Wanna PLAY????? I’ll play on YOUR FIELD…NOT mine mine is too nice….. @ElyssaD @EllyssaD @EllyssaD
Elyssa Durant, Ed.M. CyberSquatter at LargeWikileaks: This Is Just The Beginning
âAn invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.â
Victor HugoThere is much agitation about Wikileaks on the chattering channels in
the US and elsewhere. The politicians are up in arms, many commentators are
aghast and the legal eagles are pontificating. The press is having a field day,
at least as regards the stories it can publish from leaked material. But
all of them seem to be missing the import of what is happening.History is on the march.
Thereâs a strong analogy in this with the Diet of Worms and the doomed
attempt by Pope Leo X to silence Martin Luther.Letâs eliminate some of the noise that is currently clogging the air.
- The Julian Assange extradition to Sweden is almost irrelevant. It is
generally perceived as an attempt to harass Assange and all it has done is
provide him with a dramatic stage upon which to perform. The only relevant
element in this is the fact that it has become global news.- The extradition of Julian Assange to the US will possibly make his life
uncomfortable, but it will provide him with an even more powerful public stage.
If it doesnât happen the US government will be perceived as weak. If it happens
it is unlikely to result in his conviction. If thereâs no conviction it will be
a victory for Assange and if heâs convicted, it will be an even greater victory
for what he represents. For the US government, in terms of perception; itâs
lose-lose-lose.- Julian Assangeâs only importance is that of figurehead. If heâs pulled down
from that position, by any event at all, whether itâs accidental, a conspiracy
or the result of a legitimate recourse to law, it will not stop what has now
started any more than finding Luther guilty at The Diet of Worms stopped the
genesis of the Protestant movement.The Battle That Was Lost
There was a brief attempt by the US government and its allies to try to
close Wikileaks down. If we think of this as an information war, then the first
battle in the war ended in a terrible defeat for the US. Hereâs how it
went:
- Wikileaks was hit by denial of service attacks. It quickly acquired enough
mirrors to become invulnerable.- Commercial power was brought through PayPal, Visa and Mastercard to try to
deny donations. This back-fired. There can be very little doubt that more money
flowed to Wikileaks because of the use of that commercial weapon, and anyway it
wasnât fully effective. To stop such donations youâd need the co-operation of
nearly every bank in the world.- Technical infrastructure power was brought to bear, with Amazon ejecting
Wikileaks from their servers and EveryDNS revoking Wikileaks DNS registration.
It wasnât hard for Wikileaks to find another DNS and all that the Amazon gesture
achieved was brand damage for Amazon.Anything short of closing Wikileaks down was defeat, and the US government
went down to defeat in days. It was difficult, of course. The US Government
needed, for political reasons, to be seen to be doing something, so it did a few
ineffective things. Maybe more could be done.The Lutheran Current
In war, if you donât have a clear understanding of what
victory amounts to, you are in trouble. It is tempting to suggest that the US
government is in deep trouble for that reason alone. However, itâs a mistake to
see the US government as a specific side in this war. This is an info war and
info wars take place between power structures not countries. Itâs the US
power structure, not the US itself, that currently has a side in this war.
Info wars are, by their very nature, civil wars between groups of citizens that
live under the aegis of a given information control structure. One side
wished to conserve it, while the other wishes to change it.Martin Luther triggered an info war. On one side were power structures that
were based on controlling information in the way that it had been traditionally
controlled. On the other side were revolutionaries who believed that those power
structures needed to be replaced and information made more freely available than
before. The initial battle was over the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church in
Europe controlled the Bible. When printing presses appeared its control was
weakened. The Gutenburg Press began business in 1450, the Diet of Worms was 70
years later in 1521.Following The Diet of Worms, Pope Leo X issued a âfatwaâ proclaiming it legal
to kill Luther, but Luther simply retired to Wartburg Castle at Eisenach where he lived
incognito, but also protected, translating the Bible into German. And of course,
Luther wasnât alone in translating the Bible. Others began to do the same.
The Catholic Church not only lost its monopoly on the Bible, it also lost
control of which language it was published in.Nowadays, this doesnât sound as big a deal as it really was.
At the time the Bible was regarded as the foundation of truth and knowledge.
