The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is the main government department responsible for controlling Internet crime. They deal with such issues as online child abuse, money laundering, arms and drugs trafficking, intellectual property rights, and identity theft. Cyber Crime is a wide-scope issue, and Internet scams are a major part. The latest is e-scam is a drive-by downloaded malware that installs itself onto the users computer. The malware then freezes the computer, claiming the user committed federal crimes, and demands the user must pay the ICE $400 within 48 hours. It is completely fictitious, a hoax, and is considered ransomware. Once downloaded, it requires a computer expert to remove. The ICE has released a warning against this scam and others like it. They let you know how to identify current e-scams, protect yourself, as well as give suggestions for victims. To check out the latest dangerous e-scams, you can go to the FBI's E-scams and warnings page.
In today's online world, it is important that users educated themselves against Internet fraud. From being able to identify a fictitious advertisement, to being able to deal with threats from malware. E-scams are real, and can be very harmful. They are a serious problem that all users need to be aware of.
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I agree advertisements can be annoying, but I try to remember that they have to pay for the free service I am receiving somehow. Although, I honestly don't pay much attention to them and did not realize that they had bogus ones going around. To me it seems sad that negative people always have to mess up things for others. As for the E-scam you were speaking of, the drive-by, I remember a few months ago one of my co-workers had it pop up on their computer. They decided that it was just some kind of virus so we contacted IT to handle it. It is just kind of crazy that things like that are happening, and we don't really have much control over it anymore since by just clicking the close botton we are allowing a virus to take over our system.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, advertisments do have their place on the Internet, but they can be easily replaced with malicious software. A computer genious, Peteris Sahurovs, disguised as a ficticious advertising company posted a number of adds containing malware on several sites. They were downloaded onto visitors computers, and then held to "ransomware". He is currently wanted by the FBI and has stolen over $2 million. People like him are what makes it necessary to express caution when navigating the Internet.
DeleteIf you want to check out a complete list of cyber criminals wanted by the FBI, check out http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber
DeleteI think further research into country origin for e-scams would be really interesting. Did you come across any statistic on the country origins?
ReplyDeleteGlobalization has drastically integrated country to country contact. While I think it's awesome, in a different realm, cyber crime can be a hard one to recover from; especially with identity fraud, etc.
-Mary Alice
According to Forbes, the U.S. is the "top source of maliscious software." It is followed closely by China. Brazil, Russia, and many European countries also make the list. If you want to check it out, here is the full article.
Delete(http://www.forbes.com/2007/07/13/cybercrime-world-regions-tech-cx_ag_0716cybercrime_slide_2.html)
I also found this research article that suggests Africa may become a safe haven for cybercriminals in the near future. There are few laws restricting Internet crime, and Internet access is available and expanding. The article looks at Africa's Internet infrastructure, and predicts it may become a cybercrime harbor within the next three years.
(http://www.trendmicro.com/cloud-content/us/pdfs/security-intelligence/white-papers/wp-africa.pdf)