Newsletter #78 The Scams Get Scarier

Created on 14/05/03

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The last newsletter (16th April, 2003) was "Wi-Fi, Why Not".

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In 2002 according to The US Government's Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), the IFCC referred 48,252 complaints of fraud, a three-fold increase from the previous year. The total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was US$54 million, up from US$17 million in 2001, with a median dollar loss of US$299 per complaint. 74 Americans even lost US$1.6 million last year to the long running and ever-laughable Nigerian email scams!

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and there are more of them. “The number of PayPal and eBay scam e-mails to steal information are increasing by astounding rates,” according to Rosalinda Baldwin, a consumer advocate at TheAuctionGuild.com.

A month or so ago I received an official looking email from Paypal that said that they were "flushing out accounts" that weren't used very often. Could I enter my account and credit account details in the boxes provided? Embarrassingly I came very close to being another sucker. The email had a vestige of the truth - I hadn't used my Paypal account for a long while.

It's not only these companies that are being hit by these sorts of scams. In Australia both the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the St George Bank have been subject to attacks over the past few months. In March, many Discover Card holders were sent emails asking for personal details. It is safe to assume that the examples above are only a sample of what is happening - financial institutions are not going to rush to publicise these attacks.

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The lessons learnt from these types of scams do reinforce age-old advice about when to supply your personal information and to whom. The Internet hasn't really changed the rules; it's just provided a global medium for scammers to scam more people.

Don't ever give out any personal information to anyone, over the phone, by fax or online unless you are familiar with the business that is asking for it. In particular:

• When online keep an eye on the Address toolbar in your browser particularly if you've been sent to a Webpage via an email. If it says anything other than the domain name of the site you think you're visiting (eg. www.bigbank.com) it is probably a scam and you should report it to the company immediately. Also where you are providing personal information, make sure the page is secure - the lock at the bottom right hand of your browser window should be closed.

• Avoid doing Internet banking or financial activities on public computers where key-logging software may lurk.

• Keep your anti-virus software updated and make sure that you have at least a software firewall installed. Broadband users should consider a properly set up and managed hardware firewall.

• If someone contacts you by any means, and offers you the chance to receive a prize, or other valuable item, but asks you for personal data of any sort - ask them to send you a written application form. If they will, review the application carefully when you receive it and make sure it's going to a company or financial institution that's well known and respectable.

• Adopt a "need to know" approach to your personal data and guard it jealously. When filling in application forms on or offline, leave out as much personal data as you can.

• Shred anything that has a signature, account number, social security number, medical or legal information on it.

• The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends that consumers check their credit report once a year.

Hey just be careful out there!

Newbies

The easiest way to make passwords secure is to choose a password with at least 8 characters. Substitute 2 letters of the password with numbers or special characters such as ! @ # $ % & * . This makes it much harder to crack.
This tip was supplied by Intrical - Experts in the management of Internet security risks.

For previous tips visit the Newbie Hot Tips page.

Power Users

An old one but still worthwhile - an easy way to determine why Windows may be failing to boot properly. During the reboot, press F8 to call up the Windows StartUp menu and select the Logged (\Bootlog.txt) option. This records each step Windows takes during the reboot process. Then reboot (use the Safe mode if it is necessary) and locate the bootlog.txt file in the root directory. Use a text editor such as WordPad to open that file and look for any steps reported as "failed" for a clue as to the problem.

For previous tips visit the Power Hot Tips page.

Fight Identify Theft says "Identity theft is the top consumer fraud complaint in America.
Up to 900,000 people will become victims this year." This site provides some great information on how to make sure that criminals are not using your details, or what to do if you suspect that someone is already doing it. The site also has a newsletter that will alert you to the latest efforts by those wanting to separate you from your personal details and your money,

GeoExplorer: This web site is packed full of links and web resources to support students and teachers of geography or those with a general interest in geography. The site includes puzzles, quizzes, a diary written by a couple travelling around the world, geography revision tests and much more.

We've added a great new article to our site called "Sales Techniques Lagging in Web Commerce". The article analyses why it is harder to sell to people via the Web - worth a read.

To search through all the articles in our online database use the search function on any page of our Website.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke. Thanks for reader Rod de Lisle for reminding us of this great quote.

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page of www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

To access previous newsletters visit our newsletter archive.

If you want to subscribe to this newsletter just visit www.netinsites.com and use the box at the top right.

Best wishes

Alex Garden

Internet Strategy | Website Design | Website Promotion | Web Text Messaging | Email Newsletters | Online Sports Games | Content Management