Very few other books existed; just the Greek classics of Plato, Aristotle and
others. Those too were held in very high esteem.Without the Protestant movement, Henry VIII of England would probably not
have dared to rebel against Rome and set up his own protestant Church of
England. Much later the English monarch, Charles I would be beheaded by the
protestant Oliver Cromwell. Europe quickly divided between Protestant and
Catholic countries, and the monarchies were gradually replaced either by
democratic republics or democracies that relegated their monarchs to figurehead
roles. The Diet of Worms had momentous consequences.A War On Two Fronts
The US power structure cannot behave like the Soviet Union once did. It
cannot roll into Prague with columns of tanks and install a different government
by fiat. The Prague they seek to conquer is a virtual super-hydra. Strike it
down and a hundred identical mirrors rise up from nowhere. Even if you destroy
it entirely, other virtual Pragues will no doubt be established.The infowar is now being fought on two fronts.
- The first front is the media itself, both old and new.
- The second front is the information technology that enables it.
In the Media
The ranks of the leaker-friendly side in this war are quickly growing in
number. Many professional journalists have stood up in Australia to protest
their governmentâs poor protection of Assange, its own citizen â and the public
seems to be on its side. Similarly a whole host of UK journalists have stood
shoulder to shoulder with Assange. Only in the US, where the press has become
remarkably docile, is there a shortage of Wikileaks support in the main stream
media, but this will change if the first amendment becomes the heart of the
debate â and it probably will.Wikileaks is spawning imitators quickly. At the last count there were 7
infoleaks sites; BalkanLeaks in the Balkans, BrusselsLeaks in Belgium,
Indoleaks in Indonesia, Rospil in Russia, Tunileaks in Tunisia, Open Leaks
(a splinter from Wikileaks) and Wikileaks itself. Most of these sites have
mushroomed up in the past few weeks. There will be more.It is likely that the idea of stealing information and leaking it âas a
public dutyâ has become viral. The number of actual leaks is likely to increase.
And this could spell disaster for any organization, government or otherwise,
that has inadequate information security and also has something to hide.
Information security was never a big area of investment for most organizations
and it clearly wasnât a priority for the US Army. Many more embarrassing
leaks will occur from many places before any real semblance of information
security is common.The tide seems to be running with Wikileaks. There are details in this
that ought to worry the US government if it is seeking to preserve any
semblance of the status quo.
- President Obama promised openness in government but never delivered. Now
heâs hoist by his own petard. The US government now needs to get to grips with
the issue of transparency or to simply declare transparency to be undesirable.- Except for within-the-beltway-political-leaks, nobody leaks information to
the US media any more. The US media is no longer trusted, because Wikileaks and
organizations of that ilk are a âsafer and sexierâ place to leak to.
Additionally, the US media appears to have lost the taste for investigative
journalism.- The US mediaâs business models are failing. They are beginning to look like
dinosaurs.- The US government is not the only target. Other governments are targets too.
So are many large companies. The US indignation right now is because
of the content of the diplomatic cables. But how will the US government
handle the leaking of, say, banking information that indicates some fraud, or
any corporate information that demonstrates back-door collusion with government
or between other governments. Trying to shoot the messenger will not work well
with those types of leak.Information Technology
The attempt to close down Wikileaks revealed genuine areas of vulnerability
for Wikileaks and any other operation that wants to operate with impunity:
- The DNS structure itself
- Payment systems
- Service providers (like Amazon)
- Physical location
The very idea that US government can control the Internet for its own
ends is worrying to many people, not necessarily because of the present
situation, but because of situations that may arise in the future.The natural reaction is to create a secure virtual infrastructure that makes
such action impossible. This is probably achievable with a series of technical
innovations. (Whether it is will determine the course of history) The
innovations would include:
- A DNS based on peer-to-peer technology (which would be impossible to close
by closing any node)- Physical mesh networks (so that it would be very difficult to disconnect any
individual node).- Regularly encrypted traffic
- Peer-to-peer payment systems (circumventing major clearing operations like
Visa and Mastercard)- Cloud services (like EC2) that are anonymized
It would also require some minimal legal protection for such systems. That,
in turn, requires a government that will champion the kind of freedom that
Wikileaks seeks. Whether such a a government will step forward is hard to know,
but if any, Iceland is probably the candidate.We will probably see such innovations come to pass â provoked by the
current confrontation.Itâs A Far Wider Conflict Than You Imagine
The infowar is real, but the protagonists are not as I have thus far
described them. The US may be sore right now with Wikileaks, but this is about
power structures. The US government is merely one of the power structures that
is under the threat of âlooser transparencyâ Almost all governments are under
the same threat. Corporations that base their business models on corruption and
extreme lobbying are also under threat. It may even be that the current world
economic systems (national currencies and the world banking system) will be
challenged.The last great info war was enabled by the introduction of printing. It
gave rise to a whole host of effects that were unpredictable at the time, but
logical in retrospect. Its revolutionary nature was not appreciated at all at
the time. However the following consequences can be laid at its door:The schism in the Roman Church, the fall of the monarchies of Europe, the
rise of democracy; the introduction of paper money, modern banking, insurance,
limited companies, stock markets and other financial markets and much greater
international trade; the birth of newspapers, literacy, the publishing industry
and universal education.This infowar did not begin with Julian Assange and Wikileaks, it began with
Tim Berners Lee.The previous infowar did not begin with Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five
Theses, it began with Johannes Gutenberg.Ultimately, it seems inevitable that other power structures will be drawn
into battles in this war: the governments of China, Russia and Iran, for
example.
