The truth about internet fraud

Posted on 7 May 2009 at 14:53

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In reality, there's no account and no money. As the scam unfolds, the conman will tell the victim that a problem has occurred that can only be solved by the victim sending a sum of money. This is small change in comparison to the vast profit expected at the end of the deal. Problems will continue to occur, followed by more requests for money. Victims who stop paying will be harassed with telephone calls. After the first few payments, victims may feel unable to walk away from the deal and will continue to pay in the desperate hope that there will be a payout. There never will be.

You can spot an advance fee fraud email easily because it will include one or more of the following characteristics:

1. You will be asked to help transfer an enormous amount of money from a bank account in another country to another account that you will set up.

2. The sender will claim to be a government official or acting on an official's behalf.

3. In return for your help, you'll be offered a percentage of the total sum of money, which will usually amount to millions of US dollars.

4. The deal must remain secret.

5. The grammar and spelling in the letter will be poor. This may be intentional to trick potential victims into underestimating the fraudsters.

Don't respond to a fraudulent request. You risk being harassed by criminals who have now confirmed that your email address is valid. If you really know what you're doing, you could string the bad guys along, but that is best left to the professional pranksters at www.419eater.com. Visit this site if you want to feel some satisfaction that the scammers can sometimes be scammed back.

Lottery fraud

Have you just won a foreign lottery you don't remember entering? If so, a fraudster is trying to ensnare you using a similar scam to the Nigerian advance fee fraud. If you respond, you'll be asked to send information about yourself to an email account, which in itself is a dangerous thing to do. At this stage, the only thing between you and your millions is a small fee that is required to release the funds. There will then be another problem requiring another small fee, and so on.

Targeted attacks

You're far less likely to become the victim of a targeted attack than any of the other scams listed here. Most scams are spread far and wide in the hope that they will catch enough victims to make a large profit. A targeted attack is much more work for the criminal and much more worrying for the victim.

The popularity of social-networking sites means that it's relatively easy for criminals to use software to scan for certain types of people. Recruitment sites provide similar opportunities. In August 2007, the employment site Monster.com was hacked and information about its subscribers was stolen. This was used to send highly personalised phishing emails.

Internet auction fraud

Internet auction fraud can be as simple as someone offering an item for sale, collecting payment and then not sending the goods to the buyer. However, auction sites take measures to reduce this problem, and most issues occur when people take their business away from the site and try to get a better deal in private.

A typical scam, which amounts to a targeted attack, involves a fraudster contacting people who have bid on items but have failed to win the auction. They'll be offered a similar item at a lower price in return for the funds being sent by a money-transfer service. Once the funds have been sent, the goods should be dispatched, but they never arrive.