Internet fraud is a type of fraud which makes use of the Internet. This type of fraud varies greatly and appears in many forms. It ranges from Email spam to online scams. Internet fraud can occur even if partly based on the use of internet services and is mostly or completely based on the use of the internet.
Video Internet fraud
Counterfeit postal money orders
According to the FBI, on April 26, 2005 Tom Zeller Jr. wrote an article in The New York Times regarding a surge in the quantity and quality of the forging of U.S. postal money orders, and its use to commit online fraud.
In the United States of America, the penalty for making or using counterfeit postal money orders is up to ten years in jail and/or a $25,000 fine.
Maps Internet fraud
Online automotive fraud
A fraudster posts a nonexistent vehicle for sale to a website, typically a luxury or sports car, advertised for well below its market value. The details of the vehicle, including photos and description, are typically lifted from sites such as Craigslist, AutoTrader.com and Cars.com. An interested buyer, hopeful for a bargain, emails the fraudster, who responds saying the car is still available but is located overseas. Or, the scammer will say that he is out of the country but the car is a shipping company. The scam artist then instructs the victim to send a deposit or full payment via wire transfer to initiate the "shipping" process. To make the transaction seem more legitimate, the fraudster will ask the buyer to send money to a fake agent of a third party that claims to provide purchase protection. The unwitting victims wire the funds and subsequently discover they have been scammed. In response, auto sales websites often post warnings to buyers, for example, those on Craigslist which warn not to accept offers in which vehicles are shipped, where funds are paid using Western Union or wire, etcetera, requesting those postings to be flagged as abuse.
Charity fraud
The scammer poses as a charitable organization soliciting donations to help the victims of a natural disaster, terrorist attack (such as the 9/11 attacks), regional conflict, or epidemic. Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 tsunami were popular targets of scammers perpetrating charity scams; other more timeless scam charities purport to be raising money for cancer, AIDS or Ebola virus research, children's orphanages (the scammer pretends to work for the orphanage or a non-profit associated with it), or impersonates charities such as the Red Cross or United Way. The scammer asks for donations, often linking to online news articles to strengthen their story of a funds drive. The scammer's victims are charitable people who believe they are helping a worthy cause and expect nothing in return. Once sent, the money is gone and the scammer often disappears, though many attempts to keep the scam going by asking for a series of payments. The victim may sometimes find themselves in legal trouble after deducting their supposed donations from their income taxes. United States tax law states that charitable donations are only deductible if made to a qualified non-profit organization. The scammer may tell the victim their donation is deductible and provide all necessary proof of donation, but the information provided by the scammer is fictional, and if audited, the victim faces stiff penalties as a result of the fraud. Though these scams have some of the highest success rates especially following a major disaster and are employed by scammers all over the world, the average loss per victim is less than other fraud schemes. This is because, unlike scams involving a largely expected payoff, the victim is far less likely to borrow money to donate or donate more than they can spare.
Internet ticket fraud
A variation of Internet marketing fraud offers tickets to sought-after events such as concerts, shows, and sports events. The tickets are fake or are never delivered. The proliferation of online ticket agencies and the existence of experienced and dishonest ticket resellers has fueled this kind of fraud. Many such scams are run by British ticket touts, though they may base their operations in other countries.
A prime example was the global 2008 Beijing Olympic Games ticket fraud run by US-registered Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality, sold through a professionally designed website, www.beijingticketing.com, with the name "Beijing 2008 Ticketing". On 4 August it was reported that more than A$50 million worth of fake tickets had been sold through the website. On 6 August it was reported that the person behind the scam, which was wholly based outside China, was a British ticket tout, Terance Shepherd.
Gambling fraud
Internet gambling has become a $15 million industry. Every online casino needs an operation license to conduct their business, and the operators may lose their license or even face imprisonment if they do not follow the regulations. Online casinos have become an extremely lucrative as well as competitive industry, with operators introducing new promotions on a daily basis. Promotional activities include attractive bonuses, prize money, jackpots and other offers aimed at making patrons' online casino experience as memorable as possible. Having a secure software like a 128-bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption is important.
Online gift card fraud
As retailers and other businesses have growing concerns about what they can do about preventing the use of gift cards purchased with stolen credit card numbers, cybercriminals have more recently been focusing on taking advantage of fraudulent gift cards. More specifically, malicious hackers have been trying to get their hands on gift card information that have been issued but have not been spent. Some of the methods for stealing gift card data include automated bots that launch brute force attacks on retailer systems which store them. First, hackers will steal gift card data, check the existing balance through a retailer's online service, and then attempt to use those funds to purchase goods or to resell on a third party website. In cases where gift cards are resold, the attackers will take the remaining balance in cash, which can also be used as a method of money laundering. This harms the customer gift card experience, the retailer's brand perception, and can cost the retailer thousands in revenue. Another way gift card fraud is committed is by stealing a person's credit card information to purchase brand new gift cards.
Social media and fraud
People tend to disclose more personal information about themselves (e.g. birthday, e-mail, address, hometown and relationship status) in their social networking profiles (Hew 2011). This personally identifiable information could be used by fraudsters to steal users' identities, and posting this information on social media makes it a lot easier for frauds to take control of it.
The problem of authenticity in online reviews is a long-standing and stubborn one. In one famous incident back in 2004, Amazon's Canadian site accidentally revealed the true identities of thousands of its previously anonymous U.S. book reviewers. One insight the mistake revealed was that many authors were using fake names in order to give their own books favorable reviews. A recent study done by BrightLocal (http://selnd.com/1xzy0Xb) states that 88% of U.S. consumers read online reviews "to determine whether a local business is a good business" at least occasionally--39% do so regularly. Also, 72% say positive reviews lead them to trust a business more, while 88% say that in "the right circumstances", they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. While scammers are increasingly taking advantage of the power of social media to conduct criminal activity, astute risk managers and their insurance companies are also finding ways to leverage social media information as a tool to combat insurance fraud. For example, an injured worker was out of work on a worker's compensation claim but could not resist playing a contact sport on a local semi-professional sports team. Through social media and internet searches, investigators discovered that the worker was listed on the team roster and was playing very well.
Craigslist
In 2017, a Seattle resident named Kristoffer Hebert, approximately 30 years old, used Craigslist and other social media sites for fraudulent activity. Mr. Hebert would advertise various services in which he was hiring individuals to complete, but upon completion of the assignment, Mr. Hebert would complain about the service and refuse to pay or pay a significantly reduced amount. Upon some of his victims complaining about such on Craigslist, Kristoffer would impersonate the complainants and cause their craigslist accounts to become frozen.
Blackmail
A social media user threatens to post, or actually posts, defamatory information about his mark and demands a ransom, often in the form of cryptocurrency, to have it removed.
See also
References
- Legend, Therza. "CYBER FRAUD: How to be aware, to protect yourself and your business." Podiatry Review, vol. 75, no. 1, 2018, p. 32+. Academic OneFile, http://libraryproxy.tulsacc.edu:2095/apps/doc/A524380313/AONE?u=odl_tcc&sid=AONE&xid=151ca652. Accessed 1 Mar. 2018.
- Lin, Kan-Min. "Understanding Undergraduates' Problems from Determinants of Facebook Continuance Intention." Behaviour & Information Technology, vol. 35, no. 9, Sept. 2016, pp. 693-705. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/0144929X.2016.1177114.
External links
- Internet fraud at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
Source of the article : Wikipedia