http://www.thevirtualcircle.com/2010/12/wikileaks-this-is-just-the-beginning/
Researchers at Mocana, a security technology company in San Francisco,
recently discovered they could hack into a best-selling Internet-ready HDTV
model with unsettling ease.They found a hole in the software that helps display Web sites on the TV and
leveraged that flaw to control information being sent to the television. They
could put up a fake screen for a site like Amazon.com
and then request credit card billing details for a purchase. They could also
monitor data being sent from the TV to sites.âConsumer electronics makers as a class seem to be rushing to connect all
their products to the Internet,â said Adrian Turner, Mocanaâs chief executive.
âI can tell you for a fact that the design teams at these companies have not put
enough thought into security.âMocana and firms like it sell technology for protecting devices and often try
to publicize potential threats. But the Mocana test also illustrates what
security experts have long warned: that the arrival of Internet TVs, smartphones
and other popular Web-ready gadgets will usher in a new era of threats by
presenting easy targets for hackers.As these devices become more popular, experts say, consumers can expect to
run into familiar scams like credit card number thefts as well as new ones that
play off features in the products. And because the devices are relatively new,
they do not yet have as much protection as more traditional products, like
desktop computers, do.âWhen it comes to where the majority of computing horsepower resides, youâre
seeing a shift from the desktop to mobile devices and Web-connected products,
and inevitably, that will trigger a change in focus within the hacking
community,â said K. Scott Morrison, the chief technology officer at Layer 7
Technologies, which helps companies manage their business software and
infrastructure. âI really do believe this is the new frontier for the hacking
community.âTo combat the threat, security companies have been pushing to develop new
protection models. They are promoting items like fingerprint scanners and face
recognition on devices, and tools that can disable a device or freeze its data
if an attack is reported. But so far, such security measures have largely failed
to reach the mainstream.Enrique Salem, the chief executive at Symantec,
which makes antivirus software frequently installed on PCs, said it was unlikely
that his company would produce the same kind of software for all of the new
products. Such software can require a fair amount of computing muscle, which
would put too much burden on devices that lack the oomph and battery life of
traditional computers.And second, the attacks that Symantec and others have seen on the devices are
so new that they will require a fresh approach, he said.âWith something like Android, itâs a different type of threat and it
functions differently,â Mr. Salem said.Symantec will focus on fingerprint scanners and other personal identifiers to
devices, Mr. Salem said.The company also hopes to use features in the devices to help with
protection. For example, if someone logs in to a computer from Florida, but
location-tracking data says that the personâs phone is in Texas, then an
application might ask a security question.Another goal is to let consumers report a possible security problem and get
their data locked down or erased remotely until the problem is cleared up. âYou
want that ability to wipe the data away if a device is lost,â Mr. Salem said.The chip maker Intel
recently bought Symantecâs main security technology rival, McAfee, for $7.7
billion. Intel executives say they plan to build some of McAfeeâs technology
into future chips that will go into mobile phones and other newer devices.Cellphones have been connected to the Web for years, but for much of that
time, they tended to have tightly controlled, limited software and other
constraints that made it difficult for hackers to do much damage. Attackers
continued to find easier targets, and a larger pool of potential victims, by
going after PCs running Microsoft
Windows and other popular Web software.But these days, smartphones have many more capabilities. And smartphone
shipments have hit a critical mass that makes them worth a hackerâs while.Also, Apple,
Google,
Nokia
and others are in a race to fill their online mobile software stores
applications. These companies have review mechanisms that try to catch malicious
software, but the volume of new apps coupled with hackersâ wile make it
