Cyber crime is a new term for most of the people in india.The laws are also new better say evolving. The sole purpose of this blog is to creat awareness among people of Hubli-Dharwad and try to help them to understand the law
The local police on Saturday arrested one for ATM fraud and recovered Rs 11.3 lakh, several ATM and debit cards and a car from him. Police
said the accused Rajendrakumar Kulkarni, a resident of Navanagar here, used to misguide people at ATMs to achieve his goal.
Explaining his modus operandi, police said Kulkarni used to select places where two or more ATM machines are located and wait for gullible people. Once the customer entered the PIN number after swiping the card, he asked him to try on another machine saying the one he/she was using is under repair. Then he checked the balance and then cleared it.
According to the information available with the police so far, Kulkarni has cheated at least six people in Hubli-Dharwad including Shivappa Pattanashetty, a senior citizen, and one in Upparpet, Bangalore. Pattanashetty had lodged a police complaint leading to his arrest.
Kulkarni was arrested on Saturday morning after a security guard at an ATM in Dammanagi Plaza here alerted police after he grew suspicious about Kulkarni's movements.
Dear friends, As you all know I, Deepali Gotadke, run e-commerce site Clickhubli.com. I have come across a cyber crime.
I run an online flowers and gifts delivery site www.clickhubli.com since 2001.
I have similar sites like clickhubli.com which deliver flowers and gifts all over India.
I take orders through payment gateway provided by a company called CCNOW based in USA.
We received 3 ordersin the month of August and September 2008.
All the 3 orders were placed by Mr.Reji Abraham ,6439,Market Street, Upper Darby, PA 19082,ph no : 0091 9815851068. <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]-->
All the 3 orders were placed for delivery to Ms.Komal Goel, HOUSE NO.28/1,U BLOCK,DLF PHASE, GURGAON, HARYANA 122001 Phone: 971 845-9849 <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]-->
We delivered following mobile handsets to her
The details are: 1. SONY P1i(Blackberry) $527.00 USD on 31/08/08 2. SONY K790i $303.00 USD on 11/09/08 3. Nokia N82 mobile handset $512.00 USD on 22/09/08
These mobile handsets were booked byMr.Reji Abraham
The payment was done but later on it was charged back to us on December 18th by CCNOW. The sender claimed that he has not done this transaction by his credit card.
After the chargeback also, the same fake orders were coming on the site.
This time we received 2 orders which were for mobile handsets. One of the order had come from the same e-mail ID : mannats_bf@yahoo.co.in
So I got a doubt that somebody is placing order from India and cheating us.
I traced the i/p address of the computers from where I received the orders and I got confirmation that the orders have come from India only.
Then I gave FIR against the unknown person to Hubli police station.
Hubli-Dharwad police commissioner Mr.Shivakumar did a great help by taking immediate action and sent police to chandigarh. I am grateful to the police.
I had given a empty parcel to the police and told them that they have to go as a courier person.
Meanwhile I called the recipient Sahil Sharma and told that he will receive the mobile today.
I requested him to receive it himself but he refused to do so and sent his friend.
Still police could manage to catch the criminal Sahil Sharma from chandigarh who was a student from hotel management college.
The further story is as follows:
The following news appeared in yahoo news.
Chandigarh, Jan 9 (IANS) A 20-year-old student has been arrested on the charge of using credit cards of other people for online shopping, a police officer said here Friday.
The student of hotel management, Sahil Sharma, is the son of a senior Haryana government official. His mother is a leading architect there.
Sahil was arrested late Thursday evening after a joint operation was launched by the cyber crime investigation cell of Chandigarh and Karnataka police.
'Sahil Sharma used credit card numbers of people staying in the US and the UK to make online purchases. He usually bought expensive mobile handsets,' Deputy Superintendent of Police (crime) K.I.P. Singh told IANS.
He said Sahil ordered three mobile phones worth Rs.150,000 from a Karnataka-based online portal of gift deliveries clickhubli.com.
Sahil, who was in a Gurgaon hotel in August 2008, allegedly wrote in an e-mail that he was Reji Abraham, a resident of the US. The mobiles were delivered to him at the hotel.
But when the amount was deducted from the account of real Abraham, he filed a complaint with the company saying that he never placed any order.
Enthused by his success, Sahil again placed orders with the same portal in the name of Shiela Lane from Britain and Kerrie Sheldon from the US, the police alleged.
He gave the addresses of his college and home for the delivery of ordered mobile phones.
'We sent a decoy courier boy to make a delivery at Sahil's residence in Sector 23 and caught him red-handed while accepting the parcel,' Singh said.
The owner of the portal had approached the Karnataka police Dec 31, which laid the trap jointly with Chandigarh police and nabbed him.
Sahil worked for an international call centre in 2006 where he used to sell mobile phones to international customers and note their credit card numbers for the company's record.
