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What's With All This
Fraud on the Internet?
by: Jesse S. Somer
I’ve got faith in humanity, but what’s
with all this fraud and theft on the Internet?
My friends in the web hosting business
have recently informed me that the big problem this year
(2004) is security and fraud. I have read that currently the
F.B.I. receives over 9,000 complaints per month pertaining
to bogus email and websites. Why is this happening? Are just
a few ‘bad apples’ doing it, or is it the result of a
lopsided world economy where the underprivileged are finally
striking back like the infamous Robin Hood? Whatever your
moral view, I’ve got the strange feeling it stems from a
growing unconscious greed in the social consciousness of
modern society. People worship money, not spirituality or
love. Am I wrong?
Technically, the main problems at the
moment are ‘phishing’ or ‘spoofing’ scams. This is where the
use of Spam or junk-email is used to lure computer users to
look-alike websites where they are deceived into giving out
personal information and financial data. Often these emails
are coming from trusted sources where hackers have altered
links to send you straight into their ‘pockets’. The
Internet user is duped into thinking that they are visiting
a trusted website page, when actually it is an excellent
copy of the original. There might be only one tiny change in
the web address that is often not easily recognizable.
Identity theft is where multiple tricks
are employed to make you fill out fake forms on fake sites
to get all sorts of information that can then be used by
thieves to steal money or get free Internet access. Anything
from credit card numbers to account information, passwords,
billing data and personal phone numbers and addresses have
been stolen and used for criminal purposes.
These tricksters, few or many, are wizards
at finding loopholes in mail systems of legitimate sites.
Just go to the site entitled
www.crimesofpersuasion.com and read some articles about
a few of the more famous scams that have been busted or that
are still in circulation. There’s a story about a
17-year-old boy who was arrested with over a million dollars
in misappropriated funds hidden in a Costa Rican casino
account! Smart kid, but how smart is he really if he got
caught? On the site above there are also tips for consumers
generally focusing on how not to give your information away
to anyone at any time. Check them out.
It worries me a little, this huge amount
of illegal activity. I know that a lot of people feel that
currently the world is very imbalanced in terms of wealth
and spirituality and that this new epidemic is just a karmic
reaction of the oppressed masses. The United States earns 50
percent of the world’s economy, of course some of the other
95% of Earth’s population is going to be keen for a piece of
the pie, right? Steal from the rich and feed the poor like
that guy in the green tights.
The funny thing is I think that a lot of
these thieves are living in America and unbeknownst to
themselves be already part of the top 5% of wealthy humans.
The problem is that they always want more. Money can become
addictive in a consumerist society whose advertising and
marketing schemes are constantly bombarding us with stimulus
relating to the next new product that we ‘need’ in our
lives. We are never satisfied with what we’ve got. The next
purchase’s momentary injection of adrenalin becomes more of
an imperative than any concept of lasting spiritual
happiness.
Feel sorry for these people that have to
go through all the rigmarole of sorting all these frauds
from the real sites out there. I doubt there is a religion
on Earth that teaches that theft is a balanced respectful
action. I do know that when the country of Australia was
founded it was done so on the backs of convicts, many of who
had only stolen bread to survive. That’s a kind of theft
that will question your moral value system. I’ll leave you
with one last question: If the ‘first world’ has nearly all
the money on our planet, are we the biggest thieves of all?
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer
M6.Net
http://www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human hoping to one-day
witness humanity living in a peaceful and egalitarian world.
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