difficult to catch every bad actor.With Android, in particular, Google has fostered a vibrant and chaotic
smartphone platform in which companies of various shapes, sizes and standards
have rushed out devices and complementary applications. Unlike Apple, Google
does not approve applications one by one.Instead, it asks software makers to state what phone functions their
applications tap into and to present that information to consumers. People can
then decide if they are willing to download the application, and they can post
online reviews for the software.A Google spokesman said that the company expected consumers to perform this
type of self-policing and added that Google quickly investigated applications
that received complaints.Still, there is a Wild West vibe to the smartphone market these days as
smaller, unproven manufacturers have followed the likes of Apple, Nokia and Motorola
in making smartphones.âThe good smartphones have been pretty well designed,â said Mr. Morrison of
Layer 7 Technologies. âThe problem now is the flood of secondary phones that
bring interesting diversity and also open up holes for hackers.âSecurity companies have issued repeated warnings that hackers have already
started to capitalize on the application stores. The companies also caution that
and hackers have discovered fake
programs that try steal passwords or make
expensive phone calls.Jimmy Shah, a mobile security researcher at McAfee Labs, said the company had
run into so-called smishing attacks, a variation on phishing, in which someone
is sent a deceptive text message that appears to have come from a bank or a
retailer. Often, the message will ask the person to call a customer support
line, at which point the attackers try to coax valuable information from the
victim.Mr. Morrison said another concern was that hackers would concentrate on
trying to run up peopleâs phone bills or find ways to tap into the
location-tracking services tied to phones.âIt is like a stalkerâs dream,â he said.
The flood of Web-enabled devices hitting the market, like the one the Mocana
researchers hacked into, may be a more immediate threat.Mr. Turner of Mocana said the maker of that television had left crucial bits
of information about its security credentials and those of third parties in an
easy-to-reach spot, meaning that a hacker could infiltrate some of the data
exchanged between companies providing commerce services for the TV.Mocana has notified the TV maker of the issues and has declined to reveal the
companyâs identity in a bid to thwart hackers. Mr. Turner would say it was one
of the five best-selling Web-ready HDTVs.âThe things we found were mistakes that an inexperienced device designer
would make when connecting something to the Internet for the first time,â Mr.
Turner said.
 Elyssa Durant (@ElyssaD)12/23/10 4:50 PM â@Dobroyeutro: RULE #1 C.Y.A. (Cover Yo ASS) RT @Elyssad @Dobroyeutro that rocks but cover that baboon butt! Be careful! – u know it #family |
 longhawl (@longhawl)12/25/10 8:52 PM @ElyssaD Again? LOL, why did you unblock after blocking the other night? Stop running away from reality. And J ‘hacking’ is not reality. |
From: Rockingjude Pwa <notification+ociphvpe@facebookmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: [Firetown.com] New attachment
To: Elyssa Durant <elyssa.durant@gmail.com>
|
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Wikileaks: Who Rules by the Code, Will Fall by the Code
Tuesday 14 December 2010
by: Luis de Miranda | Liberation |
Op-EdThe human being is an animal of protocol. Our behaviors â
whether consciously or not â obey codes. Until just recently, protocol was an
instrument of hegemonic power. The more one mastered the rules and their
construction, the more one controlled the population. The writing and policing
of protocols were the privilege of the dominant elites.Today, the Internet is the site through which humanity is in
the process of realizing that freedom occurs by the collective reclamation of
the construction and reinvention of protocols. Wikileaks’ name will remain one
of the milestones of this democratization. In the word Wikileaks,
leaks is important: it is thanks to the leaks that the
decision-making circles which once appeared solid as rock liquefy and lose their
magnificence. But wiki is just as significant: it means that everyone
and anyone may contribute to this active demystification of protocols.What do the Internet and diplomatic circles have in common?
They are two worlds governed by very strict protocols, but in opposite ways.