From there he managed to get these credit card numbers for fraudulent use,
First, it was skimmers. Now, credit card crooks in Kolkata may be getting more tech savvy, using wire-tapping gadgets to cash in on unsuspecting card users.
It's a new cause of worry for city police and CID. Wire-tapping is a complicated scheme and much more difficult to track down. It's a technical maze that involves telephone wires, receiving-terminals and a cable line parallel with telephone cables to copy the card details when it is swiped for a transaction.
The first time that the city police got an inkling of fake credit card rackets in Kolkata was when three Bangladeshis were arrested for using a card whose owner was in Singapore. Another fake card was seized in Burrabazar which was in use in New Zealand. Police still have no clue to how this card was copied.
Wire-tapping is the most likely method, they now say. Though they have not identified a racket as yet, cyber sleuths are sure the card racketeers are running a hi-tech operation in the city. Their suspicions were strengthened when a private bank recently held a workshop for CID to discuss fraud techniques.
"We haven't got any case where wire-tapping was used to dupe somebody but we are sure the racketeers are out there. We are trying to find the right technique to detect such crimes and also adopting safe-guard measures," said a senior CID officer.
Wiretapping works in three phases. The first phase involves tapping into the wires of the main server to capture card data as it is processed for a legitimate transaction. The next step is to transfer the encoded data to another server, at the fraudster's end, where it is decoded. In the last phase, the data is used to produce counterfeit cards. The technology is definitely more complicated than a skimmer - a gadget which copies the details of a card from a measured distance. In advanced countries, encrypted cables are installed to prevent telephone wire tapping but awareness is low in India.
"The cable linking the electronic data capturing machine (EDC) and the distribution point box is a very sensitive area which is targeted by the racketeers. When the card is swiped on the EDC, the machine records the financial data in the card's magnetic strip and feeds it to the DP box, from where it moves to the main server of the telephone service provider and is finally transferred to the servers of banks where the transaction is recorded. The hackers target the area between the EDC and the DP box, tap into the wires, steal data and send it to another server," said an anti-fraud officer of a private bank.
Police officers say it is difficult to trace such rackets. "For the first phase, the fraudsters need only a map of the telephone wiring, a receiving terminal and cables matching the ones used by the telephone service provider. These are not very difficult to manage and anybody who has a flair for technology can use it to store the data. High-end technology comes in the next level," said an officer.
Police suspect card fraudsters in Kolkata could be using the technology to copy the data and send it to other cities in India and abroad. They have a good reason to suspect this. In the last one year, such units have been busted in Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad. "We heard about it and are looking for effective measures to prevent wire-tapping," said Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner, detective department. Kolkata Police could also take tips from south-east Asian countries like Thailand and Philippines, where such rackets are active and where law enforcement agencies have more experience in handling such crimes.
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.
For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes <>that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.
The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.
This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.
A city doctor fell prey to an online lottery fraud and lost Rs 30,157 to seven foreign conmen. The conmen had lured Dr Vadiraja B N by sending a mail stating he had won $5 lakh in lottery.
The accused are Ayodam, Dr Tony Cheung, Clement Wang, Ella Doris, Dr Young Chu, Tschipanda Mande and Mashun Khamrag. On April 17, 2007, Dr Vadiraja was informed about the prize money by a mail from Ayodam, who claimed to be the vice-president of International Promotions, Japan Jumbo Draw, Hong Kong.
Later, the doctor was told that the lottery money had been transferred to commerce bank of Philippines for onward transfer to his account in Bangalore. He was asked to remit $750 to the bank account of Tschipanda.
The doctor followed their instructions promptly. He grew suspicious when he was again asked to remit $1,650. After enquiry, he realised the lottery was fake.
One of my colleague who deposited Cash of Rs,15,000/- at UTI ATM , Kalburgi Building, Deshpande Nagar Br. lost Rs. 2500/- as the bank called him and informed him the next day that, the deposit was 12500/- and not Rs.15000/- My colleague who had deposited Rs.500 x 29 and Rs. 100 x 5 Notes, when checked the envelope at the bank, he found Rs.500 x 5 notes short. The bank informed him that they cannot do anything about it.
So guys beware, deposits at ATM's are not safe. Unless they have ATM's with scanners, and I think the govt should not allow cash deposits with non scanner ATM's as the culprit cannot be caught.
Often heard / read horror stories about credit card frauds. How people end up footing huge shopping bills of items they actually never purchase.
And now, with ecom taking off in the country, the realm of credit card criminals has expanded further. The credit card nightmares are increasingly making their way to the virtual space.
In fact, according to Delhi Police, online credit card fraud has sharply increased over the last two years.
Here's how these fraudsters actually go about accomplishing their murky tasks and, also, how as credit card owners you can get better of them.
Unscrupulously yours
The fraud may often start from the restaurant or the petrol pump we often frequent. As the first step for these fraudsters is to recruit an unscrupulous bartender, waiter or a shop assistant to steal information from customers' credit or debit cards.
