raising money trough false help in the economy crisis

8/6/2019 Raising money trough false help in the economy crisis

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International Baccalaureate

IB World School

Druga gimnazija, Sarajevo

Subject: Information Technology In A Global Society

Candidate name: Admir Brankovi

Candidate number: 001258-005

Portfolio 2

Raising money trough false help in the

economy crisis

(Area of impact: Business and Employment)

April, 2009

News item: BBC, Bank turmoil fuels phishing boom, 10 October 2008,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7663055.stm

Word Count: 992


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Information Technology In A Global Society 001258-005

1

News Article

Bank turmoil fuels phishing boom

Hi-tech fraudsters are taking advantage of the global financial turmoil, say governments and

security experts.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning saying phishing gangs were using

the turmoil to extract valuable information from consumers. A UK parliamentary group said it

expected a move away from ID theft towards attacks on account holders. The news comes as

a UK banking group reveals that phishing attacks were up more than 180% in a year.

Fresh targets

The FTC said the current rapid changes in the banking world, where many institutions

suddenly had new owners, could only help fraudsters keen to steal login and other personal

details.

"Scammers are taking advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace to confuse

consumers into parting with valuable personal information," it warned.

It said it expected fraudsters to pose as the new owners of banks or the federal agenciescharged with oversight of struggling institutions. The FTC urged consumers to be wary and

not reply to e-mail messages or pop-ups that ask for personal or financial information even ifthey appeared to come from a bank. Consumers should also scrutinise bank and credit card

statements for unauthorised withdrawals or transfers. Secure Computing said its Octoberspam report showed that many of the banks and other financial institutions caught up in the

turmoil were topping its list of phishing targets. Chase, Wachovia and Bank of America were

among the most popular targets with scammers, it said. The company said it expected British

banks to be popular too in the coming weeks as changes and mergers are completed. In itssecond annual report, the All Parliamentary Group on ID Fraud said tighter credit lending

rules would lead to more attempts to get at existing bank accounts. "There is no longer a

guarantee that they will get credit by applying assuming another person's identity, so they are

instead tapping into accounts which already exist," read the report. Fraud figures released in

early October by the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), which represents UK

banks, show a steep rise in the number of phishing attacks even before the turmoil in the

banking world began.

From January to June 2008 phishing attacks rose by 186% on the same period in 2007, it said.

In total it saw more than 20,682 phishing incidents during that six month period.

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7663055.stm >


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Contents Page

News Item Page

Presentation of the Issue Page 3

The IT Background of the Issue Page 5

The Impact of the Issue Page 6

Solutions to the Issue Page 8

Bibliography Page 9


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A - Presentati n of the Issue

The global finance cri i rai ed many problems in the global society; people are losing

their money and are forced to selltheir property to get some money for basic needs. As

millions of people use computers and other online media, they started to search for solutions

online. Many computer hackers used this situation to their advantage and started to use

phishing methods to get to personal information by which they could easily bring harm to

people. This was the socialissue in the whole problem. The Federal Trade Commission gave

advices to their users notto answerto suspicious emails, or any otheritems thatthey get on

the Internet, where they are offered to receive hel p. Like the Federal Trade Commission

(FTC said: "Scammers are taking advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace to

confuse consumers into parting with valuable personalinformation."1

In the time of economic crisis, the main targets of hackers were Internet users, banks

and institutions where people stored their money. Hackers presented themselves like

employees of the bank or an agency for helping people in economically difficultsituations

and offered false help. The number of online cheated people is rising from year to year, as

1http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/

3055.stm

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

2006 2007 2008

Number of victims


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APACS (Association for Payment Clearing Services) said: Reported phishing attacks went

up in 2007 to nearly 26,000 from 14,000 the year before.2

Also in year 2008 from January to

June phishing attacks rose by 186% on the same period in 2007. In total, people saw more

than 48,682 phishing incidents in this year.

2 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7523253.stm


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B - The IT Background of the Issue

Everybody uses computers and other gadgets to use the Internet to find some useful

information. Beside information, people also use the Internet for online banking and

purchasing some products. In the period of economic crisis the number of scammers, people

who use the Internet for gathering useful information and to use them illegally, rose rapidly

because of the vulnerability of people. Phishing frauds involve fraudsters sending out lots e-

mail to people, claiming to come from their banks, and inviting them to click on a link to a

fake bank website, where they offer a way to help people who want to keep their money safe

and to overcome the crisis.

