documentation and processing of your claims, from Monday
through Sunday.
On contact with this officer, you’ll be given your donation pin number
which you will use in collecting the funds.
Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (N-222-6747, E-900-56)
in all discussions.
Executive Secretary,
Mr Mark Richards
Tel:+31-619 703 513
Fax:+31-84-733-3998
Email:associationdept@yahoo.com.hk
Please note that this donations/Grants are strictly administered by
“European Union” under delegated powers from the UNO. you are by all means
hereby advised to keep this whole information confidential until you have
been able to collect your donation, as there have been many cases of double
and unqualified claim, due to beneficiaries informing third parties about
his/her donation.
Finally, all funds should be claimed by their respective beneficiaries, not
later that 7 days after notification, as failure to do so will particular
beneficiary cancelled and its donation reserved for next years recipients.
On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs.Jacquline van Grout
(Foundation officer)
* Lottery Scam (From my own Email Account)
Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of FIVE HUNDRED
THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS STERLINGS (£500,000.00) for the month of
October 2007 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC &
WINDOWS LIVE.You are to contact the events manager.
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number………..YM 09102XN,Reff number………..YM35447XN,Winning number………YM09788
However you will have to fill and submit this form to the events manager.
1.Full name: 2.Contact Address: 3.Age: 4.Telephone Number: 5.Sex: 6.Occupation: 7.State:
8.Country:
(CONTACT EVENTS AGENT MANAGER)
BARRISTER JOHN McAULEY
Email:claimsagentserviceunitt@yahoo.co.uk
Tel:+44-70457-42952
* In Reno Nevada, Murder for Hire E-mail Fraud
This example shows just to what extent these scams have reached. There is no limit anymore to what the scammers will try, and how far they will go to promote their scams. They are crafty and devious.
To conserve some space, I will only post the link to the article which deals with this new E-mail Scam.
www.cityofreno.com/index.aspx
For a complete list of E-mail and Internet Scams which are listed at Scam Busters visit the following link.
www.scambusters.org/backissues.html
Visit Scam Busters also to get some tips on how to protect yourself from these and all the scams posted on the site www.scambusters.org/. This site is a great source of information about E-mail and Internet Scams.
Knowledge is the best way to protect yourself.
Giving Out Personal Information Over the Internet
This is one area where many people fail to show caution. When you put your information into slots on the Internet it goes where. Are you sure you know where it is going and how it will be used?
This writer and many people have made this mistake and many of us have paid the price for making this mistake.
Money is taken from an account that you know you have never dealt with. How could this happen? There are many ways to get this information. You may have placed it in one place on the Internet and it was used by someone other then who you expected it would be used by. You could have placed it into a site which sent it to other sites. Some could have found it by accessing your computer. The criminals have a whole host of ways to get this information.
Some people have had people knock on their doors because they got the information from some place on the Internet.
There is nothing wrong in using the resources which the Internet provides. Many seniors, handicapped people, disabled people, stay at home moms, etc. benefit from the use of the internet to pay bills, do their banking, do their shopping, and many other activities they would be unable to do if not for the Internet. They should be able to do these activities safely. Using some common sense, and following some simple tips can help everyone to have a better Internet experience.
You can protect yourself from this in a few simple ways.
1) Clearing off your personal information from forms on your computer.
2) Use a ad ware program to deep clean the spy ware off your computer. Spy ware is a great source of information for the criminals and scammers.
3) Read the information provided that states the site’s privacy policies.
4) Do not put your information on sites which you are not sure how the information will be used. Check the site our completely before giving any information. This may take some time, but it is worth it.
If you wish to do your banking on line, the following link will offer some great tips. This is straight from FDIC.
www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/online/safe.html
If you wish to do your shopping on line, the following link will offer some great tips and insure you do it safely.
Shopping Guidelines
www.imrg.co.uk/shopping_guidelines.pdf
Internet Predators
There is a growing concern about people who lurk on the Internet to find victims to harm. They lurk in chat rooms and online forums where children frequent and try to lure them into meetings which turn out to be harmful and even deadly for the victims. A growing concern has sparked many to even form task forces and teams which use undercover decoys to catch these predators.
Still there is a problem. There are still victims who are getting caught by the predators.
Children are the most vulnerable of all victims. They are the easiest to target. A teen, who is having problems at home and talks to a person in a chat room, may find the answers to all their problems, or so the teen may think. In fact, the teen finds the person in the chat room was someone who only wishes to gratify their own evil desires. The child is raped or murdered and then it is learned how it took place. This knowledge came to late.
The predators are smart. They know the right things to say to get the results they are looking for and to lure the child into their trap.
Parents need to take control over the time their children spend on the computer. Keeping our children safe is our primary function as parents and the first step is to be informed about the dangers that are lurking on the Internet.
Below are some links to sites which will help parents to understand the dangers and provide some helpful tips to keep their children safe.
Safety.com
http://www.safety.com/articles/internet-predators.html
CyberTipline
www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet
ProtectKids.com
www.protectkids.com/dangers/onlinepred.htm
Why These Things Keep Happening?
Scams continue as long as people are there to promote it and victims are there to be scammed. The victims are usually desperate and in a vulnerable position which the scammers expect, and they prey on this fact.
E-mail scams continues because many are looking for a way out of their financial problems, and the E-mail provides something enticing which promises to solve them. People put their information into the hands of online scammers for much the same reasons. There is something the person is looking for and the scammer is making some sort of promise to make something good happen.
Online Predators are just looking for some kind of satisfaction for their evil desires. The vulnerable and desperate make easy targets.
Whether it is an adult who is looking for an end to their financial woes or a kid who is just looking for someone to listen to their problems, the results will never be as expected. The scammers and predators will take what they want and leave a victim with the consequences.
The loss of money is hard, but the loss of life is worse. The Internet is the another weapon which is in the hands of many criminals. It can be just as deadly as any gun. If you want to be safe, then you must use the Internet in a sensible manner. If you would not take certain chances on the street because of the threats of crime, then you shouldn’t take unnecessary chances on the Internet.
The more these scammers and predators have people who follow them, the more they will continue. Stop them by not responding or taking part in the activity they propose to you.
Conclusion
There are many dangers which lurk in cyberspace. They are there unseen and ready to strike the vulnerable and unsuspecting victims. Some will take money or your identity. There are those which will take things much more precious, such as, the innocence of a child or even the very life of the victim.
Even if they appear to only want your money, it is not such a big climb to hurt someone who you are trying to swindle. Money is a powerful motivator.
Knowing the danger is not enough, but it is a start. If you know the dangers and do not protect yourself, then you are really setting yourself up for major danger. Once the dangers are known, you have to take the necessary steps to guard yourself.
The Internet is a great tool. It is something which provides a whole host of services. It offers much easier access to goods and services. For those who are handicapped and disabled, it provides a sense of freedom and independence which could not be gained by any other source. They are able to shop, bank, and pay their bills. The Internet, also, offers a bunch of educational tools which one would find hard to acquire by any other means.
The Internet can be a great place if you use common sense when we are on it. We must be careful where we place our information, the E-mails we respond to, and the places where we visit while on line. We must use good judgment because the price is much to great if we don’t.
Please, take the time to understand the dangers and find out how best to protect yourself. Let’s all work together to make the Internet safe for our families. It is a small price to pay to protect those we care about and the resources we have worked hard to acquire.
