Internet Fraud Losses Reach All-Time High

FBI Reports that Internet Fraud Losses Reach All-Time High. An excerpt:
"While the number of cases dropped, the amount of money lost to internet fraud reached an all-time high in 2007, a new government report states. 'According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006.' The top ruses used by the fraudsters involved pets, romance and secret shoppers. The original report[Large PDF] is available online, and it contains some interesting graphs. One indicates that the two largest types of fraud are Auction Fraud and Non-delivery, which combine for over 60% of all cases. As Computerworld notes, men are more likely to fall for scams than women, and over 30% of losses are between $1,000 and $5,000. The report also contains data about the location of the perpetrators (Nigeria only accounts for 5.7%), age demographics, and contact methods."


Friends, read my past posts about internet scams (more to come) - numbers do not lie! It may happen to you, if you are not careful.

Stolen Identity = Ruined Life

We've all heard about people going through identity theft or stolen credit cards with fraudulent charges, but how about when the stolen identity leads to a ruination of one's life and reputation?

An excerpt from an article on BBC:
"The BBC reports on the sad case of Simon Bunce. Mr. Bunce had his identity stolen, and credit cards were made to capitalize on the theft. Some of those cards were used at sites offering child pornography, and as a result Mr. Bunce was swept up in Operation Ore. The poor man was prosecuted for his 'crime', and was eventually found innocent, but in the meantime he lost his job. It took him six months to find another at a quarter of the salary."
The article goes on to report:
"Recent surveys suggest that as many as one in four Britons have been affected by it. In 2007 more than 185,000 cases of identity theft were identified by Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, an increase of almost 8% on 2006.'"

So you ask, how are we affected by this?
The Internet is an International network, so what happens elsewhere on the Internet can affect us. Fraud is everywhere on the Internet. Malicious people from other countries such as Russia (or people from the U.S. through servers in other countries) break in to legitimate online businesses and steal information. This information is then sold to others who in turn may sell the information again or use it to create new lines of credit to make fraudulent charges.
There are also malicious people that create on-line stores to get personal information. Some actually sell real products, and some do not ship anything to you after you fill out your information and try to purchase their products.

So, if you shop on the Internet you should be aware of a few things:

1. On-line store's business address, hours of business and contact numbers
   
2. Validate the contact numbers by placing a call to ask some questions about the product or their policies - this bit of due diligence to ensure this is a real business
3. Use a major credit card for purchases online or use paypal that is tied to your major credit card.
4. Do NOT use your bank check card - this gives thieves direct access to your bank account!
   
5. Be aware of your credit report and preferably sign-up for a credit monitoring service that monitors all three of the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) - I recommend myfico.com and selecting their Quarterly Monitoring service - the cheapest and most complete service I found - $50 per year. They have a 25% off sale going on now
6. Constantly check your credit cards online for charges. I check mine once a week or a few days after I make a purchase to ensure the charges shows up correctly and I also make sure my has product shipped
   

There are more items to keep in mind. In short, shred your important paperwork, using something like a variable cut shredder, keep a close eye on your credit report, keep an even closer eye on credit card charges and be choosy of your shopping site.

Tips to make your inbox less vulnerable to identity theft

Identity theft continues to be a big concern among Americans who engage in online transactions, and for good reason. Last year, an FTC survey found that 8.3 million American adults were victims of identity theft in 2005, and an alarming 85 percent reported that one or more of their existing accounts had been misused. Those accounts included email, credit card, banking, medical insurance, ...

Read more at: tech.yahoo.com

Fraud Alert - Money Mules

This one is becoming a fast growing trend, so I'm posting some info on a relatively new fraud scheme.
I know I'm not the only one that receives job offers via email for "money transfer agents" or "re-shipping agents" which utilize your bank accounts for transactions for overseas companies. These transactions are fraudulent and should be marked as SPAM or phishing emails in your email software. Just delete them asap - clicking on the links provided usually validates your email address for the sender and will prompt further scam related emails.

Here are some links that describes the varieties of the fraud scheme in more detail:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/

some example emails for your review:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/page8.html

a news blurb:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/12/20/arrests_in_money_mules_scam/

Please share this with friends.
I hope it helps someone from falling in to this very serious trap.