Phishing for money
Monday, May 14, 2007
I refer to the article
ID Thieves' New Tricks at RD.com (
Link to article).
Reflection
While technology is advancing and growing rapidly, it is also a new way for hackers and identity thieves now have more options to steal identities, PIN numbers and money.
The article summarized the various ways taken by online identity thieves to prey on unwary online users, tricking them into handing over their credit card or ATM card numbers. Indeed, the Internet has become a great way for identity thieves to strike, as it affords them the anonymity to strike bold deals and arrange for normally-preposterous sounding propositions. Although the article is not local, it should be noted that such scams and phishes could also happen in Singapore, given the all-encompassing nature of the Internet. Personally, I get the odd phishing email every now and then, which frustrates me to no end, and I am pretty sure that many Singaporeans currently face the same problem. Also, while most of us may assume that we are above falling for such scams, the many cases of people that have been the victims of countless scams and phishes that have been reported in the papers should be warning enough for us. The article rightly pointed out that while computer users are getting more savvy and are now able to distinguish real email from fake, the phishermen are similarly adapting to the mindsets of their potential victims, changing their baiting tactics to keep up with the times.
Apart from being a nuisance to web-users, this problem is evidently a great problem for the government and law enforcers as well, not to mention credit card and ATM card companies. While the law enforcers appear to spend sizeable chunks of their time trying to hunt down the apparently ‘anonymous’ web criminals, spending much money on state-of-the-art equipment to facilitate this, the credit card companies do not have a much easier task either. The article relates many cases of inconvenience to such companies, who may suddenly have their cards hijacked or machines malfunctioning as a result of identity thefts. The repercussions could be, and often are, severe, especially in terms of reputation of the company – usually irreversible damage; while the online thieves take to the Net to earn a quick buck, they are not realizing that they are setting off a chain reaction of societal problems.
To solve the problem, I feel that prevention is better than cure. In other words, we should not be looking to pick up the pieces by catching criminals, but success in deterring the criminals could be achieved if there was a heightened social awareness of the dangers. To rectify the problem, computer users must know that they are not dealing with the usual robbers and burglars in this advanced age, but rather a band of online thieves, who wield not swords, but innocuous-looking money-making propositions, friendly introductory letters, and such. I feel that law enforcers should make good use of the media to project this message, stressing utmost emphasis on carefulness and discernment when opening emails.
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give me a good grade pleeeease! 7:06 AM