Scammers!
It's Worse Than You Think.

by Esther Smith

We all know it by now. They are watching us and sizing up their profits. The Phishers and other online thieves are targeting our money and personal data --- and they're getting more and more cunning. The less talented ones hit our bank accounts or our credit cards and make a clean getaway. More gifted thieves concentrate on stealing whole identity.

Hard to believe that 10 million people have had online criminals open new credit card accounts in their name, and worse than you think, even apply for mortgages. This bizaar web of deceit can take years to untangle. Ineffective firewalls make easy pickings for hackers and a slam dunk for ruthless employees bent on selling information.

If you've been online for more than a few months, you know the look-alike emails supposedly from say, Citibank, requesting you to update your personal information. These are clever imitations and should never be responded to. In these emails, they like to claim that 'your account may have been tampered with'. Yeah, right! But if you have any doubt, delete the email and go to your bank's URL and update if necessary. Opening the link in the email is opening the door for these phishing thieves.

These scams are so easy to create and so difficult to trace that criminals are ditching other lesser hacking methods and setting up phishing camps. As they become more shrewd, it is difficult for even the most observant user to tell the real from the fake. Even the 'from' field of the message would appear to come from your bank and if you were to open the link (don't test this), it would lead to a page that duplicates the real company and a believer might oblige with their personal information... that's when the mayhem begins.

As legal authorities spin circles, the phishers change server addresses frequently, but most set up shop in foreign countries where it is harder to get to them. Here in our country, they have learned to sidestep the law by using zombie PC's: a PC used without the owner's knowledge.

In June 2004, 1422 phishing attacks were reported --- that's up 19% from the month before. And for a 12 month period ending in April, victims lost $1.2 billion!. Small wonder the online perpetrators are also shopping from home... why go out when you can find your next victim sitting in your PJs.

Oh, there's talk in legislation about enacting anti-phishing laws, but it's hard to get excited about this when anti-spam laws were too-little, too-late to stop an out of control problem.

Unfortunately, like pyramid schemes and Nigerian pleas, it's up you and me to protect ourselves. Too many of us aren't savvy enough about Internet security. We have to learn to treat this like the door-to-door salesman and not respond to uninvited sales pitches received in our inboxes.

© 2004 Esther Smith

You can’t get back your hours but you can stop giving up more of them.  Start young, retire early.

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Be sure to bring your party pants!

This invitation is extended to the 95% who have failed to find any real wealth on the Internet. All of your efforts have been a long line of dream stealers and the road has been tough, I know. Solo all the way and more often than not, the training you were promised was in poverty and patience.

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Esther Smith
Author/Publisher of "The Permanent Venture"

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