Frauds and scams

Summary

Through the Internet, people can be exposed to a wide variety of others, some of whom are fraudsters. These people can also use the Internet to obscure their real identities.

Mechanism

The main differences between Internet based scams and frauds and other kinds are the numbers of people who can be reached and the international dimension. In principle, the Internet allows every would-be fraudster across the globe to contact every potential victim. In practice, the limitations of language and the difficulties spamming everyone reduce the number of opportunities somewhat, but the number of attempts to defraud are still vastly greater than they could be without the Internet.

The Internet allows fraud to be conducted across borders, which makes it hard both to trace and prosecute offenders. It also makes restitution unlikely.

According to Brightmail [a mail filtering company which also generates statistics on the spam it filters. The figure quoted here is calculated from their January 2004 report that spam was 60% of all email, and frauds 13% of all spam. Brightmail has since been acquired by Symantec.] , 8% of all Internet email is unsolicited promotion of fraud of one kind or another. Often they involve seducing the recipient into doing something illegal, or at least unethical, for a promised reward. When the fraud is realised the victim is less likely to complain because this exposes their own cupidity. The ubiquitous "Nigerian" scam is an example. Phishing is a form of Internet based fraud.

Comment

Along with the problems of spam in general, this could badly affect the usefulness of email as a medium for business and government.

Example Mitigations

Education ("if it looks too good to be true, it probably is")

Prosecution / cooperation with overseas forces