Diplomatic rigor is a surface varnish which enables every sort of hypocrisy, low
blow and betrayal underneath. Protocol is a stage set, while the action remains
in the shadow. The Internet’s rigor, to the contrary, is located in all that one
does not see: in its source codes, in its universal standards for program
writing and data treatment (for example, on the Internet, RFC standards, TCP/IP
or HTML). What is immediately visible on the Net is a joyous chaos, turpitude,
freedom of expression, all the manifestations of the human kaleidoscope. We have
long been more or less familiar with the codes which govern the more or less
muted life of embassies, those more or less tacit rules of etiquette, precedence
and relations between states and their emissaries. We are less familiar with the
recent operating logic of digital technology.Wikileaks is the product of hacker culture. A hacker
is not some pimply miscreant who provokes the Third World war by fiddling around
with computers. A hacker is an actor in the real: his practice is based on
“reverse-engineering,” or retroconception. Which is to say? It’s a
matter of deconstructing the programs, the rules or the protocols constructed by
groups with a monopolistic purpose in order to understand how they are
engineered at the source, in order to modify them and become an actor with one’s
own communication instruments, if possible, in
open-source, that is, in conformity with the spirit of free
software, modifiable by all those who take the trouble to learn the protocols’
digital logic. However, hackers don’t limit this modus operandi to digital
programs: by dint of spending most of their time on the Internet, the younger
generations have by now totally absorbed algorithm. They know the extent to
which our worldly protocols, our political and social rules, our behavior, our
tastes, our beliefs and our identities have been constructed and are instruments
of control.The diplomatic world, the world of the rulers, is certainly not
sacred. Many people have repeated in their analyses: the Wikileaks leaks are not
very surprising in their content. But let us not forget that “the medium is the
message,” according to Marshall McLuhan’s famous and still-illuminating formula.
The power of the historic event underway, of which Wikileaks is a particularly
potent manifestation, resides in its form rather than its content. This event is
called numerism. To wit, the global codification of our representations
into binary electronic sequences is a new universal DNA. This numerism, through
a contrast effect, brings evermore to light a complementary human tendency:
crealism, that is, the will to make oneself autonomous, to freely
eschew automatisms, all the while taking in hand a democratic re-creation of
protocols. In English, that’s called empowerment; in classical French,
capacitation.Confronted with this double logic, the old elitist analogue
worlds of doubletalk and bluff â notably, those of politics and diplomatic
institutions â cannot but be rattled. The message Wikileaks, among others, is
sending to those who rule is the following: At present, you may resort to
digital logic to organize the world and control the masses; know that, like you,
the masses shall be able to access – like you – this universal protocol to
divert or unmask its uses for hegemonic ends. This democratization seems
inevitable, unless all those who know computer programming are to be put in
jail, a temptation some leaders, including in France, seem to be itching to
succumb to.Who rules by the code, will fall by the code. Those who mean to
control the masses through biometrics and electronic control must expect to see
these digital protocols backfire thanks to the vigilance of some – provided the
Internet and the press remain free. A freedom must not be technical only, but
critical and constructive. Let us, along with Orwell, never forget that numerism
alone, in the absence of collective crealism, will not lead to more and more
democracy, but only to the best of all worlds.Translated by Truthout’s literary editor, French translator
and sometime book reviewer, Leslie Thatcher.
http://www.truth-out.org/wikileaks-who-rules-code-will-fall-code66157
In 1977 the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began a sting operation,
known as Operation Abscam, that was to become one of the most controversial and
depraved scandals in congressional history.Of all the dubious defenses employed, none was more ridiculous than that
offered by Richard Kelly, who maintained that he only pretended to take the
money as part of a one-man undercover investigation of corruption that he was
conducting, and self-righteously blamed the FBI for âblowing his cover.â One
reporter asked Kelly whether he was planning to plead insanity. Kelly received
the lightest sentence-6 to 18 months confinement. Despite its success, Abscam
remains one of the most controversial law enforcement operations in recent
American history, for at least two reasons. First, the central role of Melvin
Weinberg, a career criminal, represented a troubling strategy on the part of the
FBI. According to Weinberg, âThereâs only one difference between me and the
Congressmen I met on this case. The public pays them a salary for stealing.â In
a sworn statement, Weinbergâs wife alleged that he had perjured himself and had
siphoned some of the Abscam bribe money into his own pocket. In a mysterious
turn two weeks later, she committed suicide. The second, and more fundamental,
issue is whether enticed bribery is an appropriate law enforcement technique for
apprehending white-collar criminals or whether it constitutes unlawful
entrapment. When entrapment is used for those on the social fringe, it generates
little critical attention. Abscam suddenly questioned the fairness of undercover
tactics and the moral acceptability of enticed bribery to solicit crimes that
otherwise would not have been committed. Regardless of whether the Abscam
defendants were tricked or beguiled, one thing is certain. The behavior they
exhibited is wholly indefensible.
[THE OFFICIAL RECORD? I DON’T THINK SO] #CHAOS
Internet Crime Schemes
Current and ongoing Internet trends and schemes identified by the Internet Crime Complaint Center along with its description:
- Auction Fraud
Auction fraud involves fraud attributable to the misrepresentation of a product advertised for sale through an Internet auction site or the non-delivery of products purchased through an Internet auction site.
