Spam, Scams and Other Internet Intrusions

C.O.S.T.  What does cyber safety cost you OR what does the lack of cyber safety cost you as a parent, student or educator?

What is SPAM?
“Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send -- most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender........Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the Web for addresses. Email spams typically cost users money out-of-pocket to receive.”
Source: http://spam.abuse.net/overview/whatisspam.shtml This site also gives a lighter explanation of where the term "Spam" stems from and then refers you to another site that gives a different account - both entertaining.

For more information, see: http://spam.abuse.net/

What are Internet SCAMS?

“Scam is a slang term for a fraud or confidence trick. Phishing is one of the largest Internet related scams. Other scams include advanced fee frauds such as fake lotteries and 419 scams - where individuals are sent notification that they have either won money or will obtain a percentage of a large amount of money belonging to a dead or missing individual sharing the same name. Individuals are tricked in to paying large sums of money to help facilitate the transfer of funds. The term 419 is derived from the number in the Nigerian Penal Code corresponding to this type of fraud.” http://www.standardchartered.com/online-banking/security-tips/glossary/en/index.html#q27

Although the following is taken from an Australian website, the information is very true and applies universally.
"Scams succeed because of two things.
Firstly, a scam looks like the real thing. It appears to meet your need or desire. To find out that it is in fact a scam, you must first make the effort to check it properly. You need to ask questions and think carefully before you decide what to do. Being aware of the dangerous myths … will help you with this. Depending on the issue, you can decide if something is a scam on the spot, or you might need help—and that could take several days.
Secondly, scammers manipulate you by ‘pushing your buttons’ to produce the automatic response they want. It’s nothing to do with you personally, it’s to do with the way individuals in society are wired up emotionally and socially. It’s because the response is automatic that people fall for the scam. To stop scammers manipulating you into their traps, it can be useful to know how to prevent the automatic response they expect. " http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693970

Internet scams are rampant on today's web. What kind of scams are out there? Well, just about anything you can think about could have a scam running about it. So, just BEWARE all you internet users.......from the novice to the expert. No one is immune; not educators, computer experts, parents, and especially not students.

Look at this site for a listing of 12 pages of different types of current scams: http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/ . It is listed in alphabetical order and has links to many explanations, true accounts of scams and much more information. The types listed range from the more common like buying/selling scams or loans/debt collection scams to the more unknown such as extortion scams or those that have taken on a personal name.
This site also(on another page) has tips to help identify what messages may be scams.
It also has a good list of tips to help recognize scam websites: http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Scam_Websites.php

Check out this article from MSNBC and the video clip to see and hear their technology correspondent discuss "romance scams"; click on the “I once knew the….” link to see the video: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/03/most-people-think-theyll-never-fall-for-a-scam-in-fact-that-frame-of-mind-is-precisely-what-con-artists-look-for-those-who.html?Gt1=43001 He discusses the internet’s most successful scams. In the short video clip he basically tells us that sending money overseas is just a bad idea even if it is for love. People are getting scammed for love via the internet and it often involves people "stuck" overseas; hence the nickname "Nigerian scams". This clip also shares information about scams from the most unlikely sites, such as Christian chat rooms or a "I love puppies" site.

What Other Internet Intrusions Are Out There?

If you can dream up an idea, someone can turn it into spam or a scam or somehow invade your home through your computer or smartphone. The site above (http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/) clearly tells you many possibilities. Yet the truly smart "authorities" will usually give a disclaimer about new spam, scams and other internet intrusions because they are popping up all the time.

Phishing

“Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing 

Example of a fraudulent email:

This document is a typical example of a phishing email. It is not from
Chase bank but on first glance, looks rather authentic. But look again…see the typos…..a good clue that something is wrong here. The link in the email goes to a website in Taiwan.


Identity Theft

"Identity theft occurs when someone appropriates another's personal information without their knowledge to commit theft or fraud. Identity theft is a vehicle for perpetrating other types of fraud schemes. Typically, the victim is led to believe they are divulging sensitive personal information to a legitimate business, sometimes as a response to an email solicitation to update billing or membership information, or as an application to a fraudulent Internet job posting." http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx#item-9

Check out this online security game that centers around Identity Theft: http://www.facebook.com/McAfee?v=app_205437242804400. This site also includes a glossary of Identity Theft Terms.

Where and How to Report If You Fall Victim to Internet Intrusions

There is an online "Internet Crime Complaint Center (I3C) which discusses many kinds of internet intrusions and lists under each type, where and how to report the crime to them:  http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx#item-9."IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes."
They also have direct links to other websites and agencies that may be able to help, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission.

