Flim Flam by Mark Bourrie

Author:Mark Bourrie [Bourrie, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Criminals & Outlaws, True Crime, General, History, Canada
ISBN: 9781554881659
Google: 30SUBOF4PN0C
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 1998-10-01T03:16:33+00:00

COMPUTER SCAMS

Want to make quick money without working hard? Want to enjoy the delights of working from home? Do you own a personal computer and know how to use it? Then you can join in on the thousands of people who are making it big in the growing world of computer crime!

There are dozens of ways of making money off the Web, from stealing credit card numbers, to impersonation of other people, to pyramid schemes, to stock manipulation, to corporate espionage. With so many opportunities and so little up-front investment (the cost of a top-flight computer having fallen from about $8,000 to $1,500 in the 1990s), it’s no wonder that computer crime is a growth industry. The fact that so few cyberscammers see the inside of a jail cell is also an incentive to the wicked.

Take Philip Salgado of California, who managed to steal $1 billion worth of credit card numbers from the Internet in 1997, after he electronically tiptoed through the records of real companies that sold their products through websites. Each of the ten thousand credit card numbers had limits between $2,000 and $25,000. Salgado probably would have got away with the thefts if he hadn’t stolen so many card numbers. Trying to sell the credit card information to FBI agents posing as mobsters was a mistake, too.

Still, Internet websites that are careless with their security are so common that they even have a name among crooks: harvester sites. In Canada and in the rest of the world, credit card companies and credit rating services are being deluged with complaints by people who have had their numerical identity stolen by hackers and thieves. In Canada, the largest credit service, Equifax Canada, averages between 120 and 150 calls each and every week from outraged people who claim their identity has been stolen. Each complaint has to be investigated carefully, since banks and credit bureaus can’t simply push a few buttons and erase the debts of anyone who calls with a complaint.

Thieves just need your full name and social insurance number to tap into databases that will spew out other important information about you: your employer, your bank information, your unlisted phone number. From there, they can apply for credit in your name and run up big bills before collection agencies are called in to pry the money out of you. Some crooks start by “dumpster diving” into the garbage from banks and loan companies. Car rental forms and job applications are highly prized because they contain just about every fact a thief could ever want to know about you.

For those crooks with no taste for solid waste, a good place to collect data is your mailbox. Credit card bills, bank statements, tax returns, and phone bills have just about everything a crook would want to know. They can also spot the plain envelopes that contain newly issued credit cards. Those are dandy, since a thief doesn’t even have to practise your signature: he can sign your name any way he wants.

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