Draft

FINAL REPORT

Christophe Bassono

Omaha, NE 68182-0694

21st September 2018.

Amanda L. Gutierrez,

Omaha, NE 68182-0694.

Dear Ms. Amanda Gutierrez,

SUBJECT: THE TRANSMITTAL LETTER

As it can be seen in the present society, many workplaces have turned their operationsfrom

manual to online. Consequently, this has led to the rise in online workplace scams that are

experienced on day to day basis. Therefore, this letter targets to address employees in various

institutions to make them aware of the dangers they are exposed to as a result of online scams.

On this final draft, I have structure my information in level one and level two. Level one is in

red without indent and has size 16. In level two I have black bold with size 14 recent decades,

the rise in technological use has led to many organizations transforming from analog to digital.

Currently, most organizations carry out their transactions and other communications via online

means. It is, therefore, necessary for workers within these organizations to know that they are

exposed to various forms of frauds including the friendly fraud, the clean fraud, online

intellectual property, identity theft, phishing, credit card fraud, and hacking.

In conclusion, it is essential for workers to ensure that they are aware of the dangers theyface

while doing business activities online and how they should cope with the situations if they

become victims. Workers should receive proper training towards the same since such online

scams could cost them or their organizations a significant loss.

FINAL REPORT

How to Avoid Internet Scams at the Workplace

Christophe Bassono

CIST3000:

Advanced Composition IS&T

Amanda L. Gutierrez, M.S. & M.A

UNO-Fall 2018

FINAL REPORT

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How to Avoid Internet Scams at the Workplace

Christophe Bassono

CIST3000:

Advanced Composition IS&T

Amanda L. Gutierrez, M.S. & M.A

FINAL REPORT

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Contents List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. 5

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... 6

1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 7

2. Definition ............................................................................................................................................ 8

3. Numbers on Online Fraud ................................................................................................................. 10

4. Types of Online Fraud and How They Occur ................................................................................... 12

4.1. The Friendly Fraud ................................................................................................................ 12

4.2. The Clean Fraud .................................................................................................................... 13

4.3. Online Intellectual Property Theft ......................................................................................... 13

4.4. Identity Theft ........................................................................................................................ 14

4.5. Phishing ................................................................................................................................ 15

4.6. Credit Card Fraud .................................................................................................................. 15

4.7. Hacking ................................................................................................................................. 15

5. Prevention of Online Fraud ................................................................................................................... 16

4.9. Keep Financial Data Separate ................................................................................................... 16

4.10. Know who is asking .............................................................................................................. 17

4.11. Protect your computer ........................................................................................................... 17

4.12. Keep your passwords secret .................................................................................................. 17

5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 18

6. References......................................................................................................................................... 20

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List of Tables

Fig 1: A table showing growing cases of identity theft and fraud reports in U.S

Fig 2: A graph showing the growing cost of frauds in the U.S. from 2010 to 2014

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Executive Summary

The cases of internet scams at the workplaces have increased significantly over the past decades.

The sudden increase has been attributed to the technological advancements whereby most

organizations prefer carrying on most of their activities via the internet. There are various online

frauds that are experienced at the workplace on day to day basis. Examples include, the clean

fraud, the friendly fraud, online intellectual property theft, identity theft, phishing, credit card

theft, and hacking. Therefore, based on these prevalent figures regarding online fraud at

workplaces, institutions that use the internet while offering services to their clients need to be

aware of the risks they are exposed to. Employers need to inform their workers of their

vulnerabilities while dealing with online transactions and other services and then show them

some of the ways they can evade these issues. It is also necessary for organizations to educate

their workers how to handle such issues in case they become victims.

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Introduction

The best defense against workplace Internet scamming is to have awareness of the cyberscams

that have significantly increased in the modern Internet world (Cacciottolo, & Rees,

2017). It is vital for an individual to be aware of the various vulnerabilities they may be exposed

to while using the Internet at the workplace. Just because one is at the workplace does not imply

that they are safe from cyber frauds. Most scammers usually spy on organizations to familiarize

themselves with the activities and processes that are conducted within these organizations.