Skimming to perfection
These recruits are given a pocket-size device with a scanning slot which looks like a pager and can be even worn on a belt. This contraption is called a skimmer.
As the customer pays by the card, these unscrupulous employees quietly swipe the card before it actually reaches the pay counter. This copies the information from the magnetic tape.
Cloning perils
The card details are copied on to counterfeit cards, complete with security holograms markings. Now the splurging starts at customer's expense.
However, the poor customer remains completely unaware that his card has been cloned until he notices huge bills or he gets a query from his credit card company about his sudden unusual spending.
Scared? But remember, safety saves
Always give your phone number to the company for verification of suspicious transactions.
Notify the bank immediately whenever the monthly statement doesn't arrive on time.
Be on your guard
Be wary of any phone call or email seeking details of your account.
Always remember to shred your credit card statements after checking the transactions.
Beware those photocopies!
Remember, its suicidal to give the photocopies of both sides of your credit card to anyone. The last three digits of the account number printed at the back of the credit card are required for the completion of any online transaction.
The Card Security Code (CSC), sometimes called Card Verification Value or Code (CVV or CVC), is a security feature for credit or debit card transactions, giving increased protection against credit card fraud. There are actually two security codes. The first code, called CVC1 or CVV1, is encoded on the magnetic strip of the card and is used for transactions 'done in person'. The second code, and the most cited, is CVV2 or CVC2. This CSC is often required by merchants to secure 'card nor present' transactions (those done via Internet, fax, phone or by email)
Go by 'https' NOT 'http'
Remember genuine websites use encryption technologies. Any website using encryption will have https instead of http.
Also, while traveling, always be careful about using credit cards at Internet cafes or anywhere with a wireless connection.
In India, credit card fraud is mostly limited to the physical space. Online con jobs make up just about 1% of the total numbers here, unlike 40% in the developed world.
But, as consumers graduate to the shop-easy internet and pay with their cards, instances of fraud are bound to rise. As J Y Umranikar, additional DG, state CID, says, "(While) we don't have statistics, as access to the web increases, reported cases of card fraud will rise 20-30 % every year. And this is only a surmise based on past experience.'' Umranikar insists that in online transactions, contracts are one-sided and the customer is always held responsible in case of fraud.
Phishing, where a consumer gets a fictitious email from a fake site or blog seeking sensitive card information, is a commonly-used defrauding mechanism. To top it, "people are careless in offering their card details,'' he adds.
For safer online transactions
* Use a secure web browser, look for an 's' after the 'http' in the web page address. * Keep your password secret. * Never send payment information via email. * Reputable merchant sites use encryption technologies to protect private data from being accessed by others during a transaction. * Monitor your monthly statements, especially after an overseas trip. * Check transactions, even the small ones, because criminals test stolen accounts by buying inexpensive items. * Investigate suspicious activity to prevent fraud * Notify your financial institution of suspicious email activity. * Only open and respond to emails that are from somebody you know.
While consumer organisations TOI spoke to had little information about online fraud, card companies say it is increasing in e-ticketing, eshopping and the service sectors, where no physical delivery of goods is involved. Shockingly, B Madhivanan, general manager at ICICI Bank, informs that 60% of online card fraud occurs only while buying an air ticket. He says that one way out is to insist on customer identity at the time of actually boarding a flight. Indian Airlines, for instance, asks for 'a' particular proof of identity, which a consumer has mentioned in the online form, such as a driving licence or a passport. So till ID becomes mandatory across all airlines, a consumer could as well be prepared to notice an inflated card statement despite going strictly by the rulebook.
In April this year, a 26-year-old Mumbai executive keyed in her credit card number and the three-digit security code on the e-booking site of an airline. She bought a ticket for Bangalore. In July, she was shocked to find a Rs 20,000 additional credit drawn from her account. "Two tickets from the same airline were booked on two different days in June using my card,'' she says. The first was a Dwarka-Mumbai ticket for Rs 6,000, and the other, a Delhi-Dubai one for Rs 14,000. She did not get a response from her card company till August. "Then I approached the police to file an FIR. But they told me they did not know what a credit card was.'' Exasperated, she went to the cybercrime cell, which in turn asked her to first lodge an FIR with the police.
She got a cybercrime officer to speak to the police and finally got her complaint registered. On receiving a complaint, card companies say, a consumer is given a temporary credit that matches the disputed amount, and a case is resolved in a maximum of 60 days. The Mumbai executive , though, has been waiting for almost three months now. For safer transactions, an advanced card such as Verified by Visa (VbV) and Mastercard SecureCode comes in handy. Here, a consumer requires a password during a transaction to validate his identity.
On June 21st 2007 & 19th Aug 2007, we at HubliCity-eGroup (http://hublicity-egroup.blogspot.com ) received 2 e-mail's from Mr. Zakir Sheik in Qatar & Altaf in Oman.