Below is an except from this site: http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html#2.1
"What about e-mail spam?
You can always complain about unsolicited e-mail to both the bozo that sent it to you and the bozo's postmaster. To write to a postmaster, just substitute the perp's username in their address (e.g., bozo@otherwise.lovely.com) with "postmaster" (i.e., postmaster@otherwise.lovely.com.) Please be brief and polite with the postmasters, include a copy of the e-mail you received, and leave the subject-line intact (in case the postmaster wants to set up an auto-responder.)Be sure to include all the headers (not just From, To, Date, and Subject, which is the default in most mail programs) in your reply, just in case the e-mail was cleverly forged. That way, the postmaster can trace it back to its source if necessary.”

Internet Intrusions and Fraud Statistics
“From January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2008, the IC3 website received 275,284 complaint submissions. This is a (33.1%) increase when compared to 2007 when 206,884 complaints were received. These filings were composed of complaints primarily related to fraudulent and non-fraudulent issues on the Internet. ………
From the submissions, IC3 referred 72,940 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of cases were fraudulent in nature and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $264.6 million with a median dollar loss of $931.00 per complaint. This is up from $239.1 million in total reported losses in 2007.


Other significant findings related to an analysis of referrals include:
  •  Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment was, by far, the most reported offense, comprising    32.9% of referred complaints.
  •  Internet auction fraud accounted for 25.5% of referred complaints.
  •  Credit/debit card fraud made up 9.0% of referred complaints.
  •  Confidence fraud ("con men"), computer fraud, check fraud, and Nigerian letter fraud (Also called "Advance Fee Fraud" or AFF) round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.
  •  Of those complaints reporting a dollar loss, the highest median losses were found among check fraud ($3,000), confidence fraud ($2,000), Nigerian (west African, 419, Advance Fee) letter fraud ($1,650)
 Among perpetrators,
  • 77.4% were male and 50% resided in one of the following states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, District of Columbia, and Washington.
  • The majority of reported perpetrators (66.1%) were from the United States; however, a significant number of perpetrators where also located in the United Kingdom , Nigeria , Canada , China, and South Africa.
Among complainants,
  • 55.4% were male, nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and one-third resided in one of the four most populated states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York.
  • While most were from the United States (92.4%), IC3 received a number of complaints from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, and France.
  •  Males lost more money than females (ratio of $1.69 dollars lost per male to every $1.00 dollar lost per female). This may be a function of both online purchasing differences by gender and the type of fraudulent schemes by which the individuals were victimized.
  •  E-mail (74.0%) and webpages (28.9%) were the two primary mechanisms by which the fraudulent contact took place.


 For the full report, go to the IC3 webpage on statistics. “

Real Life Examples and the Consequences

Read this article about how Microsoft "took down" a very large spam generator: Mega-D Mastermind .  This lets you know that reporting spam to the appropriate administrators can lead to successful action.

The article at this site: http://www.allspammedup.com/2009/08/new-malicious-spam-exploits-craigslist/, tells one of many actual spam attacks. This one involves spam about Craigslist and eventually leads to a virus on the site's visitor's computer.

This site tells of a Russian man taken down for spam about some prescription drugs after making millions of dollars:  http://www.allspammedup.com/2010/10/russian-spam-king-arrested .

Summaries of real life stories of people in Australia can be found at: Victim Stories , with links to more detailed accounts


If you want to read more real life stories, check out this website:  Too Good To Be True

See this part of the Wikipedia site for reports of people convicted of phishing and other internet crimes: Phishing Convictions .

Tips for Preventing and Avoiding Spam, Scams, and Identity Theft


The FBI has a valuable site where they list many tips for preventing internet fraud including internet auction fraud, non-delivery of merchandise, credit card fraud, investment fraud, business fraud and the "Nigerian" letter scheme. This site is: Internet Fraud . Another site with similar information is http://www.ic3.gov/preventiontips.aspx .

Here is a webpage entitled ""How to help your kids use social websites more safely" . A MUST READ FOR ALL PARENTS!

Free or Inexpensive Security Tools

Microsoft has some free security tools on this website: http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/spam-prevent.aspx., which includes a free antivirus software download. They offer a free computer check-up and also make recommendations for making your computing experiences more secure, They also give some great tips about keeping your computer and security software up to date as well as ways to protect your identity online
  
This video is an advertisement for "Gmail", but it explains some of the features of what internet service providers or email systems can do in the form of spam protection: http://www.google.com/mail/help/fightspam/getstarted.html#utm_campaign=en

Please see also these sites for free or inexpensive tools:

Additional Sites of Value

For educators or parents looking for more technological explanations and terms of Spam, see this article entitled "10 Common Spam Terms for New Admins": http://www.allspammedup.com/2011/02/10-common-spam-terms-for-new-admins/

So, what does it C.O.S.T. you to be cyber safe?????.......not nearly as much as it might C.O.S.T. you if you are not! 



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