Fraud in a very general term is the crime of deceiving a person in order to get them to give up something in value, usually money and usually to the criminal himself or a group of criminals. This paper will be discussing cybercrime fraud, specifically cybercrime auto fraud, the type of scams associated with cybercrime auto fraud, the criminal profile of a cybercriminal fraud, law enforcement initiatives to combat this type of fraud and the penalties that go along with committing this type of fraud.
The Fraud
A person can purchase almost anything over the internet to include automobiles, whether it is in that person’s hometown, across country, or even across the world. While most of these automobile transactions that occur are legal, some are committed by criminals to trick their victims into falling for a scam. There are several different scams that involve automobiles and cybercrime. Some of these include Baiting, Faking to be a dealership, misleading or stolen identity, and impersonation email scams, all to get an unsuspecting person to give up different amounts of money when dealing in automobiles. The biggest and most common of these scams is the baiting scam. How this specific scam works is that the consumer looks to buy a vehicle online and finds one that he or she likes on a legitimate website. The buyer then contacts the seller through and email address listed in the advertisement. The seller will normally respond by email with a heart wrenching story about why they need to sell the vehicle quickly and for such a good price, these stories vary but sometimes include that they are in the military and are being deployed, or that they are moving across country and need the money. The seller then offers a buyer protect...
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... of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.")” (SHouse Law Group, 2013)
Fraud, scams and cons are everywhere. They affect many people every day, making this a form of crime likely to affect most people, in some way, during their lifetime. The various types of scams and cons are staggering. A Google search for a list of frauds netted over 1,000 types of schemes, scams, frauds and cons. The simple truth is this: There are people out there with the desire and motive to profit from the misfortune and deception of others. They will use the methods they know to succeed (usually financially) and make a situation profitable for themselves. Some schemes are very simple, while others are incredibly complex; walking a fine line between legal and illegal. We will examine some of the various schemes and scams that have been used in the past and many of which are still used today.
The Impact of Online Identity Theft on Consumers and Organizations Internet fraud has become a major issue due to the ever increasing population of internet users, because the internet is such an easy solution to fast sufficient services readily available for busy lives that’s is why most of us are now dependant on the internet in some shape or form and each time we use the internet we input data that are related to use from our name, address and even bank details with the assurance that the site is safe and trustworthy, but this is not always the case because the security system implemented like all things in this world has weaknesses.
Globalization and the impact of commodities on market have also led to increased opportunities in numerous types of crime based directly upon growth of market, consumer societies. In regard to this an insurance company being fraud of money by salespeople who claim to receive a misfortune which may not have occurred. Though such activities may fail to attract too much media attention but they are still crimes.
Several legislative codes have been ratified to prevent and deter credit card fraud. Many have been created or modified within the past decade and are enforceable by several agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Secret Service (USSS), and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). Task forces consisting of federal, state, tribal, and local agencies have been formed throughout the U.S. to increase joint-interagency cooperation among criminal investigators and prosecutors.
“As in the past, it is criminals who have been among the first to recognize the potential of a wide-open, sparsely populated, and poorly policed space (Fuller 11).” That is exactly what cyberspace was in the beginning, and most of it is new territory still. One way to become aware of the cyber-crimes one can fall victim to is to first know what types are out there. The top five cyber-crimes are the following: tax-refund fraud, corporate account takeover, identity theft, theft of sensitive data, and theft of intellectual property (Singleton 2). Also, all cyber-crimes have three things in common; the tools needed to commit the crime, a strategy on how to follow through with the crime, and the outcome which is the crime itself (Singleton 2). There are also different forms...
Crime comes in different ways, shapes, and forms. From corruption to murder, the seriousness and blameworthiness varies from crime to crime. The most common factor of all crime is that it is illegal. The problem with prosecution is that some crimes can find loopholes around the rigidity of the laws created. This is the hardest for white collar crimes. With so many types of white collar crimes, it is hard to understand where it belongs on the scale on seriousness and blameworthiness and how to prosecute. With white collar crimes, they are most commonly seen as “victimless” or “paper” crimes, since they do not involve physical harm to the people included. With so many types available to analyze, the purpose of this paper is to focus on bribery, perjury, and fraud. When it comes to white collar crimes, or any crime for that matter, we do not only need to focus on what causes it and society’s reaction to it. We need to look into prevention of it and being able to stop it before it even starts.
The purpose of this paper is to make others aware of an epidemic that is sweeping our nation. Fraud has become a vast problem in the United States of America. It is a crime that can be defined as a false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another with the intent to commit a crime. Fraud is commonly referred to a number of offenses that involve dishonesty or “fraudulent acts”. In other words, the intent to deceive a person or entity by another for monetary or personal gain.