Consumers are strongly cautioned against entering into Internet transactions with subjects exhibiting the following behavior:
- The seller posts the auction as if he resides in the United States, then responds to victims with a congratulatory email stating he is outside the United States for business reasons, family emergency, etc. Similarly, beware of sellers who post the auction under one name, and ask for the funds to be transferred to another individual.
- The subject requests funds to be wired directly to him/her via Western Union, MoneyGram, or bank-to-bank wire transfer. By using these services, the money is virtually unrecoverable with no recourse for the victim.
- Sellers acting as authorized dealers or factory representatives in countries where there would be no such dealers should be avoided.
- Buyers who ask for the purchase to be shipped using a certain method to avoid customs or taxes inside another country should be avoided.
- Be suspect of any credit card purchases where the address of the card holder does not match the shipping address. Always receive the card holder’s authorization before shipping any products.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
In addition, visit eBay and PayPal for additional security alerts and fraud prevention tips.
- Auction Fraud — Romania
Auction fraud is the most prevalent of Internet crimes associated with Romania. The subjects have saturated the Internet auctions and offer almost every in-demand product. The subjects have also become more flexible, allowing victims to send half the funds now, and the other half when the item arrives.
The auctions are often posted as if the seller is a United States citizen, then the subject advises the victim to send the money to a business partner, associate, sick relative, a family member, etc., usually in a European country. The money is usually transferred via MoneyGram or Western Union wire transfer. The Internet Crime Complaint Center has verified in order to receive funds via Western Union, the receiver must provide the complete information of the sender and the receiver’s full name and address. The funds can be picked up anywhere in the world using this information. There is no need to provide the money transfer control number (MTCN) or the answer to any secret question, as many subjects have purported to the victims. Money sent via wire transfer leaves little recourse for the victim.
The most recent trend is a large increase in bank-to-bank wire transfers. Most significantly, these wire transfers go through large United States banks and are then routed to Bucharest, Romania or Riga, Latvia.
Similarly, the sellers also occasionally direct the victims to pay using phony escrow services. Sometimes actual escrow websites are compromised and other sites resembling them are created by the subjects. Once the funds are wire transferred to the escrow website, the seller discontinues contact. See also, Escrow Fraud.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
In addition, visit eBay and PayPal for additional security alerts and fraud prevention tips.
- Counterfeit Cashier’s Check
The counterfeit cashier’s check scheme targets individuals that use Internet classified advertisements to sell merchandise. Typically, an interested party located outside the United States contacts a seller. The seller is told that the buyer has an associate in the United States that owes him money. As such, he will have the associate send the seller a cashier’s check for the amount owed to the buyer.
The amount of the cashier’s check will be thousands of dollars more than the price of the merchandise and the seller is told the excess amount will be used to pay the shipping costs associated with getting the merchandise to his location. The seller is instructed to deposit the check, and as soon as it clears, to wire the excess funds back to the buyer or to another associate identified as a shipping agent. In most instances, the money is sent to locations in West Africa (Nigeria).
Because a cashier’s check is used, a bank will typically release the funds immediately, or after a one or two day hold. Falsely believing the check has cleared, the seller wires the money as instructed.
In some cases, the buyer is able to convince the seller that some circumstance has arisen that necessitates the cancellation of the sale, and is successful in conning the victim into sending the remainder of the money. Shortly thereafter, the victim’s bank notifies him that the check was fraudulent, and the bank is holding the victim responsible for the full amount of the check.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Credit Card Fraud
The Internet Crime Complaint Center has received multiple reports alleging foreign subjects are using fraudulent credit cards. The unauthorized use of a credit/debit card, or card number, to fraudulently obtain money or property is considered credit card fraud. Credit/debit card numbers can be stolen from unsecured websites, or can be obtained in an identity theft scheme.
Visit any of the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, for more information or to place a fraud alert on your credit report.
Visit the Federal Trade Commission for additional information on security and fraud prevention tips.
- Debt Elimination
Debt elimination schemes generally involve websites advertising a legal way to dispose of mortgage loans and credit card debts. Most often, all that is required of the participant is to send $1,500 to $2,000 to the subject, along with all the particulars of the participant’s loan information and a special power of attorney authorizing the subject to enter into transactions regarding the title of the participant’s homes on their behalf. The subject then issues bonds and promissory notes to the lenders that purport to legally satisfy the debts of the participant. In exchange, the participant is then required to pay a certain percentage of the value of the satisfied debts to the subject. The potential risk of identity theft related crimes associated with the debt elimination scheme is extremely high because the participants provide all of their personal information to the subject.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Parcel Courier Email Scheme
The Parcel Courier Email Scheme involves the supposed use of various National and International level parcel providers such as DHL, UPS, FedEx and the USPS Often, the victim is directly emailed by the subject(s) following online bidding on auction sites. Most of the scams follow a general pattern which includes the following elements:
- The subject instructs the buyer to provide shipping information such as name and address.
