The Internet is not a clean place.
Yeah. Full of scam. Full of spam. Full of sham.
Every minute you spend online, every click you make
Is like a walk through this cyber mine blindfolded everyday
You might not have realized this
But the dot con artists are watching you
Every click you make, every breath you take
They are with you all the way
Waiting for you to click and trip…
Maybe not today, not tomorrow
But trip you surely shall,
Because you happen to play their game by default
A game that’s got rules to play by
But you don’t even know the rules of the game!
Welcome to the CYBER MINE FIELD!
Thousands of internet users have fallen victim to fraudsters and online conmen, better known as dot con artists, through various online scams. From identity theft, credit card fraud to lottery scams, the dot con artists are currently employing myriad online scams to snare unsuspecting Internet users. From the simple ‘Nigerian Letter’ of the early days of the Internet the fraudsters have grown with the times, striving to keep a step ahead of the online fraud detection technology being employed by all and sundry. They have also become bold and are now employing the use of other media like the use of adverts in newspapers/magazines and phone calls to hit their targets. Thanks to the anonymity afforded by the Internet, the fraudsters have gone global, hitting victims in far flung countries with deadly precision.
As the problem has grown, so too have the attempts by various stakeholders to fight scam and online fraud. Governments everywhere were slow to react but they now rightly recognize the threat posed by the dot con artists. Some governments have even weighed in with legislation and policies aimed at addressing the scourge. With one accord technology companies and online traders have risen to the task and some amazing pieces of technology aimed at curbing the scams have been brought to the market, albeit with limited success.
Clearly, the internet community agrees on one point: The Internet is not a safe place any more. What the community has not gotten down to doing is coming up with a major concerted effort, a campaign if you like, that shall be tasked with creating awareness, educating the masses of the various scams and threats present online and methods of fraud detection at levels that shall significantly reduce the success rate of online scams and ultimately put online fraudsters out of business. As long as no coordinated plan/effort is present, the dot con artists shall continue laughing all the way to the bank for a long time to come.
Think about it.
Fraud detection technology is simply not going to win the war against online scam. Government policy and legislation isn’t going to, either. The single greatest asset and the missing factor coming to think of it, in the fight against online scam, is individual consumers’ knowledge. Yes. You and Me.
What you and I know about scam has a great bearing on the success rate of these online scams. You click on links in phishing e-mails in your inbox and feed your confidential banking information to a bogus website and in an instant you put yourself at the mercy of a dot con artist. You e-mail out your bank account information in response to some fake e-mail asking you to verify your bank account information and you risk being robbed blind. Or you forward chain e-mails to all contacts in your address book with the belief that you are saving some needy child’s life in some far flung country as the e-mail claims and you inadvertently pass on harmful computer viruses/worms that wreck havoc across networks. The damage that you can do is endless, and all from the comfort of your home innocently surfing and savoring the best that the Web has to offer.
Ultimately, what you or I do, our actions or inaction thereof, while surfing the web is what keeps the fraudsters thriving, their dirty little schemes profitable and a whole lot of Internet users’ miserable. This explains why a concerted effort is needed to educate consumers on the dangers and traps posed by browsing and normal Internet use.
Knowing all there is about Internet scams and fraud detection methods might not help you if someone in your e-mail contacts doesn’t know as much. It takes only an innocent forwarding of a phishing e-mail to your inbox to put you within striking distance of a dot con artist.
You have to know what to look out for to avoid becoming a victim of online fraud. So does your best friend. And all your chat room contacts. Not to forget your facebook friends. Everyone you meet online, irrespective, has to know what to do to avoid the fraudsters little traps and games. It’s important. Because you never know who might forward an e-mail to your inbox that contains malicious code that’s intended to steal your password and personal information and make you a victim of fraud. And as you will learn in this business, a threat to one is a threat to all. Everyone needs an appointment with the scamologist…So bring them on!
