Dangerous high-tech crime

In my opinion fraud is the most dangerous high-tech crime because it is commonly used by serious and organised criminals for financial or monetary gains. For example: there are various websites that are on the Internet which deal with sale of products or services, these sites are called e-commerce sites. When a visitor visits one of these sites to make a purchase he or she has to give their payment card details this could be credit, debit or cash cards. Once details are obtained counterfeit or clone cards can be manufactured and these cards can be used by the criminals to make purchases. Criminals also commit ‘card not present’ fraud by using the card details they have, to purchase goods and services over the Internet or by telephone. Sometimes these card details are sold to criminals or fraudsters for a large sum of money.

Another example of fraud on the Internet is website spoofing. This is when a duplicate or replica of a genuine website is made with the similar web address. When the users try to log on to the original website they are automatically re-directed to the fake or bogus site. The spoof sites trick the customers to get them to reveal their payment card details, account details or other financial details, which can be used by criminals or fraudsters. There are some spoof bank sites, which are similar to the original bank sites and have similar logos, names, layouts and Internet addresses. The users are not able to tell the difference between the original and the fake or bogus website.

There are many other frauds that can happen on the Internet for e.g.: - 419 fraudsters send emails to victims promising them large sums of money in exchange for a fee. Another example of fraud is stock market manipulation that is done to fool investors to buy or sell their stocks.

The only way to protect Internet users from being cheated is to create awareness about frauds taking place over the Internet.