Subject: [HubliCity] Fwd: OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT/CONTRACT FOR SUPPLY OF SERVICE
Note: forwarded message attached.
RESPECTED MEMBERS CAN ANY ONE HELP ME OUT TO THE MATTER GIVEN BELOW AS I AM AT QATAR WHICH DOES NOT HAVE AN EMBASSY FOR NIGERIA AT QATAR WERE IN COULD VERIFY FOR THE GIVEN MATTER BELLOW
REGARDS Shaikh Zakir Hussain
Another E-mail was received to HubliCity-eGroup on Aug 19th
----- Original Message ----- From: "Altaf hussain" <alta> To: <HubliCity@yahoogroups.com> Cc: <sunilnalavade> Sent: Sunday, August 19, 200710:38 AM Subject: Re: [HubliCity] Online con:Can This be also a scam ??
> Dear Sunil > Regards > Thankyou very much for the information, even i get a > contract and offer letter 3 days before from Total > Petroleum Company, you can see the Documents attached > i had applied with ref to the advertisement published > in "Times of Oman" Could this be a scam ? Please > Advise > Thanks > Altaf hussain > Muscat > 00968 92165615
After detailed investigation by me, I found out that, these Nigerian Fake Companies, post advertisements in leading news papers in Gulf countries like Qatar & Oman, where there is no Nigerian Embassy and lure innocent NRI'swith hefty pay packets.
This company Total Petroleum PLC, once receives your resume, they will contact you with their professionally made Contract for supply of Service and Offer Of Employment, the letters is drafted so professionally, that, you can get easily duped, if you are not careful.
In this letter of offer, they will state that you need to get in touch with the Nigerian immigration authorities for procurement of your resident/work permit , they provide you the e-mail ID which is fake : work-permit@visa-immigration-gov-nig.comonce you contact them or some times you will receive e-mail from the fake Nigerian Immigration authorities, stating that your employment has been confirmed with Total Petroleum PLC & we have been asked to contact you and process your residence visa/work permit with the following message :
Attn: Zakir Shaikh, Regarding the procurement of your resident/work permit(Employment Authorization Document), you are required to provide the following pre-requisites: (1)International Passport bearing your genuine face(Scanned Copy) (2) Success letter/Contract document provided to you by your employer(Which I have recieved) (3) Fill the visa form and return immediately via e-mail attachment (4) The processing of your work/resident permit attracts a government charge as stipulated: a) Application Fee: --------------------US$350.00
b) Processing Fee: --------------------US$270.00
c) Courier Fee: -------------------------US $430.00
Note that you are required to remit this money along with the filled form at the earliest to enable us facilitate and expedite your procurement of your valid work/resident permit immediately.Also ,note that once the payment for the government charge and other requirements aforementioned are confirmed,it would take four(4) working days to complete the procurement of your valid work/residence permit and would be dispatched to you accordingly. Regards, Comptroller Mike O. Ademola Head of Visa/Work Permit Operations +234-70-31599492
Once you send them, this money, they keep asking for more and more, as happened in the case of Dr Deepa B M, in Bangalore, where she was fleeced by 4.69 Lakhs, where they had offered her health officer in the United Nations (UN).
This is an act by the criminal, who floods the bandwidth of the victim’s network or fills his e-mail box with spam mail depriving him of the services he is entitled to access or provide
Short for denial-of-service attack, a type of attack on a network that is designed to bring the network to its knees by flooding it with useless traffic. Many DoS attacks, such as the Ping of Death and Teardrop attacks, exploit limitations in the TCp/IP protocols. For all known DoS attacks, there are software fixes that system administrators can install to limit the damage caused by the attacks. But, like Virus, new DoS attacks are constantly being dreamed up by Hacker.
The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher†counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with legitimately. Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on “fishing,†the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.
This is an act by the criminal, who floods the bandwidth of the victim’s network or fills his e-mail box with spam mail depriving him of the services he is entitled to access or provide
Short for denial-of-service attack, a type of attack on a network that is designed to bring the network to its knees by flooding it with useless traffic. Many DoS attacks, such as the Ping of Death and Teardrop attacks, exploit limitations in the TCp/IP protocols. For all known DoS attacks, there are software fixes that system administrators can install to limit the damage caused by the attacks. But, like Virus, new DoS attacks are constantly being dreamed up by Hacker.
Cyber Stalking can be defined as the repeated acts harassment or threatening behavior of the cyber criminal towards the victim by using internet services. Stalking in General terms can be referred to as the repeated acts of harassment targeting the victim such as following the victim, making harassing phone calls, killing the victims pet, vandalizing victims property, leaving written messages or objects. Stalking may be followed by serious violent acts such as physical harm to the victim and the same has to be treated and viewed seriously. It all depends on the course of conduct of the stalker.
