It happened that this was part of my research paper in one of my module. I will extract the information from my research paper which includes, cases of internet crime and defination of the internet crime. 2 of the cases are of overseas case and one of which occurs in local-Singapore context.
Email banking scam.
Basically, it is an email that involves “phishing” which is actually “the practice of luring unsuspecting Internet users to a fake Web site by using authentic-looking email with the real organization's logo, in an attempt to steal passwords, financial or personal information, or introduce a virus attack; the creation of a Web site replica for fooling unsuspecting Internet users into submitting personal or financial information or passwords”.
However, in this scamming situation, it was created in reality format due to the nature of the message which looks to be one that is from the bank. However, the link that was in the email would link the victim to the fake bank website, whereby the victim would divulge his or her information to verify the account after which there would be an error message and the victim would then be redirected to the real bank website.
Furthermore, the web page used by the scammer includes of encrypted SSL (a form of encryption that provides additional security) connections which the US Federal Trade Commission advises the public to look out for the lock icon at the bottom of the webpage. As such it adds on to the influence of the public causing them to be scammed
To read full article:
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39118902,00.htm?r=1
Social interaction online crime
In this case, a man from Dayton would likely face a minimum jail term of 35years when sentenced. Basically what he had done was to persuade underaged girls to engage in sexually explicit acts for him in front of the webcam.
He would get to know the girls in online chat rooms by using an interesting name and some unknown young man’s photo. During the chat, he persuaded his victims to commit sexual acts in the webcams and recorded it and even distributed the video around.
His luck came to an end when one of his victims sent love letters to his former work place with one of the interesting names he used. His former employer found it to be related to child pornography and reported the matter to the authorities, after which he was caught shortly.
In his case, it was also reported that he even hacked into the minors’ webcam whereby he would be able to look at them once they activate their webcam. A statement by Lockhart was released saying that computer being an important part of our life but it was also a way people would exploit its vulnerability. Therefore he advises parents to be vigilant about their children online activity (Lockhart, 2006).
For full story:
http://www.cybercrime.gov/millerPlea.htm
Singapore cybercrime: Internet seller cheats buyers
In Singapore, there is also an increase of cases related to cyber crime. In the most recent case, there was an internet seller who cheated the buyer. Basically, the sellers involved were a man and a woman. They had scammed off nearly $10,000 from buyers. They were actually supposed to purchase imported goods for other internet users, but after the money had been transferred to them, the goods did not arrive and they could not be contacted.
Not long later, their web page closed down. However, in this case, they were unlucky as justice caught up with them and they were soon nabbed by the police. If convicted, they are likely to face a jail term of up to 7years.
Full story:
http://www.spf.gov.sg/mic/2007/071024_internetsellercheat.htm
From these 3 cases, we can see that there are many internet crime around, and we ought to be vigilant in whatever we do when in the online world.
Till next week. Cheers!
~me~ at 4:07 PM Hello people,
just spent a couple of hours on the video, and here it is :)
Hope you guys enjoy -D.
Anyway, i will now move on to talk about the google tools.
I have download before google desktop. I think it is very useful because of the shortcuts it allows. But in my personal opinion, it lags the whole computer start up. When i checked the use of system memory. It seems that, google desktop takes up alot of it. Therefore, after sometimes, i decided to uninstall it. I guess these are the pros and cons of free software?
Next, my favourite use of google tool is the google translator. I feel it is very useful as when you do not understand certain language article that you are reading, you can use it to translate. For me, i always use it to translate HongKong drama synopsis. Well, i would say the translation is not exactly accurate, but still, its already good enough as rather than not understanding what it is at all, it helps me to understand certain part. I guess, the problem with such translator is because they translate word for word and we cant translate word for word as certain things in Chinese does not mean that in English.
Moving on, is the tools that Mr Choy introduced- Google Earth.
I feel it is absolutely phenomenal considering the fact that we can from places to places in just seconds to minutes. Although we cant be physically there, being able to see those places within seconds is already more than satisfying. I mean, its like clicking Singapore to United States, in just seconds to minutes. It is definitely useful to explore these places that can help us increase our general knowledge.
I haven't used before picasa but i have visited a friend's photos that is uploaded in picasa. Personally, i feel that it is rather laggy, but it could be due to the fact that my friend has submitted quite a number of album. When i meant laggy, it is during the time when we want to enlarge a particular photo, but for the web to load the photo, the speed is rather average.
To sum up, i feel the advantages that the google tools have gave us is incredible. But i believe all the problems associated with the google tools that i stated earlier would be resolved, as if i am not wrong, most of the tools are still in BETA. So i believe, in time to come, google will be everywhere in our computer!
