Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

online frauds and scams 345when ads are too prominent, float over (and block) text, orlurk behind the browser window. Modern Web browsershave ad-blocking features that work with varying degreesof effectiveness. As with TV, online advertisers increasinglyhave to cope with impatient users who do not have to lookat ads unless they actually want to.Advertisers can employ several strategies to keep userswilling to look at ads. One is to make the ad unobtrusiveand brief, and on the way to something the user reallywants to see. In 2007 YouTube began such advertising.Another is to provide free versions of software or servicesthat, in exchange for being free, require the user to put upwith some screen real estate being devoted to ads. Finally,as with TV, advertising can be woven into the content itself,such as in online computer games.A sensitive area is the attempt to balance advertisers’desire to know as much as possible about consumers’ interestsand buying habits with the same consumers’ concern aboutprotecting their privacy (see privacy in the digital age).Further Reading“Click Fraud: The Dark Side of Online Advertising.” BusinessWeek, October 2, 2006. Available online. URL: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_40/b4003001.htm.Accessed October 5, 2007.Davis, Harold. Google Advertising Tools: Cashing In with AdSense,AdWords, and the Google APIs. Sebastapol, Calif.: O’Reilly,2006.Interactive Advertising Bureau. Available online. URL: http://www.iab.net/. Accessed October 5, 2007.Plummer, Joe, et al. The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategiesand Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation.Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007.Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How toUse News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & OnlineMedia to Reach Buyers Directly. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007.Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).Available online. URL: http://www.sempo.org. AccessedOctober 5, 2007.Sloan, Paul. “The Quest for the Perfect Online Ad: Web AdvertisersAre Moving beyond Search, Using Powerful Science toFigure Out What You Want.” Business 2.0 [Magazine]. Availableonline. URL: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/03/01/8401043/index.htm.Accessed October 5, 2007.online frauds and scamsIn the old days con men and scammers went to where therewere a lot of people with loose cash and where anonymitywas the order of the day—perhaps a carnival or fair. Todayin all too many cases the Internet fills this bill. With millionsof inexperienced new users coming online in recentyears, the opportunities for frauds and scams are significant,as is the problem of fighting such crime. In 2007 theInternet Crime Complaint Center (a partnership betweenthe FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center) loggedits one-millionth complaint. Of the 461,096 cases referredto law enforcement agencies, the estimated dollar loss is$647.1 million, with a median loss of $270 per complaint.Many online frauds represent adaptations of traditionalcriminal practices to the online world. E-mail (see spam)carries offers for dubious cures for mostly imagined sexualills, or for prescription drugs at too-good-to-be-true prices,or for “genuine replica Rolex watches.” Internet auctionsites also offer a venue for selling fakes and counterfeits ofvarious sorts. The primary protections for the consumer areknowledge about the goods in question and taking advantageof community resources such as feedback provided byother buyers (see also auctions, online and eBay).Entire fake businesses can appear online, complete withprofessional-quality Web sites. If a prospective purchaserhas never heard of the company, checking with the BetterBusiness Bureau, or looking for a certification such asTrust-E, is a good idea. (Scammers can also impersonatelegitimate businesses in order to get personal informationfrom customers—see phishing and spoofing.)Investments are another fertile area for online scammers.These include “pump and dump” schemes where chatroomor blog postings are used to “talk up” some obscurestock and then cash in when investors start buying it andraising the price. Pyramid schemes and multilevel-marketing(MLM) programs where money from new participantsis used to pay back earlier investors also appear from timeto time.A common theme of victimization seems to be that manyWeb users seem to suspend their usual skepticism and cautionwhen they go online. This is perhaps due to the relativeunfamiliarity of the online world and the lack of experiencein evaluating products, investments, or services.A variety of other frauds and scams appear online or viae-mail with some frequency:• the “419” or “Nigerian money letter” that promises arich cut for helping facilitate a money transfer for adistressed official• fraudulent charitable solicitations, particularly aftersuch disasters as the Asian tsunami or HurricaneKatrina• adoption and marriage scams• educational fraud, such as worthless degrees offeredby unaccredited institutions• dubious employment schemes or “home businesses”involving preparing mailings or medical billing• services that offer to “repair” bad credit ratings• tax-avoidance schemes, often based on nonexistentlegal claims or loopholesFighting Online FraudBecause perpetrators are hard to track down (see anonymityand the Internet), and because of the ability to endlesslycreate new Web sites and e-mails, it is hard to controlthis form of crime (see computer crime and security).However, considerable resources are now being brought tobear, with significant success. Depending on the type offraud, federal agencies such as the Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), andthe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will investigate,