Both kind of Stalkers â€" Online & Offline – have desire to control the victims life. Majority of the stalkers are the dejected lovers or ex-lovers, who then want to harass the victim because they failed to satisfy their secret desires. Most of the stalkers are men and victim female.
How do they Operate
Collect all personal information about the victim such as name, family background, Telephone Numbers of residence and work place, daily routine of the victim, address of residence and place of work, date of birth etc. If the stalker is one of the acquaintances of the victim he can easily get this information. If stalker is a stranger to victim, he collects the information from the internet resources such as various profiles, the victim may have filled in while opening the chat or e-mail account or while signing an account with some website.
The stalker may post this information on any website related to sex-services or dating services, posing as if the victim is posting this information and invite the people to call the victim on her telephone numbers to have sexual services. Stalker even uses very filthy and obscene language to invite the interested persons.
People of all kind from nook and corner of the World, who come across this information, start calling the victim at her residence and/or work place, asking for sexual services or relationships.
Some stalkers subscribe the e-mail account of the victim to innumerable pornographic and sex sites, because of which victim starts receiving such kind of unsolicited e-mails.
Some stalkers keep on sending repeated e-mails asking for various kinds of favors or threaten the victim.
In online stalking the stalker can make third party to harass the victim.
Follow their victim from board to board. They "hangout" on the same BB's as their victim, many times posting notes to the victim, making sure the victim is aware that he/she is being followed. Many times they will "flame" their victim (becoming argumentative, insulting) to get their attention.
Stalkers will almost always make contact with their victims through email. The letters may be loving, threatening, or sexually explicit. He will many times use multiple names when contacting the victim.
Contact victim via telephone. If the stalker is able to access the victims telephon, he will many times make calls to the victim to threaten, harass, or intimidate them.
Track the victim to his/her home.
Definition of Cyberstalking?
Although there is no universally accepted definition of cyberstalking, the term is used in this report to refer to the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person. Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property. Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim's immediate family; and still others require only that the alleged stalker's course of conduct constitute an implied threat.(1) While some conduct involving annoying or menacing behavior might fall short of illegal stalking, such behavior may be a prelude to stalking and violence and should be treated seriously.
Nature and Extent of Cyberstalking
An existing problem aggravated by new technology Although online harassment and threats can take many forms, cyberstalking shares important characteristics with offline stalking. Many stalkers – online or off – are motivated by a desire to exert control over their victims and engage in similar types of behavior to accomplish this end. As with offline stalking, the available evidence (which is largely anecdotal) suggests that the majority of cyberstalkers are men and the majority of their victims are women, although there have been reported cases of women cyberstalking men and of same-sex cyberstalking. In many cases, the cyberstalker and the victim had a prior relationship, and the cyberstalking begins when the victim attempts to break off the relationship. However, there also have been many instances of cyberstalking by strangers. Given the enormous amount of personal information available through the Internet, a cyberstalker can easily locate private information about a potential victim with a few mouse clicks or key strokes.
The fact that cyberstalking does not involve physical contact may create the misperception that it is more benign than physical stalking. This is not necessarily true. As the Internet becomes an ever more integral part of our personal and professional lives, stalkers can take advantage of the ease of communications as well as increased access to personal information. In addition, the ease of use and non-confrontational, impersonal, and sometimes anonymous nature of Internet communications may remove disincentives to cyberstalking. Put another way, whereas a potential stalker may be unwilling or unable to confront a victim in person or on the telephone, he or she may have little hesitation sending harassing or threatening electronic communications to a victim. Finally, as with physical stalking, online harassment and threats may be a prelude to more serious behavior, including physical violence.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sunil Nalavade" <sunil> To: <HubliCity@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 11:35 AM Subject: Re: [HubliCity] Online con:Can This be also a scam ??
> Dear Altaf > > This is a 100 % Fraud e-mail, Chk the Nigerian immigration e-mail ID that > they have given which is work-permit@visa-immigration-gov-nig.com and then > you chk the fake Nigerian Immigration website > www.visa-immigration-gov-nig.com > > The real Nigerian Immigration website is > http://www.immigration.gov.ng/index2.htm also pl chk the scam alert site > http://www.immigration.gov.ng/scamalert.htm > > Pl ignore this mail, its fake > > Thanks > Sunil Nalavade > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Altaf hussain" <altafhussain77@yahoo.com> > To: <HubliCity@yahoogroups.com> > Cc: <sunilnalavade@gmail.com> > Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 10:38 AM > Subject: Re: [HubliCity] Online con:Can This be also a scam ?? > > >> Dear Sunil >> Regards >> Thankyou very much for the information, even i get a >> contract and offer letter 3 days before from Total >> Petroleum Company, you can see the Documents attached >> i had applied with ref to the advertisement published >> in "Times of Oman" Could this be a scam ? Please >> Advise >> Thanks >> Altaf hussain >> Muscat >> 00968 92165615 >> >> >> >> ____________________________________________________________________________________ >> Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you >> all the tools to get online. >> http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting >
The Internet is being highly used by its abusers to reach and abuse children sexually, worldwide. The internet is very fast becoming a household commodity in India . It’s explosion has made the children a viable victim to the cyber crime. As more homes have access to internet, more children would be using the internet and more are the chances of falling victim to the aggression of pedophiles.
