Download Internet Crime Schemes - Faculty Server Contact

Internet Crime Schemes
Professor Byrne
Technology and the Criminal
Justice System
Auction Fraud

Misinterpretation of a product or nondelivery of products through web
Counterfeit Cashier’s Check
Targets individuals using internet classified
ads
 An interested party located outside the
U.S. contacts seller
 Check is for more than specified amount
and seller is told to send check back for
difference after it clears
 Check turns out fraudulent and victim is
responsible for sum of check

Credit Card Fraud
Unauthorized use of credit/debit cards or
card #
 Card numbers stolen from unsecure
website or as part of identity theft scheme
 Victim generally lose between 5,00020,000

Debt Elimination
Participant sends $1-2k along with
specifics of loan information, and power of
atty to make decisions over house deed
 Participant then pays another % of total
debt
 Bonds and promissory notes issued to
participants true lenders
 Potential risk of ID theft immense because
all personal info is released

Employment/Business
Opportunities
Foreign based companies contact via
employment websites for work from home
 They hire you, get all personal info, explain you
will be paid via U.S. creditor that works with the
company
 A check comes higher than salary permits
employee is asked to deposit the check into
personal account and wire back the rest.
 Check is fraudulent

Escrow Services Fraud
Wary internet auction participant is
persuaded to use third party escrow
account
 Perpetrator has compromised a true
escrow website and creates a similar
looking site
 Victim sends payment, never sees product

ID Theft
Individuals give personal information in
the belief it is for legitimate business
purpose, in response to email looking to
update billing or membership info, or job
hiring
 Often use for further internet crime
 In 2004, 3% of households in U.S. had at
least victim in in previous 6 months (ncjrs)

Internet Extortion
Hacking into & controlling various industry
databases
 Ask for funds in return for releasing
control back to the company
 Often threats of compromising consumer
information

Investment fraud

Using false claims to solicit investments,
loans, forged or counterfeit securities
Lotteries
Contacted via email that person has won
large lump sum payment from lottery
 The winner must pay fee, $1-5k to initiate
process, more fees once process has
begun

Nigerian Letter/ “419”
Victim is contacted via email to give
opportunity to share in % of millions of $
to place money in overseas bank accounts
 Victim is knowingly involving self in crime
unknowing the irony
 Victim is asked to send money in
installments for variety of reasons
 Millions of dollars are lost annually

Phishing/Spoofing
Emails are sent appearing to be from
legitimate business in attempts to divulge
personal info
 Directs user to website which is fraudulent
but appears to be legitimate


176 unique phishing attacks in Jan. 2004
Ponzi/Pyramid
Investors are promised high return on
investments, no investments are made
 Early investors are paid with fund received
from later investors
 System collapses and lose investment

Reshipping
Subject is hired as a “reshipper” for
employment individual divulges personal
information
 Schemer opens credit in victims
 Victim receives products that were bought
with his/her credit (unknowingly)
 Victim reships products as instructed in
hiring

SPAM

Bulk email act as a vehicle for accessing
computers and servers transmitting
viruses and Botnets
Third Party Receiver of Funds
Job sites solicit assistance from U.S.
citizens
 Foreign web based entrepreneurs explain
they cannot receive funds for their online
business because their foreign base
 Victims sets up account to receive funds
and then forwards it overseas
 U.S. citizens receives funds from victim
and forwards overseas and becomes
victim as well

Crime Prevention

Six Social-Engineering Strategies
Target Removal
 Target Devaluation
 Target Insulation
 Offender Incapacitation
 Offender Exclusion
 Offense, Offender, and Target
Identification

Target Removal





The logic of prevention is clearest and most effective
when a target is removed. Something that is not there
cannot be taken.
Some Examples:
The move toward a cashless society is one example of
target removal.
Furniture built in to the wall cannot be stolen, and that
bolted or welded to the floor is unlikely to be.
A number of urban schools have created dress codes
banning signs of gang affiliation and expensive clothes
and jewelry
Target Devaluation

The goal of target devaluation is to reduce or eliminate the value of
a potential target to anyone but authorized users.

Examples of devalued targets include products that self-destruct
(some car radios when tampered with) or that leave dear proof of
theft (exploding red dye packs that stain money taken in bank
robberies).

There is a device that, via cellular phone, can remotely cut off the
engine of a stolen car. Another system, called Auto Avenger, is
triggered if the door is opened while the engine is running. If not
disengaged by a hidden switch, the engine will shut down after a
few minutes and the system tells the thief he has fifteen seconds to
get out or face a 50,000-volt shock.
Target Insulation
Target insulation is probably among the oldest of
techniques for preventing violations
 We can separate perimeter-maintaining
strategies such as fences, walls, moats, guards,
and guard dogs from more specific protections
such as safes, chastity belts, and placing goods
in locked cases, chaining them to immovable
objects, and hiding them.
 "Skywalks" linking downtown buildings shield
their occupants from life on the street.

Offender Incapacitation



Offender incapacitation renders the potential offender
harmless.
There are a variety of "immobilizers," "restrainers," and
"containers" that seek to prevent violations by
weakening the potential offender's will or ability to
commit the offense.
psychosurgery for the violent, literal or chemical
castration for sex offenders, and the practice in some
Middle Eastern countries of cutting off the hands of
pickpockets. Excessively aggressive behavior may be
treated with tranquilizers. Drugs such as Depo-Provera
may be used to reduce the sex drive.
Offender Exclusion
offender exclusion is the opposite of target
insulation. The offender, rather than the
potential target, is restricted.
 In short, the goal of offender exclusion is to
keep potential offenders away from persons or
environments that may tempt them to commit
violations.



Capital punishment is the most extreme form of
this strategy.
Examples of Offender Exclusion
Other examples are exile, prison, curfews, and mobility
restrictions (such as house arrests or restraining orders).
 At the group level, the creation of red light and drug
districts away from residential areas (as in Amsterdam
and Zurich) is also based on the idea of exclusion.
 Electronic location devices have recently made individual
exclusion easier.
 the ultimate exclusion may be genetic screening:
persons believed to have a biological predisposition to
undesirable behavior simply never appear-they aren't
born. This screening could be voluntary or mandatory.

Offense, Offender, and Target
Identification
The goal of identification is to document the
occurrence of the violation and identify or even
trap the violator.
 Various sensors and alarms fit here.
 Another expanding area involves immobilization
or seizure strategies.
 One system involves a super-glue that spreads
onto the floor after an explosion. Persons may
be able to get into a building, but the human
flypaper makes it impossible for them to get out.

Other Examples of Identification
Strategies




A more general form of identification is the stigmatic mark of the
"scarlet letter," which gives evidence of past violations.
In some jurisdictions convicted drunk drivers must have special
identifying license plates or signs on their cars. The requirement
that individuals carry their records, or that these be checked, is
equivalent.
In some jurisdictions sex offenders are required to take out
newspaper ads accompanied by photographs with warnings that
they have been convicted of particular crimes; or their pictures may
be prominently displayed around playgrounds.
There is a proposal to electrically shock those under house arrest if
they attempt to leave and, if they succeed in leaving, to increase
the voltage the farther they stray