- The subject informs the buyer that the item will be available at the selected parcel provider in the buyer’s name and address, thereby, identifying the intended receiver.
- The selected parcel provider checks the item and purchase documents to guarantee everything is in order.
- The selected parcel provider sends the buyer delivery notification verifying their receipt of the item.
- The buyer is instructed by the subject to go to an electronic funds transfer medium, such as Western Union, and make a funds transfer in the subject’s name and in the amount of the purchase price.
- After the funds transfer, the buyer is instructed by the subject to forward the selected parcel provider the funds transfer identification number, as well as their name and address associated with the transaction.
- The subject informs the buyer the parcel provider will verify payment information and complete the delivery process.
- Upon completion of delivery and inspection of the item(s) by the receiver, the buyer provides the parcel provider funds transfer information, thus, allowing the seller to receive his funds.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Employment/Business Opportunities
Employment/business opportunity schemes have surfaced wherein bogus foreign-based companies are recruiting citizens in the United States on several employment-search websites for work-at-home employment opportunities. These positions often involve reselling or reshipping merchandise to destinations outside the United States.
Prospective employees are required to provide personal information, as well as copies of their identification, such as a driver’s license, birth certificate, or social security card. Those employees that are “hired” by these companies are then told that their salary will be paid by check from a United States company reported to be a creditor of the employer. This is done under the pretense that the employer does not have any banking set up in the United States.
The amount of the check is significantly more than the employee is owed for salary and expenses, and the employee is instructed to deposit the check into their own account, and then wire the overpayment back to the employer’s bank, usually located in Eastern Europe. The checks are later found to be fraudulent, often after the wire transfer has taken place.
In a similar scam, some web-based international companies are advertising for affiliate opportunities, offering individuals the chance to sell high-end electronic items, such as plasma television sets and home theater systems, at significantly reduced prices.
The affiliates are instructed to offer the merchandise on well-known Internet auction sites. The affiliates will accept the payments, and pay the company, typically by means of wire transfer. The company is then supposed to drop-ship the merchandise directly to the buyer, thus eliminating the need for the affiliate to stock or warehouse merchandise. The merchandise never ships, which often prompts the buyers to take legal action against the affiliates, who in essence are victims themselves.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Escrow Services Fraud
In an effort to persuade a wary Internet auction participant, the perpetrator will propose the use of a third-party escrow service to facilitate the exchange of money and merchandise. The victim is unaware the perpetrator has actually compromised a true escrow site and, in actuality, created one that closely resembles a legitimate escrow service. The victim sends payment to the phony escrow and receives nothing in return. Or, the victim sends merchandise to the subject and waits for his/her payment through the escrow site which is never received because it is not a legitimate service.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
In addition, visit Escrow.com for security alerts and fraud prevention tips.
- Identity Theft
Identity theft occurs when someone appropriates another’s personal information without their knowledge to commit theft or fraud. Identity theft is a vehicle for perpetrating other types of fraud schemes. Typically, the victim is led to believe they are divulging sensitive personal information to a legitimate business, sometimes as a response to an email solicitation to update billing or membership information, or as an application to a fraudulent Internet job posting. See also, Phishing/Spoofing.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
In addition, visit the Federal Trade Commission for additional information on security and fraud prevention tips.
- Internet Extortion
Internet extortion involves hacking into and controlling various industry databases, promising to release control back to the company if funds are received, or the subjects are given web administrator jobs. Similarly, the subject will threaten to compromise information about consumers in the industry database unless funds are received.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Investment Fraud
Investment fraud is an offer using false or fraudulent claims to solicit investments or loans, or providing for the purchase, use, or trade of forged or counterfeit securities.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Lotteries
The lottery scheme deals with persons randomly contacting email addresses advising them they have been selected as the winner of an International lottery. The Internet Crime Complaint Center has identified numerous lottery names being used in this scheme.
The email message usually reads similar to the following:
“This is to inform you of the release of money winnings to you. Your email was randomly selected as the winner and therefore you have been approved for a lump sum payout of $500,000.00. To begin your lottery claim, please contact the processing company selected to process your winnings.”
