Essay preview
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines fraud in three ways; a crime of using dishonest methods to take something valuable from another person, a person who pretends to be what he or she is not in order to trick people and a copy of something that is meant to look like the real thing in order to trick people. Combine all three definitions, the internet, a few good hackers and one has a recipe for the worst thieves on the planet today. The internet is an amazing source of information, a place where people can blog about whatever they want, have hours of entertainment and a dangerous pit of scams that will empty ones bank account. According to CBS news, in 2008 internet fraud hit a new high of $240 million lost to internet crimes. Anything from checking cashing, disaster relief, online dating, car buying to the famous Nigerian 419 scam. The internet started out as a safe place where one could escape to read about anything; now, one can barely log on the internet without feeling harassed by an anti-virus pop up screaming for a software update. The world is used to the standard drug dealer/user, thief, and even murder deviants but now we are dealing with whole new norm of deviants. These new deviants are not petty thieves anymore, by using the kindness, vulnerability and generosity of victims to manipulate money from them. The world's new type of deviants are coming from a society that encourages this type of behavior. Today, there are thousands of scams on the internet that anyone, even a veteran internet user, can fall victim to. Ryan Dube stated that the two largest internet scams of all time were, the Nigerian 419 scam and the phishing email or pop-up scam. As of 2010, the Nigerian 419 scam has cost victims around the world $32 million. The Nigerian 419 scam is basically a very elaborate email (that originates from Nigeria) describing a situation where the email author possessed a large sum of money but unless they could do a transfer from their country to a bank in the United States, it was going to be taken a...