A couple of months ago, a Twin City woman met a guy on an Internet dating service and a romance began.
Although there were only words between them, a certain trust developed. At least that’s what police think. What law enforcement officials know is that the woman went to her new love’s aid when he called from a foreign country in dire straits – and she lost $7,000.
“He told her he was in Africa, I think,” said the Bristol Virginia police officer. “He said he was giving a business proposal and his laptop died. He ended up
getting thousands.”
Her story is not unique. In fact, these scams are so prevalent nationwide that the FBI has labeled them romance fraud – and they are just one of a number of scams that annually rob people of millions of dollars, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
“E-mail scams are running rampant,” said Nicole Slagle, crime prevention coordinator at the Bristol Virginia Police Department. “I get them all the time.”
Last year in Virginia, 5,270 people reported complaints, ranking the state 11th nationwide in complaints per 100,000 residents, according to the FBI. In Tennessee, 3,147 complaints were filed, placing the state 31st in the rankings.
Variety of crimes
Other cyber scams and fraud, as categorized by the FBI, include: nondelivery of goods; check fraud; credit card fraud; confidence fraud; financial institutions fraud; identity theft; the Nigerian letter fraud; and threats.
And in 2007, those Internet crimes cost Americans a whopping $239 million – up $40 million from the year before, making it the fastest-growing crime worldwide, the FBI said.
What’s more, the holiday season is here and online commerce is booming. Backpacked to that boom, the FBI said, is a cyber scam surge.
“These cyber scammers will do whatever they can to steal your money and personal information this holiday season and are trying many different ways to commit these crimes,” Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Crime Division, said in a written statement.
So the federal government is expanding efforts to spread the message to all citizens about their best defense: click with caution.
In 2003, the Internet Crime Complaint Center was named in a joint effort by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center to provide a place where people can report cyber crime and to broaden law enforcement’s ability to combat such crimes.
And since 2000, authorities on national, state and local levels have poured money into establishing task forces specifically to track and fight such crimes.
If you are hit, the FBI encourages you to file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov.
Running rampant
Virginians lost $5.9 million dollars in Internet fraud last year, while Tennessee saw lower numbers, with a total 2007 loss of more than $3.4 million, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center states.
Nearly 40 percent of Virginia’s victims reported a loss between $100 and $999. Coming in at a close second were the 34 percent of victims reporting losses
somewhere between $1,000 and $9,999, according to the FBI.
And the Twin City is not immune. In recent months, Bristol Virginia Police Capt. Maynard Ratcliffe said several residents have reported being victimized by such scams. Over the past five years, he said, the number has climbed considerably.
Earlier this month, a Bristol Virginia man won an eBay auction when he bid about $2,500 on a rare baseball card, one officer recalled. But when his package arrived, the card wasn’t in it – and neither was his money.
“The guy who sold it said the card was there when he sent it. He even said he has witnesses that could back him up,” the officer said. “The guy here swears there was no card. It’s one guy’s word against another, and there’s not much you can do in that situation.”
Auction fraud, which includes the baseball card dispute, is Virginia’s – and the nation’s – most common cyber crime, constituting 37.2 percent of the online fraud statewide.
Because of the increase in cyber crime, and the difficulty law enforcement faces in prosecuting such cases, the Bristol Virginia Police Department has joined the FBI in stepping up efforts to educate folks on how to avoid them. They are offering educational forums at local senior centers and distributing informational pamphlets, among other programs.
E-mail embarrassment
On Dec. 9, Ratcliffe got yet another call from a resident complaining of e-mail fraud.
“I get a few people every month telling me this happened to them,” he said. “But a lot of people feel embarrassed when it happens… . They feel like they got had. So they don’t want to tell anyone.”
While Internet fraud hit a record high across the nation last year, perhaps the most alarming aspect is the method by which most of these cyber predators hunt: e-mail.
The FBI reports that a titanic 73.6 percent of folks who fell prey to online predation in 2007 did so by simply clicking a link sent to them in an e-mail.
“Anytime you get an e-mail from someone you don’t know, or an e-mail address you don’t recognize, be wary of opening it,” said Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI. “Just the simple act of opening it can be harmful.”
Susceptible populations
Slagle said no one is impervious, but some groups are considered more vulnerable.
“Older people are particularly susceptible,” she said. “When they were growing up, there weren’t threats lurking in every corner. Computers are relatively new, and many of them want to reach out and help others. That’s why we think they’re more often targeted and victimized.”
Slagle said her department travels to area senior centers to educate residents about online safety. Recently, she said, an older man lost everything in cyber scams.
“He drained his bank account entirely,” she said. “Once someone becomes a victim, it can escalate from there. Word of mouth spreads that a particular person was scammed, and other scammers target them. It’s gotten to the point where people are getting death threats if they don’t comply.”
Bristol Virginia police Sgt. Milo Brunson said, “They might not even use the information they steal from you themselves; they get a credit card number, for example, then sell it to someone else in a chat room.”
Global marketplace
Ironically, it’s the Internet’s most appealing quality – its global reach– that makes it nearly impossible to police, Slagle said.
A Bristol, Va., resident taps his or her mouse as their cursor hovers over an infected link, and a criminal sitting thousands of miles away in a foreign country can suddenly access personal information on their computer.
“If the perpetrator is local, the department can get on it quickly,” Slagle said. “But if the scam originates overseas, it’s next to impossible to catch the guy.”
So the best offense is defense, and by following a few guidelines and with a quick trip to an area store, online shoppers can adequately protect themselves, Ratcliffe said.
Home protection
Shawn Miller owns Computer Pros, a Lee Highway store he opened in 2003.
“The most common thing we do here is remove viruses. We do it several times a day,” Miller said. “All the time, I have people come in here and say they got a free anti-virus program off the Internet, and it’s infected.”
The scam Miller encounters most often originates in free downloads offering anti-virus programs, he said. The scam works by offering the free service, and after folks download it – usually just by clicking the link – it doesn’t work. Then, after folks get increasingly frustrated with the nonworking program and they can’t get rid of it, they comply with the company’s request for a fee to initiate service.
After they pay, Miller said, it still doesn’t work.
His advice: “The biggest thing would be to have a good anti-virus program – and don’t download one off the Internet for free.”
Firewalls are another option. But Miller has reservations.
“Firewalls are highly overrated,” he said. “They are supposed to keep hackers out of your computer, but it’s not as serious a problem as people think.”
More serious are the viruses, and downloading unfamiliar software.
Miller recommends the Norton anti-virus program, which costs about $40 and can be bought at most computer retailers. New computers, he said, often come with a free 30-day trial of anti-virus software, but people often don’t realize when the month ends that they need to buy the program themselves.
Plus, he said, it’s important to keep up with Windows updates.
Bresson, with the FBI, said the best rule to follow is: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
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