Crime & Punishment

If you've ever posted an ad on craigslist.org, chances are you have received an email like the one below:  

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I will have to inform you that i am okay with the price of the [item name] ($375)condition terms are also okay with me,For the Shippment from your location,i have my SHIPPER as soon as we seal this Transaction from your end.

I have a CLIENT of my that is owning me some Fund in United Kingdom that will issue you the cheque of ($2000) soon as you receive the cheque and when cleared you will deduct the cost of the [item name] and the remaining balance will be send to the Shipper through western union money transfer for the pick up from your location.

If this is okay by you, do e-mail me the following detail

FULL NAME ON CHEQUE:
CONTACTED ADDRESS:
MOBILE&LANDLINE PHONE NUMBER:AND ZIP CODE
I will compensate you $50 to remove the advert from the site and will wait until the cheque clear before the pick up commence.hope to read from you today. 

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Complete with all the telltale signs of a scam designed to part you from your money. The typos, grammatical errors, and the feeling that it's a deal that's just too good to be true. You may have spotted these warning signs immediately. Others won't be so lucky.

Enter 38  year old Matthew Shinnick. Matthew was unfortunate enough to be on the wrong side of one such scam. The San Francisco resident listed a pair of mountain bikes on craigslist for which he received an offer of $600 from a buyer claiming to be in Canada. 

 After exchanging emails over the course of a couple of weeks, Shinnick said he received a check for $2,000 shortly after Christmas and was informed that the extra cash was to cover shipping costs "and for my trouble."

The sheer size of the check, supposedly drawn on the buyers Bank of America business account, raised a red flag for Shinnick. Not wanting to deposit it in his own account for fear it would bounce, he decided to play it safe and stop by a Bank of America branch to verify the checks validity.

He gave the check to a teller and asked if there were enough funds in the account to cover it. 

"She said it was a valid account and that there were funds to cover it," Shinnick recalled. "I said, 'Great,' and asked to cash the check." 

As it turned out, the business account was real, but the check was a fake. The teller handed the check to the branch manager who alerted the police and Mr. Shinnick was placed under arrest.

Fast forward to July of the following year, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled that Shinnick was innocent by "findings of fact" -- a decision that essentially erases all record of the case. By this time, he had already spent an estimated $14,000 fighting to clear his name. Money he has no legal recourse to recoup. 

Full story here:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-08-30/business/17308300_1_craigslist-bofa-bogus-check/2

Keeping it Private on the Wild, Wild Web

Identity theft can turn your life upside down. It can ruin your credit, cost you that job opportunity, or worse. Southern Californian Bronti Kelly found that out the hard way. It started when Kelly was repeatedly denied for dozens of jobs for no apparent reason. The few times he was actually hired, it was only days before he was fired. He was ultimately forced to file bankruptcy, lost his apartment. Only after becoming homeless, was Kelly able to piece together what happened. In May of 1990, his pocket was picked while at a comedy club. His identification was then used by a man that was arrested for shoplifting and other crimes. A report of the shoplifting incident wound up in a computer database used by over 100 retail chains to share information about retail employees.

While this is an extreme example, it illustrates how devastating identity theft can be.

Now in the case of Mr. Kelly, it was the theft of his wallet that facilitated his ordeal. There are many more ways for criminals to commit identity theft without ever coming into physical contact with their victims. 

Phishing

Nancy Boyle received an email purporting to be from Bank One asking her to verify critical account information to comply with new anti fraud procedures. Later, she received an email from eBay warning of possible fraudulent activity on her account. So she hands over her social security number, her bank account number, and even her mothers’ maiden name! Armed only with this information, the criminals had all they needed to steal Mrs. Boyles’ identity and wreak havoc on her life. She was the victim of an increasingly common scam called phishing.

Wikipedia defines phishing as:

"the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communications.”

Basically, cybercriminals use emails disguised to look like they are coming from legitimate businesses and organizations to trick people into handing over their personal information. A phishing email usually contains a link to a fake website that may closely mimic your banks website, or other popular sites like eBay.

Now that we know what phishing is, lets take a look at just a few ways to protect ourselves.

• Most web browsers have some form of anti-phishing protection built in. Make sure you keep it updated and heed any warning messages.
• Ensure that your anti-virus software is kept up to date
• Be suspicious. Never respond to any unsolicited emails or phone calls that request personal information. Most legitimate companies or organizations will never ask you for passwords or pin numbers.
• Check the address bar. Ensure that websites on which you use confidential information have a secure connection. The http: should change to https:// when a site is secured
• Look out for the padlock in the browser window
• Make sure you check your bank and credit card statements regularly and report any unusual account activity to your bank or card issuer.

For more information , check out the video below:

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/frompost/march98/privacy9.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59349-2004Nov18?language=printer