Someof the cases where Internet scamming is experienced in organizations include Mandate

FraudAttacks (Cross, & Kelly, 2016). In this case, the right back specifics of a client can be sent

to anoffender. The offender sends an email allegedly containing new bank particulars of a client

to theworkplace. The employee at the workplace could then fall into the trap and send back the

correctparticulars of the client. Due to such like cases, it is vital that the employee crosschecks

thestrange payment orders for money transfers. In cases whereby an employee does not have a

clearawareness about the transactions, it is necessary that they request for clarification from the

management. If it becomes clear that an incorrect transaction has been conducted, the

organization should inform the respective bank as soon as possible. Such amongst many others

are examples of cyber scam cases that are being experienced at the workplace on a day to day

basis. Numerous organizations handle personal and sensitive information of their employees and

clients. The organization is mandated to ensuring that this information is kept safe from online

hackers and other scammers. Failure of an organization to secure the personal and sensitive

information of their clients and workers could lead to negative consequences within its

operations. For instance, clients may lose their trust in the organization since no individual could

wish her or her information to be lost to fraudsters. Therefore, this report is targeted to educating

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organizations regarding the vulnerabilities they are exposed to. The management of any

institution should work towards ensuring that they create awareness to their employees regarding

the possible scam cases they may come across.

Purpose

The objective of this report is to create an insight of the numerous cases of internet scams

atthe workplace and how these cases could be minimized or scrapped off. This section

outlines howthe researcher envisions presenting the report. The outline demonstrates the

different sections inwhich the report will be broken into and the information that will be

contained in each section.The report starts the definition of terms related to online fraud

at the workplace. Secondly, ithighlights the history of online fraud at the workplaces

whereby it provides the various cases thathave been gathered around the world regarding

workplace cyber fraud. After that, the report statesthe numbers of online frauds that have

ever been reported at workplaces. Such creates a picture ofhow most workplaces are

vulnerable to online frauds (Cross, & Kelly, 2016). The report then goesfurther to state the

types of online frauds and how they occur. In this case, it highlights the possibleways online

frauds can lure their prey and the names given to these methods. The fifth section ofthe

report covers how to prevent online scams at workplaces. The section provides some of

themethods that organizations and firms can use to minimize or scrap off the online

scams. Lastly,the report ends with a conclusion which summarizes the entire contents

outlines in the introductionand the body.

Definition Online fraud refers to deceitful schemes that are done using the internet. Online fraud

maycome in the form of financial theft, identity theft or a combination of both.

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History of Online Fraud

An influx of online fraud began to be experienced in the 1990s with the increased

technology use and e-commerce. In the beginning, online fraud was done by using the names of

famous celebrities of the time to commit internet crimes. Over time, more technical and

sophisticated plans were developed such as creating card-generator applications with real credit

card numbers, setting up dummy merchant websites and mass identity theft. Today, despite

attempts by various governments to regulate and mitigate online fraud, more sophisticated online

fraud schemes have been established ranging from credit card fraud to phishing, hacking, and

identity theft (Saeger & Probert, 2015).

In the recent past, computer fraud has evolved through a series of advancements outplaying the

traditional security defenses such as the two-factor authentication, antivirus, and SSL

encryption in the process. Zeus and SpyEye are the most common attack tools used by hackers

since they support the gathering of vast volumes of extremely sensitive authentication data. It has

been established that no single application is immune to attacks and the malicious attackers are

focusing more on online banking accounts because they offer most direct payoff. Online fraud is

based on three core technologies: the botnet controllers capable of handling hundreds of thousands

of bots, highly effective data collection, and sophisticated Trojans that are updateable. Form

grabbing for PCs running IE/Windows has been a simplified approach for fraud. The technique

helps attackers to extract data within browsers. The deployment of form grabbing on compromised

PCs allowed hackers to obtain numerous numbers of online bank account IDs and passwords. The

password-based authentication was termed no longer safe for online banking prompting the

introduction of two-factor authentication (Mellinger, 2011). Nevertheless, criminals still found the

loophole that helps them to challenge the security of two-factor authentication through web injects.

