Internet is yet another world where thieves can roam. With cyber technology, credit card information can be easily obtained. Cybercrime, such as Phishing, have hurt many people especially the troubled unemployed sector. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, they received more than 400,000 phishing reports. In addition, the Internet Crime Complaint Center or IC3 have received 275,284 online fraud complaints in 2008 and reported $265 million. The number of complaints increased in 2009 with a total of 336,655 complaints with about $559.7 losses.
NW3C Director Donald Brackman said that the findings indicate that the criminals are developing new ways to defraud consumers. Cybercrime is evolving critically and it creates a ground for consumers to not fully suspect that they are victims of the crimes. Brackman, however, sites that if law enforcement and the public will act together, the criminals will be tracked down and justice will be proclaimed.
Symantec, the creator of Norton products, teamed up with Sperling’s BestPlaces, a research firm, to expose the country’s top ten cities who are most exposed to cybercrime. According to their research, the cities are Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Raleigh N.C., San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis, Austin, and Portland, Ore. These cities are the cities with the most internet connectivity. Most of them have huge groups of wifi-spots, making more and more consumers exposed to such crimes.
To increase awareness, concerned organizations and law enforcers have advised the consumers to be careful with their activities in the internet. Peter Trahon, the FBI’s Cyber Division Section Chief, said that computer users are advised to update their security protection and to check their emails with a “healthy skepticism” for symptoms of fraud.
Concerned organizations, researchers and law enforcers have set-up websites and programs that would help eradicate the crimes and help consumers protect their identity and financial resources.
Internet Fraud alert, a collaborative project created last June by National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), Microsoft and other industry leaders, aims to protect consumers against online fraud. It offers an effective approach to report instances where account credentials, such as usernames and passwords, are discovered to be stolen online. The researchers, which composed of stakeholders, retailers, financial institutions, government agencies and others, inform Internet Fraud Alert about the stolen details from discovered online fraud activities. Internet Fraud Alert then matches the information to the financial institution indicated by the details and reports the cases to the responsible financial institutions. The financial institutions will now know that their customers’ information have been compromised and will report to the authorities about it. The project is believed to bring a rapid central reporting system that will lead to timely arrests of perpetrators and increased security for consumer credit information.