WARNING: Don't Get Scammed!

INTERNET SCAMS - AN OVERVIEW

Introduction: The www changed man’s life in myriad ways. The business has no longer remained confined within the borders of the state or country. Communication has become easier than ever and an ocean of information is only a click away! While one can list thousand internet boons, one can also come up with over one hundred banes!

Online scams are on rise and have become one of key concerns of public and governments of many countries of the globe. Cyber world is loaded with crimes like Online pyramid and Ponzi schemes, E-gold & eBay scams, Child pornography, Identity theft, Investment scams, fake clone websites and list goes on…

Scope of Online Scams: Cyber crime has no longer remained to be the fun activities of geeks. Cyber crime and online scams has grown big enough to pose some serious threat to the national security of various countries, both developing and developed! With funded organizations that function as cyber criminals, the problem continues the online scams continue to grow.

Facts & Figures: Everyday, countless innocent people are taken by various types of online scams. Here are some interesting figures for the years 2006 and 2007:

In year 2006, over 70,000 people were hit by identity theft in UK alone.
In United States, 3.2% of adults were victimized due to phishing emails. This is an increase of 40% from the year 2006.
The value of the loss due to online scams world wide exceeded $3 billion in 2007, a increase from last year’s figure of $2 billion.
In 2006, the average loss on new online financial account was whooping $5,962.
In 2006, the unauthorized credit card charges were $2,550.

Source: Gartner Reports and other online sources

The above are mere estimates and reported figures. There is no estimate of the cases that go unreported.

Actions against online scams and their Implications: Given the ultra fast growth in the technology, very high tech scams have started to emerge however, the cyber laws haven’t changed much and are quiet ineffective in tackling with most.

There have been improvements with more new laws being added and agencies like FBI, FCC, SEC and many others are trying to change the cyber scenario but the result looks pale.