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Malicious attackers that promote online fraud have created various techniques. As a result, efforts

to combat crime ware have been put into place. Computer fraud jeopardizes our security, privacy,

and anonymity. There is the need for cybercrime analysts to find out the extent to which malware

attacks and viruses have affected our technologies to ensure damage control (Mellinger, 2011).

Moreover, they should develop new approaches to controlling the spreading of computer fraud in

daily operations. Besides, government agencies need to increase their accountability by

bankrolling an anti-crimeware program and detecting all forms of online fraud.

Numbers on Online Fraud

The numbers of online fraud have reached a record high as of the year 2017. The top fraudof

2017 has been reported to online imposters with at least one in every five people having

been duped by fraudsters. A whopping three hundred and twenty-eight million has been

lost through this form of online fraud (Vaca, 2018). Identity theft and credit card theft has

also been reported to be among the top forms of online fraud. Sixty-three thousand people

reported tax fraud in 2017. In 2017, the total amount of money lost to online fraudsters in

the United States was recorded as nine hundred million dollars, a seven percent increase

from the amount lost in 2016. Cacciottolo and Rees (2017) report that in the United

Kingdom, over three thousand eight hundred online dating fraud victims had lost over

thirty-nine million dollars in 2016 to online fraudsters. Recent studies have illustrated that

cases of internet scam are on the rise. These cases have accounted to loss of more than

$100 billion by companies and individuals. Internet scammers continue to develop

diverse ways to blackmail or defraud individuals without their knowledge. Both

professionals and non-professionals are susceptible to online fraud and this complicates the

issue. According to the Scam Tracker by the Better Bureau reports, computer fraud has

continued to escalate in the recent past with over 46,000 cases reported in 2007 in the

United States and more than 30,000 cases had been reported by mid-August in 2018

(Wagner, 2018).

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The graph below illustrates the growing cases of internet fraud in the U.S. (Wagner, 2018)

Fig 1.A graph showing growing cases of internet frauds in U.S. Source: Facts + Statistics

Fig 2.A graph showing the growing cost of frauds in the U.S. from 2010 to 2014. Source: Facts +

Statistics

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Types of Online Fraud and How They Occur

According to Rampton (2015), online payment fraud is continuously growing. A

significant share of the fraudulent transactions emanates from mobile commerce. E-commerce

fraud also referred to as purchase fraud happens when a fraudster approaches an innocent party

and recommends a business transaction by application of fraudulent means such as fake or stolen

credit card. In the process, the merchant is left unpaid during the business transaction. Online store

owners are more exposed to online fraud. The continuing advancement of technology jeopardizes

payment methods and the data processing systems in most institutions. Often, online fraud

occurred when a credit card got lost or its information was not stored securely, but the card-not-

present (CNP) frauds have continued to grow recently. Fraudulent orders have increased from

1.58% in 2017 to 1.8% in 2018 in terms of the percentage of total revenue loss in online stores.

The most common types of e-commerce fraud include friendly fraud and clean fraud.

The Friendly Fraud

The friendly fraud occurs when a client buys a product or pays for some services with their

personal credit card, and issues a deliberate chargeback arguing that the product or services

were never received or claims that they never made these charges. Online business

supports friendly fraud as it allows customers to perform reverse transactions (Bumbiere,

2018). In most cases, chargebacks are allowed to safeguard clients from online scams, but

customers have started taking advantage by using it in place of refunds. The credit card

companies continue to suffer from the narrative that the customer is always right as they

place the burden of proof on retailers during these dubious transactions. Friendly Fraud

can be prevented through various means. The client must take responsibility by ensuring

that the credit card distributor matches the business name.

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Most often, the chargeback fraud takes place when customers fail to identify the name

of thecompany on their card statements. Customers are advised to use shipping with

tracking since itmakes it easier to provide evidence where the products were delivered.

Moreover, it is vital to

ensure there are clear reshipping, return, and refunds policies before making any transactions.

The Clean Fraud

The clean fraud takes place when a stolen credit card is used to make a purchase. It needsa

high skill and expertise to happen. The clean fraud is regarded as the ultimate doppelganger

sinceit appears like a genuine transaction with good billing, shipping, and IP addresses

together withcomplete and verified card data (Bumbiere, 2018).