Fraudsters used email services, making fake email addresses, i.e. a name of a bank like

[email protected] or any desirable address like [email protected] etc., and

then sent loads of emails to people. If the receiver opens the email and click on the link, he

will be referred to a fake website of the fraudster. He would be given advices how to

overcome the crisis, only if he registers on the website. At this point the actual fraud begins,

the user has to type in his full information: name, address, bank, bank number and so on. The

fraudster states that the information given would not be published. The victim thinks that his

information would be safe and that he doesnt need to worry about it.

Fraudsters used to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and

credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication

hackers were getting useful information and started to get valuable content from their victims

money.


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C - The Impact of the Issue

The impact ofthis issue is on a global range, because there are millions of people who

are affected by the economic crisis and many ofthem were victims ofthe phishing attacks of

hackers.

The main stakeholders are people who used the Internet to overcome the financial

crisis and became victims of online fraudsters. According to this also banks started to get

problems, because victims of the online fraud sued banks, because fraudsters represented

themselves as bank employees or bank services. But banks were protected trough the policy

and couldnt do anything forthe victims. The responsibility of banks in the policy is clear and

cited here:

" e remind customers thatthey too are responsible fortheir own personal or company

banking activities, and to take precautions to safeguard their personal information, bank

account details, log-on and PIN codes, and their money."3

(Tumi Monale)

Statistics4

used forthe UK card frauds from the officialBBC news site.

3 http://www.persfin.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=49215314

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/

952598.stm

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

millions

Year

UK Card Fraud Rising

UK Card Fraud Rising


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The advantage to scammers was that people were trying on anyway to get help for

saving money and not getting to much in the troubles that occurred trough the crisis. The

police would have problems to identify the fraudster, because with modern technology and

software, hackers are protected against monitoring their movements and acts. As in an article

about cybercrime says:

"The number of cases brought to court seems low compared with the scale of online

criminal activities, which is increasing."5

5http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/02/25/235017/uks-poor-record-on-prosecuting-hackers-

revealed.htm


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D - Solutions to Problems Arising from the Issue

The solution to this problem would be that banks send feedback to their clients to

inform them about anything whatis happening in and out ofthe bank, and to inform them not

to open any emailin which is asked for personalinformation and information aboutthe credit

card account, that is not the official one of the bank. Also the bank should track every

suspicious operation on the bank account and to instantly inform the user aboutit, so the user

can allow or deny the operation.

6 7

The bank should add some hotline just for people who are scammed to gain

information about where did they get in this trouble and to try to identify who was the

scammer or where is the scammer website hosted trough some special programs or with the

help of professionals that are specialized on finding out from which IP address the scammer

hosted and set up the whole site. From thatinformation the scammer could be arrested and all

stolen information could be deleted from the database and user could change their password

or PIN so thatthe stolen information would be worthless.

6 http://www.wowowow.com/post/5-ways-ponzi-proof-your-portfolio-liz-peek-1578787

http://moneyning.com/credit/40-precautions-for-preventing-identity-theft/


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Bibliography

Hilley, Sarah. "UK's Poor Record on Prosecuting Hackers Revealed - 25/02/2009 -

Computer Weekly." ComputerWeekly.com | Information Technology News & UK IT Jobs.

25 Feb. 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2009.

.

No Author. "BBC NEWS | Business | Bank Phishing Attacks on the Rise." BBC

NEWS |News Front Page. 24 July 2008. Web. 20 Feb. 2009.

.

No Author. "BBC NEWS | Technology | Bank Turmoil Fuels Phishing Boom." BBC

NEWS | News Front Page. 10 Oct. 2008. Web. 05 Feb. 2009.

.

No Author. "BBC NEWS | Business | Big Jump in Online Banking Fraud."BBC

NEWS | News Front Page. 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 08 Apr. 2009.

.

No Author. "Personal Finance - Beware! Fraud Is a Threat When You Bank Online."

Personal Finance - Front Page. 04 Apr. 2009. Web. 08 Apr. 2009.

.

No, Author. Credit Card Computer. Digital image. 40 Precautions for Preventing

Identity Theft. 29 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2009. .

Peek, Liz. Safe Money. Digital image. 5 Ways to Ponzi-Proof Your Portfolio, by Liz

Peek | WowOwow. 18 Dec. 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2009. .

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