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Internet Scamming a serious problem for todays internet world.

From our own home we have access to a rapidly growing community where we truly have the world at our finger tips, access to a global marketplace takes seconds to reach. The internet offers ways to quickly start shopping, find the best investment opportunities, instantly message and keep in contact with our friends and much more. Sadly today's world Fraudsters use this big almost anonymous community to make their quick cash with misleading advertising and promises. They target those who have little knowledge of the internets horrors. this growing problem hits people Surfing the internet everywhere, who can easily be cheated hundreds of dollars to these cunning scam artists. Worms and Phishing emails are just some of the methods that scammers use to trick people but there are ways that the everyday user can identify these scams to avoid being tricked out of their money. The security on the internet in the current world needs to be revised to keep uneducated internet users safe.

 

Many people will wonder why scammers do what they do to unsuspecting people, the internet is growing so fast the security features of web browsers along with common knowledge is much behind what is needed for inexperienced users, this makes internet users an easier target for Frauds to manipulate along with the ease of using fake identity online to buy and set up Phishing website or to simply create a fake email posing as a company or individual with great offers and well planned tricks. The idea of the easy cash is more than enough for them to establish a motive towards becoming an internet scammer “I discovered a week later that the bank had found the check to be fraudulent.” Paige C. (2006). They use a variety of tricks and appeal to peoples emotions to ‘blind’ them from what is actually going on, their devious plans are all to easy to execute on our under developed internet world. These people will continue to exploit anyone through many Methods to acquire their easy fix for the day. People do know that this kind of thing can happen on the internet but are often unaware of how it exactly takes place so that any well worded scam seems like a safe investment because of how it is worded the trouble being that reading a wall of text you can’t usually get the actual emotion or specific meaning of what is written because it is missing the Physical factor of being spoken out loud along with body language. A good writer can easily market his/her scam because it is worded as if it is going to work out for them. They easily have their target blinded or overlooking what is actually happening under their nose, using them to most of the work of transferring their cash or entering their details on their website or replying with sensitive information within an email. There are many form of internet scamming with various methods depending on the individual involved and their situation. Phishing, Malicious software and Phoney emails are amongst the most popular and most common forms that are easily seen on a daily basis.  

 

There are numerous methods used by Scammers every day to Con people into throwing their cash to them, Key loggers and Worms are malicious software that gets your personal information from the inside where Phishing emails and Fake Online shops are there to trick people, these main areas are targeted because they get a lot of traffic on the internet. this means more opportunity to find their unsuspecting victim. Jesse Willms is one of the biggest internet scammers on the internet for USA new Zealand and Australia has been using fake advertising for the past few years to lure his victims in, messing with the small print and creating  too good to be true deals he has managed to rake in more than 467 million USD. Castaldo 2011 p47 "$467 million US since 2007 ... he made it virtually impossible for consumers to receive refunds, and hid the number of angry customers from credit card companies to keep processing orders" This form of internet scamming either makes users believe they are entering their details on a legit website and then unexpectedly bills them or offers free trials for products and then starts to charge them once their trial has ended without conformation. Willms also took it a step further and would not process refunds or cancelations when his customers requested. Worms and key loggers are pieces of software designed to infect and stay hidden inside a user’s computer and send personal information to a designated address that identity thieves or scammers can access and then access your money. Key loggers record every key pressed on a keyboard and do the same thing as a Worm with their information. this means if you log into your banking or put your credit card details into a website while on a Computer that is targeted by a logger it will also send your information out. Although it seems that scammers have the upper hand on the internet over the everyday user there are many ways that anyone can easily identify these Frauds and save yourself the headache of losing your money or personal details, try to remember that if something appears to be to good to be true then it is most likely something that is too good to be true, this is the biggest reason people fall for their scams inthe first place.

Todays scammers are getting smarter and extremely crafty with their methods of fraud on the internet but there are many defenses that can be put in place to avoid falling to their tricks and they are a lot more simple than most users would think. Viveros 2005 p17 said: "…antivirus software can save you from a lot more than expected…". an anti virus program may seem like it couldn't possibly do much to protect you on the internet but this nifty little piece of software can root out any malicous files within your computer. this means any key logger or Worms you may have been infected with while surfing the net or downloading a movie, will be cleared from your system. The website URL is often a simple method to discover if you are on a Phishing website, for example: if you were trying to get onto ebay.com.au but the address was ebay.co.tk this should be a dead giveaway that this website is not authentic. Avoiding unknown website that offer their too good to be true deals, asking friends and family before you use the website for information on it, if they have ever used it or know anything about it.Smith said ”These two simple things can significantly decrease the possibility of you getting your identity stolen.” (P1) The greatest Defense is information, if you know what to expect and what to look for nine times out of ten a fake webpage, infected computer or a malicious file within your downloaded movie will jump out at your before anything has been done. There are cases where as you can’t identify the fraud page or file but there are many steps that can be taken if your personal information is accessed including canceling credit/debit cards or police along with internet service providers can find the IP address of the person attempting to scam, with this more action can be taken. The damage that scammers do emotionally and economically is more than you might think and will only get worse as technology improves.

 

The Emotional and economical stress that internet scamming puts onto its victims is becoming more serious as technology rushes forwards, leaving people with no money and scared of our online world. The emotional damage that Frauds cause is putting a lot of stress on peoples lives that is by far unneeded and unfair. “…I had been the victim of Internet fraud that would leave be $4000 in debt… I began to cry for about the six hundredth time this weekend.” Paige C 2006. The emotional stress it can place in people in some cases might cause them to perform badly at work or while studying placing too many other things on the victims mind. The Economical damage it can cause to an organisation and its customers could potentially have them fold. “…The PlayStation maker said it believes hackers now have access to customers’ vital information… Credit card information, purchase histories and other profile data stored on the PlayStation Network servers…” The Playstation Network felt the wrath on possible Frauds after their systems were broken into and all personal data entered there was accessible including peoples credit card numbers, personal information and email addresses were only some of the personal information stored on the network. Apart from what has happened to each person on a personal level from this the company’s Shares Dropped and a lot of doubt was created within their customers ultimately this could lead to the ending of a massive organisation, which will put thousands of people out of a job, suppliers will lose a massive chunk in their sales because this company no longer good and services. Something that internet scammers done realise is that their actions can chain to a massive community unintentionally doing a lot more damage than just taking some easy cash from an unlucky person.

 

Internet scammers will not stop their work on the internet hurting people or not it Is irrelevant to them because they fell they are anonymous and they almost are without the right defenses which are slowly being put in place in an attempt to stop these criminals in their tracks. Education is needed so that people can identify the scams their self, the most common methods should be common knowledge to the everyday person, the Motives for internet Frauds will not simply be satisfied it will only grow as they become more successful with their tricks. With the problems that have already raised themself and the troubles that will continue to occur it is obvious that More internet security needs to be in place to ensure a safe development of the future internet world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ref:

Castaldo, J. (2011). What’s He Selling Now? Canadian Business, 84(14). 46-49.

Viveros, S. (2005), Changing malware threat AV vendor's view, 2005(11), 16–18

Smith M, no date, Identity Theft, Phishing and Scamming: Protect Yourself,

Paige C.(2006) http://voices.yahoo.com/my-story-internet-fraud-scams-32824.html