The easy access to the pornographic contents readily and freely available over the internet lower the inhibitions of the children. Pedophiles lure the children by distributing pornographic material, then they try to meet them for sex or to take their nude photographs including their engagement in sexual positions. Sometimes Pedophiles contact children in the chat rooms posing as teenagers or a child of similar age, then they start becoming friendlier with them and win their confidence. Then slowly pedophiles start sexual chat to help children shed their inhibitions about sex and then call them out for personal interaction. Then starts actual exploitation of the children by offering them some money or falsely promising them good opportunities in life. The pedophiles then sexually exploit the children either by using them as sexual objects or by taking their pornographic pictures in order to sell those over the internet.
In physical world, parents know the face of dangers and they know how to avoid & face the problems by following simple rules and accordingly they advice their children to keep away from dangerous things and ways. But in case of cyber world, most of the parents do not themselves know about the basics in internet and dangers posed by various services offered over the internet. Hence the children are left unprotected in the cyber world. Pedophiles take advantage of this situation and lure the children, who are not advised by their parents or by their teachers about what is wrong and what is right for them while browsing the internet
How do they Operate
Pedophiles use false identity to trap the children/teenagers
Pedophiles contact children/teens in various chat rooms which are used by children/teen to interact with other children/teen.
Befriend the child/teen.
Extract personal information from the child/teen by winning his confidence.
Gets the e-mail address of the child/teen and starts making contacts on the victim’s e-mail address as well.
Starts sending pornographic images/text to the victim including child pornographic images in order to help child/teen shed his inhibitions so that a feeling is created in the mind of the victim that what is being fed to him is normal and that everybody does it.
Extract personal information from child/teen
At the end of it, the pedophile set up a meeting with the child/teen out of the house and then drag him into the net to further sexually assault him or to use him as a sex object.
Hacking in simple terms means an illegal intrusion into a computer system and/or network. There is an equivalent term to hacking i.e. cracking, but from Indian Laws perspective there is no difference between the term hacking and cracking. Every act committed towards breaking into a computer and/or network is hacking. Hackers write or use ready-made computer programs to attack the target computer. They possess the desire to destruct and they get the kick out of such destruction. Some hackers hack for personal monetary gains, such as to stealing the credit card information, transferring money from various bank accounts to their own account followed by withdrawal of money. They extort money from some corporate giant threatening him to publish the stolen information which is critical in nature.
Government websites are the hot targets of the hackers due to the press coverage, it receives. Hackers enjoy the media coverage.
Motive Behind The Crime
Greed Power Publicity Revenge Adventure Desire to access forbidden information Destructive mindset Wants to sell n/w security services
Mike is a "scambaiter," dedicated to fighting back against those who send out the notorious 419 e-mails, promising untold wealth to anyone gullible or naive enough to disclose their bank details.
Mike asked us not to use his full name because he's dealing with some heavy cross-border criminals.
Those who fall for the 419 cons are hoping for millions
His group of volunteers at 419eater.com use their computer skills to fool the scammers, to disrupt their crimes, and to have some fun at the scammer's expense.
Every day, millions of people get e-mails like this:
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am fine today and how are you? I hope this letter will find you in the best of health. I am Prince Joe Eboh, the Chairman of the "Contract Award Committee", of the "Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)", a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
NDDC was set up by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha who died on 18th June 1998, to manage the excess revenue accruing from the sales of Petroleum and its allied products as a domestic increase in the petroleum products to develop the communities in the Niger Delta Oil producing areas. The estimated annual revenue for 1999 was $45 Billion US Dollars...
And of course, if you were only willing to help the writer siphon some of it off, a few of those many millions could be yours.
Police estimate that every year, US citizens alone are conned out of some $200m.
Painted breast
Mike told me how he baited the writer of the e-mail above, Prince Joe Eboh.
"I'm sure he's not a prince at all," Mike says. "He contacted me with a standard 419 [so-called after a section of Nigeria's legal code] scam.
I have been troubled recently after the death of a dear friend of mine, Minnie Mowse
'Father Hector Barnett'
"I tried to turn it round by saying I worked for a church and we couldn't do any business with people who are not of our faith."
Mike sent a response in the name of Father Hector Barnett of the Church of the Painted Breast.
Dear Sir,
I would dearly love to help you. If you ever decide to join our faith then of course I could help you both with my experience and financial support. I wish you well in your endeavour my brother.
Yours, Father Hector Barnett
"Now I knew the guy would write back and say: 'Well, can I join your faith?' and indeed he did," says Mike.
Dear Father Hector,
If joining your faith is what it takes to help me of course, I am ready to join you. I'm from a good Christian family. I will do anything you want me to do in the faith. Don't forget that I have to transfer the money to your account as urgently as possible. Send me your account details. I hope to read your mail soon.
Prince Joe Eboh
'War-paint'
Dear Joe,
Our ministry was founded in 1774 by a wonderful lady by the name of Betsy Carrington. She spent many of her first preaching years in Kenya, spreading the holy gospel amongst the local people there. She was the first person male or female to promote Christian texts and beliefs to the Masai warrior tribe.
The Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast 'initiation ceremony'
The most famous account is when as a test she had to remove the top part of her clothes and paint the top half of her body and breast with the red Masai war-paint as a gesture of faith and belief to them so that they would accept her and trust her. She was almost immediately accepted by them and was one of the most trusted westerners known at that time.
As a qualification to enter the Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast, all followers must go through the initiation procedure that Miss Carrington made so famous. I have attached a photograph of four of our young inductees going through the procedure.
Please use this picture to enable you to make the same marking on yourself. I have also attached a small picture showing the design in more detail. I look forward to welcoming you into our membership my brother.
Father Hector Barnett Financial Development - Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast.
'Processing fees'
Using image software, Mike made up an "initiation" picture. And Prince Joe duly carried out the induction and e-mailed back a photo of himself in the properly sanctified state.
Dear Brother Hector,
I want to thank the Almighty God himself for the opportunity I have to be a member of this great church The Holy Church Of The Painted Breast. I'm looking forward to establishing a branch of the Church here. But I'll like us to finish everything about the business proposal, which I sent to you earlier...
The picture sent by Prince Joe Eboh
"He then tried to hit me for $18,000 for processing fees for transferring millions," Mike says.
He wrote back as Father Hector, saying that the church had plenty of money, but there was a withdrawal fee of $80.
"I persuaded him to send me the $80, which he did, inside a birthday card, by courier," Mike says.
However, former Scotland Yard fraud officer Tom Craig says that it is unprecedented for the 419 con artists to part with any money - he suggests the notes may have been forged.
Mike says that any money they get from these reverse stings to a children's charity in the north of England.
Exporting snow
Father Hector of the Church of the Painted Breast then entered a troubling period of religious uncertainty.
Dear Joe,
This is your good friend Hector Barnett. Please do not be alarmed that I am contacting you from a different e-mail address. I will explain what has happened.
The guy obviously thought he was going to get $18,000 so easily, he was blinded by his own greed
Mike
I have been troubled recently after the death of a dear friend of mine, Minnie Mowse. She was a very, very dear friend indeed, and her death affected me greatly and started to make me question my faith. I have decided to leave the church and join a travelling circus.
I have already made two very good friends, and tomorrow I will be starting my circus training with them...
Prince Joe then began receiving e-mails from another "Reverend" of the Church of the Painted Breast worried about the disappearance of Father Hector and $18,000 from church funds.
Joe already knew from Hector's increasingly eccentric e-mails that he had put the money into a business exporting snow to Siberia.
Lottery winnings
Despite that, Prince Joe still hasn't given up, even though he's $80 down. The e-mail exchange between the probably fake prince and the obviously fake church continues.
At the same time, the scambaiters are running several other such stings.
I asked Mike why these people who are themselves scammers can't spot an obvious scam.
"I think it operates in much the same way as it does with real victims. Greed clouds their judgement. The guy obviously thought he was going to get $18,000 so easily, he was blinded by his own greed.
"Which is what happens to those who fall for the 419 scams; they just see all these millions."
This would all be funny if it wasn't for the millions of dollars being stolen and probably put into drugs or other criminal activities.
Mike and his friends send all their e-mail exchanges to the police in the UK, Nigeria and to the FBI - he says they've had no response. And even warning the victims does no good. Most of them don't want to believe they're being scammed.
The latest e-mail scam concerns lottery winnings you didn't know you had.
If you're tempted, just remember Prince Joe who's still sending e-mails saying he's sticking to his promise and saying the daily prayer: "When all above seems a great test, Get on down with the Holy Red Breast."
Dear Father,
When I said the prayer this morning, something like a fountain went down my system making me to feel strong & happy. I have spent money to process all the necessary documents for the transfer of this fund. What remains now is the registration of your name as the contractor who executed the contract.
Ann is a lot more wary these days when she opens her e-mails. Losing £30,000 to internet fraudsters has made her that way. Ann travelled to Amsterdam to give the fraudsters £4,700 in cash She is one of the many victims of cruel e-mail scams which target the compassionate and the greedy. And the 58-year-old teacher - who will be in debt for the rest of her life - is an example of how this could happen to anybody. Ann, who lives in the North West, now admits she was foolish to travel to Amsterdam with £4,700 in cash in the belief she was helping the wife of a former president of the Philippines retrieve her stolen fortune. She said she thought she was helping a victim of "political oppression" and hoped to spend her share of the money - about £3m - on church charities, orphanages and paying off debts. But she was faced with escalating demands for cash, including a "tax" payment of more than £100,000. The lady in the Dutch embassy told me she was almost 100% certain that it was fraud - I really had believed that it was true Ann Ann, who is still too scared of the gang to give her full name, said: "I had done a bit of research at the local library and had checked out the circumstantial details as to what had happened in the Philippines and the details were as the lady outlined. "Of course I felt sorry for her and I wanted to help her, being the kind of person who helps people who are in trouble of one kind or another." She agreed to travel to Amsterdam where she would pay a fee to a firm who had been "looking after" the fortune. But when she arrived and met the gang - a Dutchman and his African associates - she was told she needed to pay a further £23,450 to obtain a certificate to allow her to take the full amount of money out of The Netherlands. Unable to find the money herself, she persuaded a relative to lend her the cash, which she then transferred to the gang. But once the money was transferred, she was told she needed to pay an extra £126,000 in "tax". 'Didn't look right' It was only at this point that she became suspicious. She said: "I asked them to send me a faxed copy of this tax demand and it was only at that point that I actually realised it didn't look right. "It didn't look like a British tax demand and I guessed it wouldn't look like a Dutch one either. "I contacted the Dutch embassy in London and I also spoke to a Dutch lawyer and both of them said it didn't look anything like a Dutch tax demand. "The lady in the Dutch embassy told me she was almost 100% certain that it was fraud. It could happen to anybody - it is very plausible Ann "I had a dreadful day - I really had believed that it was true." Since then she has had to fight to rebuild her life. Her modest house has been remortgaged so she can start paying back her relative, with whom she admits her relationship has been badly damaged. She said: "He is not a rich person who could easily afford it. He just lent me everything he had and he has been in very serious difficulties since then. Warn others "I feel really bad about it - I hated asking him for money in the first place, but I really did think it would work out for the best for both of us. "But I can't raise enough to pay him back and it will take me all the rest of my life to pay him back, I should imagine." She says she holds out little hope of ever retrieving her money or of the police catching the fraudsters who swindled her. But she said she wanted her experience to serve as a warning to others. She said: "I just want to warn other people that the documents look very realistic, the phone calls seem realistic and it is as if you are dealing with straightforward people. "It could happen to anybody - it is very plausible."
This Hubli Dharwad Cyber Security blog http://hublidwdcybersecurity.blogspot.com/ was launched and was inaugurated with the very first post by Dr. D.V. Guruprasad IPS , Additional DIG, Karnataka Police, at a function " Cyber Crime & Women " Organized by Karnataka State Commission For Women, in association with Karnataka State Police at Karnataka University, Dharwad. I would like to thank Dr. D.V. Guruprasad IPS for inaugurating the blog site and I would also like to Thank Shri R. Dilip - DCP Traffic & Crime, for inviting me .
Today many cyber related crimes go unnoticed due to lack of awareness and we silently bear them, I have made this medium, so that the general public of Hubli Dharwad can come and discuss cyber crime related issues.
Cyber crimes are becoming a nuisance in the society especially crimes such as cyber stalking and cell phone stalking. Many of the victims are not aware about the cyber crimes and its manifestations. The objective of this blog is to create awareness among the people about various types of cyber crimes, its impact in the society and educate the public in prevention of cyber crimes.
This forum is created to discuss about various cyber related matters by the general public,. people can discuss various issues in cyber security . Any victim of cyber crime can come and discuss in this forum.
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Computer Crime, E-Crime, Hi-Tech Crime or Electronic Crime is a crime in which a computer plays an essential part. This type of crime is the illegal exploitation of computer technologies, usually involving the Internet, to support crimes such as fraud, identity theft, sharing of information, and embezzlement. Exactly what is illegal varies greatly from territory to territory. Consequently, the growth of international data communications and in particular the Internet has made these crimes both more common and more difficult to police. Luckily there are people fighting computer crime and it is taken very seriously by government agencies.
Examples of cyber crime are :
1. Fraud achieved by the manipulation of computer records
2.Spamming wherever outlawed completely or where regulations controlling it are violated
3.Deliberate circumvention of computer security systems.
4.Unauthorised access to or modification of Programmes or Data
5.Intellectual property theft, including software piracy.
6.Industrial espionage by means of access to or theft of computer materials.
7.Identity theft where this is accomplished by use of fraudulent computer transactions.
8.Writing or spreading computer viruses or worms.
9.Salami slicing is the practice of stealing money repeatedly in extremely small quantities
10. Denial-of-service attack, where company websites are flooded with service requests and their website is overloaded and either slowed or crashes completely
11.Making and digitally distributing child pornography
I have been troubled recently after the death of a dear friend of mine, Minnie Mowse 
