What’s the Cat-ch?: Attempts to Control Catfishing Fall Flat Catfishing and online dating fraud is an expanding issue that has recently been gaining increasing notice from the public due to productions like the MTV show Catfish and the general increase of occurrences. Because of this, one would think that the attempts at intervention to try and stop this type of scam would increase also. In reality, all attempts to regulate this type of crime or hold the site platforms accountable for providing means have fallen flat. If the social media platforms and websites accepted the responsibility of monitoring how their services are used and enforced more stringent policies regarding who they allow to use their sites and how, it is likely catfishing …show more content…
Bush. This act protects internet users against everything from emails sent by fabricated companies to pornographic messages. Despite how useful this may appear to the everyday person, there is a catch; CAN-SPAM only works against “commercial electronic mail messages.” Congress chose to define this as “...any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service... not [including] a transactional or relationship message” (US Congress 2). What purpose can there be in omitting such a relevant problem from an incredibly important piece of legislation? CAN-SPAM protects a broad range of people from suffering huge loss, and has the potential to protect many more, but it needs to be amended. Crucial reformation cannot be expected to occur without support from the government, and the government cannot efficiently provide that support without proper legislation in place. There is no viable reason for this lack of regulation concerning online dating, and inaction is causing much more harm than legislators would like to believe. Lawmakers even a few years ago could not possibly have predicted the boom in internet culture that modern society has experienced, and passing a new or updated bill requiring more readily available and solid identification on …show more content…
In 2011 a woman Carole Markin sued Match.com for not screening its users and allowing for the opportunity for her to be raped by convicted sex offender Alan Wurtzel, a man with whom she was paired with through the website (Horcher 1). Markin was subjected to completely unnecessary trauma due to the fact the site she was using did not keep very good track of what kind of people they allowed to sign up. Ideally sites would step up and conduct these procedures without issue or complaint but even after this case was presented, Match.com continued to denounce screening its users until they were forced to settle with Markin and agree to the process. Match also agreed to cross reference members with the national sex registries, but “the agreement is not legally binding or enforceable” (Horcher 2). Match.com is only one example of websites abusing their freedom at the cost of their users safety and peace of mind. Dating fraud is prevalent in today’s society, a world that runs on Wi-Fi. Any person can effortlessly sign up somewhere online, create a new identity for themselves, and no one would be the wiser. Not until scam hits or the registered sex offender organizes a physical meeting, but by then it is too
Coleman, Phyllis. "Online Dating: When "Mr. (Or Ms.) Right? Turns Out All Wrong, Sue The
The issue of Internet privacy is not a new topic. Numerous articles displaying the urgency of the issue have been published time and time again. Yet no immediate action seems to have taken place. The issue of privacy over the Net can be in the form of personal privacy, privacy of details, and even physical privacy. The Sunday Mail published a special three-page report on June 4th 2000, outlining a variety of cases where individual’s privacy, had been invaded over the Net through various chat sites. This report was based as a warning to parents, telling of how children, and young teenagers are having their personal privacy invaded by perverted older individuals, who seduce them. Another electronic media article was that of ‘Internet privacy? What privacy!’ by James Norman. This article focused on the problems of Internet privacy, rather than the solutions, however it did come up with various interesting comments. Norman states, ‘Given the number of entities that have access to our personal information through databases and list-swapping, it becomes impossible to know how our lives are being rifled through’. Which is completely true, once you’re information is on the Net, it free for the tak...
of Sex Offenders Via the Internet. The John Marshal Journal of Computer and Information Law
If a stranger would approach someone on the street, would one casually offer personal information to him? Would one allow him to follow and record one’s activities? Although it may be obvious in the concrete world that one would not allow it, the behavior of the general population on the Internet is strikingly different. While surfing websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google, many people provide personal details to enhance their online profile? These websites retain vast amounts of personal information from their users. Although this practice benefits the user as well, unrestricted profiling can become an alarming catastrophe. Unless the threat to internet users privacy are shown to exceed the benefits, we should not regulate the internet, rather we should educate the public how to be more responsible about their identities.
All because of these scams those girls now have to live knowing their pictures are out on the internet forever. I unfortunately couldn 't find the article about the girls who were lured to a location to become models. But it happens and that is terrifying. I have a very neutral opinion about social media. I personally love it. But i think in the wrong hands it is a very powerful force that can do a lot of wrong and can really ruin peoples lives. I think sites like sites like LinkedIn for instance because it likes people like me who are going to be getting out of college at some point to people who are experts in the field. These people can then connect you to people to get you hired. They 're several sites like this out on the internet. Sites that 's sole purposes are to help people out as best they can.I love to hear good things about social media and all the good it can do for people like LinkedIn has done for a lot of people. I personally have a facebook and a snapchat but that is all. I also take the precaution of not adding anyone on them unless i know
With technology advances steadily in today’s society, individuals steadily advance too. One of these aspects includes dating. Individuals in today’s society hope to find companionship through online dating websites so that someday some online daters might be able to find a companion. With websites like eHarmony, Match, Christian Mingle, OkCupid, Black People Meet, and JDate, finding the one seems to be easier and more convenient than ever. Most of these websites even display statistics showing that one out of five relationships start online. The questions that should be asked, is this a better and safer option than looking for the one in person? Individuals tend to ignore the possible risks involving online dating. They are willing to release personal information from pictures of oneself, to locations of where they work, or live just for the possibility of finding a companion. The online users have to ask themselves: is the risk worth it in the end, or does the benefit outweighs the cost? When searching for a companionship through online dating websites, negative aspects such as profiles, self-presentation, self-disclosure, predators and sexual mishaps, may outweigh the positive aspects and cause more problems and strife then actual good.