The clean fraud entails four steps. First, thecriminals obtain the cardholder information

through data breaches and card skimming. Second,during the purchase, the fraudsters

utilize the card’s information by impersonating the cardholdermaking online purchases.

Thirdly, believing the transaction is legitimate; the merchant accepts thesale and processes

payment. Lastly, the merchant is pressurized for chargebacks and lostmerchandise

when the fraud is found out. For small retailers, avoiding clean fraud will requireregular

software updates since it can bypass the fraud detection tools easily. Smaller retailers

areadvised to use the free trial plans of the fraud detection software during holidays from

companiessuch as Kount, Signifyd, and Sift Science. Huge retailers have the resources

required to purchasethe fraud detection software, and they need to buy them even though

they are extremely pricey.Retailers must be keen during any transactions, and this can

help to detect some of the cases. Online fraud occurs in various ways. Some of these

include online intellectual property theft,

identity theft, phishing, untrustworthy websites, credit card fraud, and hacking.

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Any author or creator of information has intellectual property rights to their material,

whichprohibits other users from using or publishing the material without the owner’s

consent. Today,online fraudsters use this material on their own sites without the

owner’s permission. This is calledonline intellectual theft. It can therefore be argued that

most of the online stores for books andother publications lose the materials with

intellectual property rights to fraudsters who access themwithout the authors’ permissions.

Online Intellectual Property Theft has emerged a threat to many

authors whose publications have been stored on online bookshelves.

Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs when a fraudster steals another person’s personal information such as

names, address, birth-date, and account details and uses the stolen information to create an

identity under which they hide when committing fraud. It is mostly experienced in

organizations which store their clients’ details such as banks, insurance companies, and so

on. The fraudsters could use this information to access the client’s bank accounts and other

sensitive stuff that could bring a big loss to the client and the company. Identity theft is

categorized into two groups including account takeover and true name identity. True name

identity implies that the fraudster uses personal info to create new accounts. On the other

hand, account takeover implies that the scammer uses personal info to access one’s

existing accounts.

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Phishing Phishing is a fraudulent activity that attempts to obtain access a person’s sensitive info

includingpasswords, credit cards, account information, and usernames. It occurs through

deceive emails orwebsites that are created by the fraudsters to lure people into producing their

personal information..Fraudsters may trick organizations into providing their client’s

particulars by pretending to be theowners of the information to be sent. The fraudsters

then use this information unlawfully by defrauding the unsuspecting users (Cassim, 2014).

Credit Card Fraud

This fraud occurs once a person enters their credit card details on deceitful websites.

Fraudsters create deceitful cites which appear like genuine cites that lure persons

into entering their confidential information into the cites and thus obtain their details

illegally. Fraudsters then use this information to make unlawful purchases without the

owner’s permission

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Hacking

This entails gaining illegal entry into a computer system. Hackers use unauthorized meansto

access various databases or networks in organizations to retrieve information from clients

andother workers. This enables the hacker to steal money or carry out other unlawful

dealings without exposing their actual identity.

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Prevention of Online Fraud

Various things can be conducted by organizations and workers to avoiding becoming victims of

internet fraud.First,employees in an organization should monitor and be conscious of people

should use different passwords for their accounts and choose long strong passwords, which

may not be hacked easily. Secondly, even though there may be many legitimate sellers online,

one should be keen on whom they give their information. Before clicking on any linkd, one should

make the habit of running a full scan with their antivirus software .

Know who is asking

Financial institutions such as banks do not send sensitive emails or messages asking for

personal information such as social security numbers. These institutions disapprove any

attempts to verify account information using this approach. People should understand the

safety associated with not sharing personal information such as account numbers, social

security or tax ID numbers,passwords or log in information through email or text. An

individual can only share his/hersensitive information to a bank through the bank’s secure

online banking platform. Any email that asks for sensitive information is illegitimate and

people should verify its authenticity before replying or sending personal details.

