According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), cyber crime was up in 2008, and if the first few months of 2009 is anything to go by, this trend is not only continuing, it is accelerating. As the country slides into recession, early indicators for 2009—February to March 2009—shows an additional 50% increase in reported Internet fraud complaints.
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), cyber crime was up in 2008, and if the first few months of 2009 is anything to go by, this trend is not only continuing, it is accelerating.
As the country slides into recession, early indicators for 2009—February to March 2009—shows an additional 50% increase in reported Internet fraud complaints.
“These numbers are shocking, but given that the vast majority of incidents go unreported, the threat of identification theft is actually much more serious than even these figures would lead us to believe,” says Justin Yurek, President of ID Watchdog, Inc. Common wisdom says that only one cyber crime in seven—or about fifteen percent—is actually reported.
Internet fraud includes everything from bogus sales on auction sites such as eBay and classified sites like craigslist.com, to smaller scale version of the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by disgraced New York financier Bernard Madoff.
As an example, a scam recently surfaced via e-mails that masquerade as originating from the FBI and other federal agencies seeking the recipient’s bank account information in order to “help with illegal wire transfer investigations.” Sweet.
Many observers put the continued surge in cyber crime down to the recession, and for several reasons.
A Law Enforcement Perspective
Lt. Rocky Costa, who until recently headed up the Southern California High Technology Task Force agrees. “In fact, law enforcement has always seen a rise in all sorts of theft crimes when the economy goes south. The crooks look to fraud as the best way to separate folks from their money. People are most vulnerable when money is tight and they are looking to save their homes, savings, retirements, and often, their families.
“They become easy prey to the con-artist who has no sense of right and wrong, but knows how to capitalize on human weaknesses. You see the con artist makes a living studying people and their behaviors. They know their success rate will increase as the economy tumbles and/or the recession climbs. Since a vast number of folks use technology daily, it is only natural to expect technology to be another weakness and another method for exploitation.
“Historically, the number of street robberies goes up, along with shoplifting, and burglaries as the money becomes scarcer. Although we have not yet seen these increases at the lab, we fully expect them. However, with the current economy, even government must begin to cut back. When they do, technology based crimes slide down the priority list in favor of these more visible types of theft.
“People need to stay vigilant in the face is despair, holding onto their values and good judgment will be the only way they will be able to fully protect what they have left, until we all see around the corner.”
Internet Commerce Made Safe
As we all know, at least during some of our more rational moments—the “too good to be true” deal is often precisely that. But that is not to say that there are no good deals out there. In fact, the Internet is probably the marketplace that to a large extent will pull the economy out of its slump, precisely because it is replete with good deals and true opportunities.
But how to tell the good from the bad?
According to the IC3, the best way to guard against Internet facilitated scams is to stay informed. Keeping informed of the latest scams on the Internet may enable Internet users to recognize and report these scams instead of losing money or their identity information in one of them. To learn about the latest scams, they recommend periodically checking the IC3, FBI, and the FTC websites for the latest updates.
Additionally, the IC3 and its partners have launched a public website, “www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com,” which briefs the consumer about various consumer alerts, tips, and fraud trends. Pay it a visit. Make it a habit.
Bona Fide vs. Fraudulent Online Escrow Companies
If you have found a good online deal and are now ready to purchase, it would serve you very well to take IC3’s recommendation and engage an online escrow service.
The problem is that while there are several bona fide online escrow sites, they are nowhere near as many as there are fraudulent ones.
So, how can you be sure that the escrow company you’re considering using is in fact what it says it is?
You must research it. First, do a WHOIS search on the domain. This will show you how long the site has been up, where it is being hosted, how many times the site has been taken down. These are clues. If it smells fishy at all to you, go elsewhere.
Then Google the name of the escrow company to see what gives. This will lead you to forums and other articles. Study them well.
To make your life a little easier, there is an online escrow company with the credentials to put your mind at ease.
Licensed by the state of California—as well as by the States of Idaho and Arizona, who require separate licenses—Escrow.com is the only on-line escrow company credentialed to serve every state in the Union, and who indeed does so 24/7.
While Escrow.com will handle transactions of any size, it may not make financial sense to turn to them for low cost items since their transaction fee is $25, and their commission is $63 per $1,000 value of the transaction if payment is by credit card and $32.50 per $1,000 for wire transfers.
But, if you value your sleep, Escrow.com would be indispensible for any transaction of $250 on up.
While Escrow.com is gaining increasing recognition as the Internet escrow company to turn to for peace of e-commerce mind, their staff, on a daily basis, also hunt and diligently work to shut down fraudulent impostors, which are encountered daily.
And they spring up like mushrooms, these impostors: there are days that Escrow.com staff discovers as many as ten new such sites.
The good news is that as these sites are tracked down, authorities are alerted and the sites are soon off the air.
eBay Weighs In
To quote the biggest online auction site of them all, eBay: “Pay safely - beware of fake escrow services when you consider using them to pay for your eBay item.
“For eBay transactions, you should use eBay's only approved Escrow Company: www.escrow.com.”
Escrow.com Customers Weigh In
Zan Christensen operates a small craft mall and recently completed the sale of a domain name using Escrow.com.
“This transfer was the most convenient and easy to accomplish sale I could have imagined and hoped for, and the most pleasant surprise of how the process moved so smoothly and quickly! Other companies would do well to follow your business model—service, integrity, excellent help access and communication, and most importantly—safe!”
When asked how he came by Escrow.com, Zan says, “I went online and did some research on third party escrows, and I kept seeing over and over and over again: Escrow.com. It kept coming up in multiple discussions, and of course it is recommended by eBay and a whole bunch of domain name companies, selling companies.
“To make a long story short, after researching half a dozen other third party escrow companies and going through their websites page by page and reading thousands of paragraphs about how they operate—everybody is a little bit different—I settled with Escrow.com because I felt it was the safest and I saw that they are very structured, very organized and everything was step by step and validated and verified before the next step is processed, and it worked out great.
“And I definitely picked the right company: The ease of the interface between me and the site in setting up an account; the ease of creating a new transaction, setting out your parameters for the deal, and getting the other party to agree to them: it was so convenient.
“And fast. I received the go-ahead to transfer the name at 7:30 in the morning I had money in the 2:30 that afternoon.”
Elliot Silver buys and sells domain names, and specializes in developing GeoDomans. “Escrow.com is trusted by non-domain professional and domain professionals alike, they are easy to use, and it’s quick to do a transaction through them.”
When asked what he would recommend you do to establish Escrow.com’s credentials, Elliot said, “For one, they should know that Escrow.com is one of the very few online escrow companies that are approved to do business in California. Then I’d suggest that they Google Escrow.com—such as “Escrow.com Review” or “Escrow.com eBay”—and read the articles. That will dispel any fears.
“Also, they’ve been around for a long time, and they own the category. It is the industry-defining domain name. That’s who they are, and that is what they do. They are recommended by the biggest companies who do not handle escrow themselves. They all recommend Escrow.com as a third party.”
Escrow.com—A Soon-To-Be Household Name
As Escrow.com gains further and further recognition on its way to become a household name, it gets harder and harder for impostors to defraud the public for the excellent reason that they are not Escrow.com—the only name you know you can trust.
Here’s to good and safe Internet deals.
Ulf Wolf, based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, writes about cybercrime for Escrow.com.
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