Spamming has been considered by various commercial, government, and independent entities to be one of the foremost social problems facing electronic media today. All manner of attempts have been made to curb this problem: technical measures such as e-mail filtering and the automated cancellation of netnews spam; contractual measures such as Internet Service Providers' acceptable-use policies; laws such as the Can Spam Act of 2003; and market pressures such as boycotts of those who use or support spam.
The first aspect being addressed is the problem with social network sites exposing information. Social networking has created an environment where it is nearly a duty to expose oneself. Profiles on these social websites are updated everyday with personal information such as locations, status, and future plans. Anyone can search another’s name and find information about their history, pictures, and activity. With the help of social networking sites...
In conducting this project, we find out that although online dating is more convenient to broaden their social groups than the traditional methods, the safeness is still under a concern and it will have more negative outcomes in the society. The users should be more careful on using online dating to have safety precautions and protect their personal privacy.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all examples of popular social media outlets, which are used daily by the individuals of today’s society. They are used to connect with people from the past, distant relatives as well as current friends and family. Users are able to share with their friends and or followers everything about themselves through their online profiles. Things like date of birth, hometown, schools they have attended, current workplace, different interests and favorite things are all things found on Facebook profiles alone. However nowhere does it say that the information given by users has to be accurate. This being said, there are instances where people falsely advertise themselves by putting things online that are not one hundred
Internet fraud is a problem that has become very widespread in recent years. Internet fraud was first monitored by the Internet Fraud Watch organization in 1996. The Fraud Watch has stated that each year after its inception internet fraud has increased. In 1998, the Securities and Exchange Commission established the Office of Internet Enforcement to fight online securities fraud which was another sign of how large the problem is becoming (Clausing). Despite the SEC¡¦s efforts this problem has not been alleviated, but instead continues to grow. According to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), ¡§the total dollar loss from all referred internet fraud cases was $54 million in 2002; this amount is almost three times as much than was lost in 2001¡¨(IFCC). This increase shows that the problem of internet fraud is becoming more widespread. The most widely reported type of internet fraud by the IFCC is online auction fraud. In 2002, 46.1% of all internet fraud complaints were online auction related (IFCC). Because of how many people are affected by online auction fraud alone we decided to focus our study solely on this one type of fraud.
Swindlers work easily on internet dating due to the system of making account in online dating services, which can be made with fake personal information. In 2013, more than 105 million dollars were taken away by romance scam reported by the Federal Trade Commission. Furthermore, scammers took more than 82 dollars from victim of online dating during six months in 2014. Women were at 82% of the losses and men sustained the remaining 18 % of losses. Those statistics show online dating scam has been increasing continuously. Americans call scammers in online dating as for catfishes commonly. The catfish makes fake online identity to seduce online daters into romantic relationships. Paula Bonhomme, who was catfished via internet dating, fell in love with Jesse Jubilee James on the Internet and had a deep relationship. Sometimes, James asked gifts which cost around 10,000 dollars. Bonhomme send gifts without hesitation. However, one day James was died by liver cancer suddenly. Bonhomme’s friend asked her to travel to forget him. At that time, Bonhomme discovered accidently that her friend tended to James. Opposes argue that internet dating users can protect themselves by checking carefully and following a guild which tell how to prevent scams-for example, if partners have few or no picture, professional profile, unable to meet, or the use of a virtual phone number, they might be catfishes. However, preventing scams is not easier. Although,
“The newly proposed Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (Fitzpatrick, 2006) states the term “commercial social networking website” means a commercially operated Internet Web site that allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to others users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger”
On the internet, crime is everywhere. Sometimes, it’s something as relatively harmless as an email telling you that you have just received “free money” after you give your credit-card information. On the other hand, “internet-predators”
August 1991 was the day when people finally had public access to the internet. However, the internet gradually become populated with advertisements which stated things like, “you’ve won the lottery, click here to claim your reward!."” It was these very messages that began what we call internet fraud. What is internet fraud? Internet fraud is, simply put, saying one thing and doing another. It is the act of robbery on a whole new platform (check spelling). I.e. it is the process of lying and stealing through the use of “advirtisements” that, one, lie to users and state an “irrisistable offer” and two, have internet users fill out some kind of form for any “registration fees” that may apply. In the beginning of the internet society, very few “advirtisements” wanted money, but today there are all kinds of fraudulent scams that try as hard as they can to get your attention. Among these scams are some of the most rich and easiest to fall for.