~me~ at 8:58 PM This week, we learnt alot on the Bloom's Taxonomy namely Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor. My entry will talk more on E-learning aspect, which i think is the future learning method, although personally i prefer the traditional learning method.
E-learning, is defined as " a type of Technology supported education/learning (TSL) where the medium of instruction is computer technology, particularly involving digital technologies". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_learning
Well personally, in my poly days, i have used e-learning before for some modules. At that point of time, i feel the pro of this program is the time saving i can save from travelling to school. But as times goes by, i realized the cons are more as, it is all learning by ourselves, and there wasnt much participation in the discussion board, and it makes me feel that i didnt learn much in those e-learning modules.
Now, even in SIM, i have already taken a module online- NTR 109. But this time round, i feel the system is a lot better. The lectuerer would tell us to discuss an article in the discussion board-graded, and personally i think because of US students, it added alot of life to the general discussion board and in the end of the module, i feel i have learnt alot and feel it doesnt make any difference even if i were to take it in class.
As i have done a research paper in the aspect of Internet in the area of e-learning, i will share some points that was written in my research paper.
Pros
- group of practitioners believed that asynchronous conferencing can encourage shy students
-psychologist have discovered that certain people who have difficulties communicating in the real world, manage to find their true self in the virtual well and express themselves with their real character
-increase in creative response, reflective thinking and awareness of multiple perspectives, by the works student submitted
-provided people with disabilities advantage as they could be learning from home that saves them from a lot of trouble
Cons
-students with limited skills for the usage of computer would take more time to do their work as they would have to explore around to figure out the use of internet and the e-learning webpage as it was noted that some of the e-learning interface was rather “complex and not user-friendly”
-at times when datelines are due for assignments, the server of the web may be down which would frustrate the students
-inaccessibility of computers for students who are poor and thus the inability to afford one would hinder their learning process as they are unable to learn through e-learning
-some students prefer to look and read at what others had contributed with their posting rather than exposing their thoughts publicly
Well, as we can see, there are advantages and disadvantages in the use of e-learning, but personally, i feel the future of learning is in e-learning, as a couple of schools have provided diploma/degree purely online. We could well see how successful e-learning would evolve in years to come.
~me~ at 7:24 PM This week our lecture talks mainly on e-commerce and e-business respectively.
For the purpose of my blog entry, i will be touching on e-commerce only.
Personally i am an avid user of buying things online. One of the reason that i like buying things from online store is that i feel it is damm convenient, all you need is to click click click, check out, payment, and wait for the goods to arrive at your doorstep. (of course you have to worry about your credit card bill at the end of the month).
What more, recently i have just been online shopping from a couple of Britian's online store. Considering the fact that the currency of pound and singapore dollar is at somewhere about ( GBP 1= SGD 2.2), which in my opinion is a good rate. The same product could be selling in singapore at say $100, but due to the flucuation of the value of currency, when we get it from Britian, it may cost say $80 bucks. This may be just a mere value of $20, but when you think of buying even more expensive goods, the savings would be incredible.
As much as i like to shop online, of course there is the security issue. One of the key factor that i would look out for is the "VeriSign Secured" logo to ensure that my information will be encrypted and that my information is safe.
An example is:
Personally, as much as i enjoy buying from apple online store, i am not very pleased with the apple itunestore because the moment we sign up for the account, we have to put our credit card information, and the next time we sign in to purchase songs or applications from the store, they will not prompt for our credit card information already. As such, i dont feel "safe" in a way. Although it might be more of a hassle, but by putting in the credit card information everytime we purchase will definately be better.
Another drawback in my personal opinion is that certain goods that are available online, are not being able to ship to Singapore for a reason or two. After clicking the products that you want, and that you are preparing to choose the country, there is no selection for Singapore. It is rather frustrating as you could have been browisng for quite sometimes, and just as you thought that you are happy with your products that you chose, you realized that those items cant be shipped to Singapore as they are not part of the option. How dissapointing can this get . . .
To counter this problem, i realized that many have set up blogs where they have spree shopping. From my understandings, forum have this too. It is something like whereby kind of groupbuy whereby the thread-starter or the blog owner would show the link of certain products and ask those interested to put the product code. After that you will have to transfer the money to the thread-starter/blog owner and goods will typically arrive 1~2weeks after payment.
To sum up, i feel e-commerce definately has more a lot of advantages, but there are its disadvantages as well, at the end of the days, its your call!
~me~ at 2:42 PM