Financial scams on the Web

Over time, the problem of Internet fraud will only become worse, as the opportunists seem to come up with new ways to circumvent all attempts to stop them. The popularity of the World Wide Web has expanded dramatically in the last five years, and a great number of people now devote at least some time each day using the World Wide Web for work, spending or just the sending and receiving of e-mail. It's an unusual day when an e-mail user fails to find a notice from someone offering some kind of fraud, be it a "phishing" attack intended to persuade the user into providing financial information or blatant fraud designed to get the user to part with money. With the growth of the World Wide Web as an effective tool, criminals have taken it upon themselves to use the World Wide Web for theft and all manner of financial scams.

Following is a listing of the most frequent financial scams facing users of the Internet right now:

• Pharming attack - A pharming attack is ideally avoided using spyware detection software, such as Spybot. Similar in concept to a phishing attack, a pharming attack uses some computer trickery to trick a user into visiting a false Internet site for a bank or other organization when the cconsumer thinks he is actually going to a real one. When the person types in the URL of a genuine Internet site, such as that of their bank, their Web browser is tricked into redirecting them to the fraudulent site. Pharming employs some malicious software that must be installed on the user's computer.
   

• Nigerian e-mail scheme. The Nigerian scheme is already legendary, and it is so well known that one would think that no one could be fooled by it these days. A notice comes in your inbox from someone claiming to be a relative of someone who was a high ranking person in the Government of Nigeria. That person has been deposed and needs assistance in removing millions of dollars in funds from the country. All they ask in exchange for sharing 10% of the money is the use of your checking or savings account. Oh, and they will need a bit of cash to help facilitate the wiring of the money, so if you could send $1200 or so, that would speed up the process. Should you be lucky, all you will squander is the money you wire to the sender. If you aren't so lucky, you might forfeit the money in your bank account, on top of that. There are variations on this crime we recently saw a message to the same effect purporting to be from Saddam Hussein It's hard to believe that people would really reply to appeals for cash from strangers, but greed takes over and people really participate in these crimes.
  
  Phishing Schemes - Phishing is a pretty recent crime that employs sending e-mail messages that appear to be from a financial organization, such as Wells Fargo or PayPal. The phishing scammers send electronic mail that looks as if it's official and warns that due to "safety violations" your account may momentarily be canceled. In order to "prove" your identity, you are asked to follow a link and fill out a form with your personal information. If you click the link, you will be taken to a site that seems like the official site of the bank or other company mentioned. But if you complete the form, the thieves will have stolen your username, password and/or credit card information. A phishing attack is easy to avoid. Your bank is not going to contact you for your password because your bank already knows your password. Just walk away from e-mail messages that ask for personal information. If in doubt, call the organization and ask if the notices are legitimate.