An agency name follows this body of text with a point of contact, phone number, fax number, and an email address. An initial fee ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 is often requested to initiate the process and additional fee requests follow after the process has begun. These emails may also list a United States point of contact and address while also indicating the point of contact at a foreign address.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Nigerian Letter or “419”
Named for the violation of Section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, the 419 scam combines the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter, email, or fax is received by the potential victim. The communication from individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars, soliciting for help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are out of the country. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationary, bank name and account numbers, and other identifying information using a facsimile number provided in the letter. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim to send money to the author of the letter in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
Visit the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to learn more about combating financial and economic crimes in Nigeria.
- Phishing/Spoofing
Phishing and spoofing are somewhat synonymous in that they refer to forged or faked electronic documents. Spoofing generally refers to the dissemination of email which is forged to appear as though it was sent by someone other than the actual source. Phishing, often utilized in conjunction with a spoofed email, is the act of sending an email falsely claiming to be an established legitimate business in an attempt to dupe the unsuspecting recipient into divulging personal, sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account information after directing the user to visit a specified website. The website, however, is not genuine and was set up only as an attempt to steal the user’s information.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
Visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group, for more information on phishing and email spoofing.
- Ponzi/Pyramid
Ponzi or pyramid schemes are investment scams in which investors are promised abnormally high profits on their investments. No investment is actually made. Early investors are paid returns with the investment money received from the later investors. The system usually collapses. The later investors do not receive dividends and lose their initial investment.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Reshipping
The “reshipping” scheme requires individuals in the United States, who sometimes are coconspirators and other times are unwitting accomplices, to receive packages at their residence and subsequently repackage the merchandise for shipment, usually abroad.
“Reshippers” are being recruited in various ways but the most prevalent are through employment offers and conversing, and later befriending, unsuspecting victims through Internet Relay Chat Rooms.
Unknown subjects post help-wanted advertisements at popular Internet job search sites and respondents quickly reply to the online advertisement. As part of the application process, the prospective employee is required to complete an employment application, wherein he/she divulges sensitive personal information, such as their date of birth and social security number which, unbeknownst to the victim employee, will be used to obtain credit in his/her name.
The applicant is informed he/she has been hired and will be responsible for forwarding, or “reshipping”, merchandise purchased in the United States to the company’s overseas home office. The packages quickly begin to arrive and, as instructed, the employee dutifully forwards the packages to their overseas destination. Unbeknownst to the “reshipper,” the recently received merchandise was purchased with fraudulent credit cards.
The second means of recruitment involves the victim conversing with the unknown individual in various Internet Relay Chat Rooms. After establishing this new online “friendship” or “love” relationship, the unknown subject explains for various legal reasons his/her country will not allow direct business shipments into his/her country from the United States. He/she then asks for permission to send recently purchased items to the victim’s United States address for subsequent shipment abroad for which the unknown subject explains he/she will cover all shipping expenses.
After the United States citizen agrees, the packages start to arrive at great speed. This fraudulent scheme lasts several weeks until the “reshipper” is contacted. The victimized merchants explain to the “reshipper” the recent shipments were purchased with fraudulent credit cards. Shortly thereafter, the strings of attachment are untangled and the boyfriend/girlfriend realizes their Cyber relationship was nothing more than an Internet scam to help facilitate the transfer of goods purchased online by fraudulent means.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
Visit the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to learn more about combating financial and economic crimes in Nigeria.
- Spam
With improved technology and world-wide Internet access, spam, or unsolicited bulk email, is now a widely used medium for committing traditional white collar crimes including financial institution fraud, credit card fraud, and identity theft, among others. It is usually considered unsolicited because the recipients have not opted to receive the email. Generally, this bulk email refers to multiple identical messages sent simultaneously. Those sending this spam are violating the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1037.
Spam can also act as the vehicle for accessing computers and servers without authorization and transmitting viruses and botnets. The subjects masterminding this Spam often provide hosting services and sell open proxy information, credit card information, and email lists illegally.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
- Third Party Receiver of Funds
A general trend has been noted by the Internet Crime Complaint Center regarding work-at-home schemes on websites. In several instances, the subjects, usually foreign, post work-at-home job offers on popular Internet employment sites, soliciting for assistance from United States citizens. The subjects allegedly are posting Internet auctions, but cannot receive the proceeds from these auctions directly because his/her location outside the United States makes receiving these funds difficult. The seller asks the United States citizen to act as a third party receiver of funds from victims who have purchased products from the subject via the Internet. The United States citizen, receiving the funds from the victims, then wires the money to the subject.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.
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