Page 322 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

10.4 Nontechnical Methods: From Phishing to Spam and Fraud 309

Internet (see fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud). E-Mail Scams
Fraud is a problem for online retailers and customers alike.
Fortunately, even though actual losses per incident increase, E-mail scams are the most popular type of scam since they are
there are fewer incidents; and thus the total monetary damage so easy to commit. Dog Breed Info Center (dogbreedinfo.
may be declining. Visit dmoz.org/Society/Issues/Fraud/ com; n.d.) posts common examples at (dogbreedinfo.com/
Internet for a comprehensive collection of fraud resources. internetfraud/scamemailexamples.htm). The examples are
For a discussion, see Section 10.7. both educational and entertaining. The most dangerous are
e-mail scams that look like they come from well-known orga-
Examples of Typical Online Fraud Attacks nizations (banks, telecommunication companies) that tell you
that you must provide information in order to keep your
The following are some characteristic fraud attacks perpe- account active. An example of an e-mail purportedly sent by
trated on the Internet. Yahoo! is provided below.

Yahoo Account
• When one of the authors of this book advertised
online that he had a house to rent, several “doctors” Verification Alert!!! (KMM69467VL55834KM)
and “nurses” pretending to be from the United
Kingdom and South America applied. They agreed Dear Valued Member,
Due to the congestion in all Yahoo Accounts, Yahoo
to pay a premium price for a short-term lease and
said they would pay with a cashier’s check. They would be shutting down all unused Accounts. You will
have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login
asked if the author would accept a check from
$6000 to $10,000 and send them back the balance Information below after clicking the reply button, or
your account will be suspended within 24 h for secu-
of $4000 to $8000. When advised that this would be
fine, but that the difference would be returned only rity reasons.
after their check had cleared, none of the would-be Yahoo! ID Card
renters followed up. Name:.........................................
• Extortion rings in the United Kingdom and Russia Yahoo! ID:..................................
have extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Yahoo! Mail Address:..................
online sports betting websites. Any site refusing to
pay “protection fees” has been threatened with DoS Password:....................................
attacks. Member Information
Gender:.......................................
Birth Date:..................................
For a video titled “How Hackers Can Invade Your Home” Occupation:.................................
(2:26 min), see money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/08/ Country:......................................
14/t-hack-my-baby-monitor-and-house.cnnmoney. For a If you are a Yahoo! Account Premium subscriber,
comprehensive discussion of fraud, see CyberSource (2013). we will refund the unused portion of your Premium
For a discussion on social engineering, phishing, and subscription. The refund will appear as a credit via the
other methods of fraudulently obtaining confidential infor- billing method we have on file for you. So please make
mation online, see Pontrioli (2013). sure that your billing information is correct and up-to-
date. For more information, please visit payments.
Types of Scams mail.yahoo.com.
The following are some representative types of scams (per After following the instruction on this sheet your
Spamlaws see spamlaws.com/scams.html): Literary scams, account will not be interrupted and will continue as
jury duty scams, banking scams, e-mail scams, lottery scams, normal.
Nigerian scams (or “419” fraud), credit cards scams (several We appreciate your being a Yahoo! Account user.
types), work at/from home scams, IRS e-mail scams, and Sincerely,
free vacation scams. Many more can be found at fbi.gov/ Yahoo! Customer Support
scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud.