-- If you have a phone, you could be the next victim.
"The FBI reports nearly 3,200 account hijacking cases since 2006 Online scam losses amounting to $264.6 million reported in 2008 Facebook has automated systems that detect compromised accounts MySpace.com creates blacklists of phony accounts"-According to CNN.
Cybercriminals are targeting social networking sites that provide a gold mine of personal information, according to the FBI.
Here in China, is a bit different, since, for one, facebook, twitter, those SNS are banned (that leaves the local ones, but really, internet isn't as well covered here as in the states), two, online banking is where the major internet crimes are. The thieves are still targeting the cell phone/landline owners all over the country. It simply starts with a text message or a phone call.
Alice works as in account service in a media research company, she often gets phone calls from clients, sometimes the numbers can be unfamiliar or even unknown. One time there was this guy with Cantonese accent asking "Hey, how are you? Guess who I am?" after she answered her cell phone, she had no clue but didn't want to be rude, because she remembered boss mentioning some new Hong Kong client earlier, she was supposed to be contacted soon, but hadn't got more details. So she went "I am good, thanks, are you Mister xxx from xxx?"
"Ah ha, that's right! I am on the train to Beijing now, will be there tomorrow morning. Shall we have a lunch meeting?" So he said.
She of course had to say "yes", couldn't afford losing the business.
Click.
A few hours later, a text was sent to her cell from the same number, "I just found that I lost my wallet, I am reporting to the railway police, but could you be kind enough to send me a couple thousand to the following bank account? XXXXXXX, I will return the money when we meet, thanks!" She almost believed him from the first phone call, but now the lame excuse of losing wallet raised her suspicion, so she called the police instead and went down the station to file a police report. But the guy was never caught.
Almost everyone I know has the experience of receiving texts saying "Please send your money to the following account", or "This is China telecom, we haven't received your last payment, you need to send money to xxxx", or "I am the prosecutor of xxx courthouse, your bank account is involved in a fraud, please send 250 thousand to the following secure bank account." Or strange number rings just once, when you call back, it's a phone service which charges you dearly… All sorts of tricks, some are crappy, some sound credible. Of course the people I know were careful enough to ignore, but still, lots of people just wired money to the phony accounts, later realized that they got scammed.
17,751 cases have been reported since 2007 in Guangdong province. These cases involved financial losses amounting to RMB200 million. In Shanghai, it has been 500 cases since September, 2009, RMB20 million involved financial losses, according to the Guangdong and Shanghai police departments. Landline, cell phone, internet IP phone, as long as you have a phone, you are targeted.
The security experts and the police have been giving lessons of "how to protect yourself against scams".
-Ask "Who are you?" instead of guessing "Who he is"
-Don't return the phone call of an unfamiliar number which rings only once
-Double check who the callers really are before you give your personal information
-Always report the suspicious phone calls or text messages
-Call information if receive a text saying "You have won the lottery"……
Since the scam calls are usually shown as normal numbers, the police can't just block them. The telecoms can't treat the text messages as spam, because viewing the contents would be against the law. What can be done is to control "mass text" through the SP (Service Provider).
In the near future, with the increase of internet usage, would "the crooks can be a mouse click away" be the new "phone call away"? Or would it be half way already? Or would it top "a phone call away"? And most importantly, "are we prepared for it?"