These frauds take place because many people leave their vehicles unattended at shops or can’t see what is going on inside the garage. Many times a p...
The early warning signs of fraud are, usually, always ignored. There are warning signs for every type of fraud out there. To understand the warning signs of fraud, we must first know what fraud is. Fraud is the intent to trick someone or lie to someone in order to receive financial gain. This definition varies depending of the type of fraud used, but the person committing the fraud is always looking for financial gain. There are many types of fraud out there. You have Medicare fraud, internet fraud, mortgage fraud, loan fraud, tax fraud, embezzlement, forgery, insurance fraud, and marriage fraud. These are only a few types of fraud. There are many more types of fraud out there and new types of fraud are being committed every day. This paper will focus on different types of fraud. The different types that will be discussed are physician identity theft, medical identity theft, corporate fraud, inventory fraud, Ponzi schemes, charity scams, miracle cure scams, and identity theft. Each type of fraud will lead into a discussion of what the fraud is, how it happens, what are the warning signs of the fraud, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Every day millions in some cases billions of dollars are made by businesses from income brought in by online sale of products and services. As businesses continually develop and expand their client base with online products and services so does the desire by criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in their e-commerce setup. The mass worldwide internet usage growth within the last 20 years has been “an approximate 16 million users in 1995 to an estimated 2,937 million in March of 2014” As the importance of e-commerce increases so does the need to protect the technological infrastructure that will carry out online transactions for each business regardless of its size. I will attempt to highlight and review the history of a few cyber crimes to show the progression of the crimes within the last 30-40 years. I also plan to review how the economy and consumers are impacted by cyber crimes. Finally I will make an effort to contribute with information gathering on how to lower the risk of a cyber attack from and individual user to a large scale business.
Cyber crime has become an important concern for not only the business firms, government, law enforcement agencies but also for the common people because these kinds of issues are related to the consumer’s day-to-day activity (Polivanyuk, 2005). Due to these types of crimes, consumer’s money, children, business organization’s integrity, consumer and company’s privacy, etc. are in danger.
Millions of people around the world use computers and the internet every day. We all use it in school, work even at home, computers have made us life easier, it has brought so many benefits to the society but it has also brought some problems and cybercrimes is one of them. “The times have really changed,” said Greg Garcia, the department’s assistant secretary for cyber security and communications. “We’re seeing now phishing, farming, botnets … war dialing and domain server spoofing. And we’re seeing coordinated cyber-attacks against nation states.” (Fowler 5) Cybercrime is one of the most prevalent and most popular rising crimes being committed today. This is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. There are millions victims around the world everyday who face these problems. Most people become victims of these at one time or another, but there are ways to avoid or deal with cybercrime by protecting yourself appropriately. I also was one of those victims who faced a similar problem. This unfortunate truth forces me to understand that computers and the Internet have made our lives easier in many ways. However, it is unfortunate that people also use these technologies to take advantage of others through identity theft, hacking attempts, and malicious use of software.
Another way of committing fraud is the sending of fake emails through Craigslist to make the victim think that he/she is getting a great deal. This type of fraud has to do with shipping. Criminals send fake emails out from a company such as PayPal, saying that the money is being held until the victim replies to the email with a tracking number. When the v...
Cybercrime is a global issue plaguing the world. The dictionary defines cybercrime as “crime conducted via the Internet or some other computer network”(Merriam-Webster). The definition remains very broad because the word “cyber” is defined as “relating to the culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality.” Due to the growing number of people gaining access to the internet, rapid development of technology, and the globalization of the world, more of the world population is becoming susceptible to involvement in cybercrime – whether it be as a victim or a criminal. Cybercrime involves different levels of the world on both the victim and criminal side from an individual citizen, to small groups, businesses, and the government, to the countries of the world. There are different groups from law enforcement agencies to the U.S. Secret Service, that are attempting to combat the problem through cooperation and preemptive efforts. If these groups combined with the public to protect themselves and the country from criminals that commit cybercrime, the nation’s network and technology servers would be much safer for technology users. Clearly, cybercrime is a problem because it puts internet users at risk of being taken advantage of or harmed.
Just as traditional criminal activities, cybercrime can take many forms and occur virtually anytime and anywhere. Criminals committing cybercrime use very different methods, depending on their abilities and goals. This should not surprise anyone after all cybercrime is merely an activity "criminal" to the ingredient that adds a computer or an electronic network for its commission.