It’s a medium that attracts criminal activities like bees to honey; it offers a cloak of anonymity to conmen who take advantage of the gullibility and lack of awareness of lay users; it’s a network that extends its reaches into almost every home in the world and thus offers a wider scope for illegal activities. The Internet has spawned a whole new genre of criminals, from those who violate copyright issues by indulging in the not-so-harmful pastime of downloading and sharing music, videos and other intellectual property to the really nasty ones who traffic in child porn and steal identities.

If we were to divide online criminals into categories, we get all sorts:

  • Employees who use the Internet for their own purposes on company time are seen as engaging in illegal activities by their employers, even though they are only surfing the net, chatting or sending email.
  • Those who share and use intellectual property without prior permission.
  • Those who send fraudulent emails purporting to represent banks and other financial institutions and ask for sensitive information either to gain access to your account or to steal your identity.
  • Those who abuse wireless networks to sniff sensitive information as it’s being sent over the Internet.
  • Those who use software to track passwords and usernames as they’re being typed on keyboards.
  • Those who use bots to send huge amounts of spam email.
  • Those who release viruses and other malware into a network to cause mayhem and shut down the system.
  • Those who do business in child pornography.
  • Those who operate illegal gambling sites.
  • Those who use the net to sell banned drugs.
  • Those who use the web for terrorist activities.

Online criminals are getting bolder and more daring in their attempts to steal data and money because there are no concrete laws that govern cyber crime. Some countries are more ambiguous than others in defining what constitutes illegal activities, which means that jurisdiction issues raise their head when it comes to prosecuting criminals who are in those countries. Since the Internet spans countries and their borders, a conman in Ukraine can steal from people in the United States. Even if the crime is discovered and the criminal traced, extradition and cyber crime laws that vary from country to country make it hard for law enforcement officials to bring the crooks to book. The best way to battle cyber crime as of now is to understand that there are people out there who are waiting to catch you unaware, avoid giving out sensitive information online and clicking on links that come from strangers, and use secure sites when conducting online money transactions.

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on dial up Internet service. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.