Protect your computer

Cyber-attacks have been on the rise recently. Installing antivirus software, therefore, is

important to any computer or network. Users should regularly update their software to

safeguard their computers from computer viruses. Software such as anti-spam software aids

in preventing spam and junk email from entering into the inbox of emails and this protect

against phishing emails. Besides, every computer should be installed with a firewall as it

avoids unauthorized persons, viruses, or malware, from access. The anti-spyware software,

nonetheless, blocks the spyware installation on your computer thus redirecting malicious

websites or pop-ups.

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Passwords Protection

Computers users should avoid sharing their passwords. Additionally, always leave any

documents with financial data in a secureplace. Changing passwords on a regular basis

help to improve the protection and it is necessary to combine numbers, letters, and

special characters. Administrators should change password and the default SSID of the

wireless network on a regular basis.

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Conclusion

Evidently, online fraud poses a big threat to organizations as well as individuals. The

vice has caused businesses and individuals millions of dollars each year. With increased

internet usage,fraudsters continue to device newer and more sophisticated ways of

committing online fraud.Advancement in the technologicaluse has led to numerous

organizations conducting most of theirtransactions through online means. Such implies

that they also face big risks of experiencing onlinescams.It is, therefore, important for

every individual to be more aware of the various forms inwhich online fraud may occur.

This way, they are in a better position to save themselves frombeing victims of online

fraud. Apart from increased consciousness whileusing the internet andmonitoring where

their personal information goes, it is also important that organizations invest ina current

security system which is able to protect their information from hackers and

fraudsters.Furthermore, organizations shouldmake their employees understand the

various kinds of onlinefrauds they maycome acrossin the midst of their jobs to prepare

them andahead of thesescamsand make them ready to tackle such issues whenever

they arise(Cross,& Kelly,2016).Businesscorporations should implement measures to

prevent the online fraud cases because of the damagesand losses that they can cause.

As illustrated, companiescan adhere to various approaches such asinstalling the

anti-virus software, adware software, and anti-spyware for protection.

Nevertheless,firewall installation allows necessary connections and protects computers

from viruses, malware,and hackers. Regular updates of software help in maintenance

and increase thinformation of clients and destroy the reputation of companies. Businesses

should create atrustworthy environment if they want to succeed both in the short-term and

long-term. However,this can only be attained if organizations ensure that they do not become

preys to the numerousonline attacks that are increasing with the enhancement in technology.

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References 14

Bumbiere, E. (2018, October 23). The Basics of Ecommerce Fraud - What It Is and How To

Manage It | Blog - Printful. Retrieved from https://www.printful.com/blog/the-basics-of-

ecommerce-fraud-what-is-it-and-how-to-manage-it/

Cacciottolo, M. & Rees, N. (2017). Online dating fraud victim numbers at record high. Retrieved

from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38678089

Cassim, F. (2014). Addressing the specter of phishing: are adequate measures in place to protect

victims of phishing? The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa,

47(3), 401-428.

Cross, C., & Kelly, M. (2016). The problem of "white noise": examining current prevention

approaches to online fraud. Journal of Financial Crime, 23(4), 806-818. Goldsmith, J.

(2007). Who controls the Internet? Illusions of a borderless world. Strategic Direction,

23(11).

Insurance Information Institute. (2018). Facts + Statistics: Identity theft and cybercrime | III.

Retrieved from https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-identity-theft-and-

cybercrime

Mellinger, P. (2011, November 7). Crime and malware: A short history of computer fraud.

Retrieved from https://www.computerworlduk.com/security/crime-and-malware-a-short-

history-of-computer-fraud-3316463/

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Rampton, J. (2015, April 14). How Online Fraud is a Growing Trend. Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/04/14/how-online-fraud-is-a-growing-

trend/#c596a495f7f7

Saeger, D. A., & Probert, C. (2015). Ponzi scheme: Learn to detect scams and take care of your

money.

Vaca, M. (2018). The top frauds of 2017. Retrieved from

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/03/top-frauds-2017 Wagner, P. (2018, August

14). Infographic: Internet Scamming is on The Rise. Retrieved from

https://www.statista.com/chart/15069/number-of-internet-scams-in-the-us/