- tYpEs oF cYbErCr!Me -

As Internet usage continues to rise throughout the world, the threat of cyber crime also grows. While some of these crimes are relatively harmless and commonplace, others are very serious and carry with them felony charges. Here are a few of the more common forms of cyber crime.

Spam
1. The most common type of cyber crime is spam. While email spam laws are fairly new, there have been laws on the books regarding "unsolicited electronic communications" for many years.

Fraud
2. Credit fraud is another common form of cyber crime. Certain computer viruses can log keystrokes on your keyboard and send them to hackers, who can then take your Social Security number, credit card number and home address. This information will be used by the hacker for his own means.

Cyber Bullying
3. Harassment, or cyber bullying, is a growing problem among teenagers. Many countries in Europe and several states in the United States have laws to punish those who consistently harass somebody over the Internet.

Drug Trafficking
4. Believe it or not, drug trafficking is happening over the Internet. Many traffickers use encrypted email or password-protected message boards to arrange drug deals.

Cyberterrorism
5. There are many forms of cyberterrorism. Sometimes it's a rather smart hacker breaking into a government website, other times it's just a group of like-minded Internet users who crash a website by flooding it with traffic. No matter how harmless it may seem, it is still illegal.

Piracy
6. Far and away the most talked about form of cyber crime is thievery. Yes, downloading music from peer-to-peer websites is illegal and therefore a form of cyber crime.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_4970264_different-types-cyber-crime.html

- CyBeRcR!mE -

Cybercrime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. This includes anything from downloading illegal music files to stealing millions of dollars from online bank accounts. Cybercrime also includes non-monetary offenses, such as creating and distributing viruses on other computers or posting confidential business information on the Internet.Perhaps the most prominent form of cybercrime is identity theft, in which criminals use the Internet to steal personal information from other users. Two of the most common ways this is done is through phishing and pharming. Both of these methods lure users to fake websites (that appear to be legitimate), where they are asked to enter personal information. This includes login information, such as usernames and passwords, phone numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and other information criminals can use to "steal" another person's identity. For this reason, it is smart to always check the URL or Web address of a site to make sure it is legitimate before entering your personal information.Because cybercrime covers such a broad scope of criminal activity, the examples above are only a few of the thousands of crimes that are considered cybercrimes. While computers and the Internet have made our lives easier in many ways, it is unfortunate that people also use these technologies to take advantage of others. Therefore, it is smart to protect yourself by using antivirus and spyware blocking software and being careful where you enter your personal information.

http://www.techterms.com/definition/cybercrime

- f!sHiNg oR pH!sHiNg -

(fish´ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.

Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on "fishing," the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

case 1

2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher” counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.

case 2

In one fairly typical case before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a 17-year-old male sent out messages purporting to be from America Online that said there had been a billing problem with recipients' AOL accounts. The perpetrator's e-mail used AOL logos and contained legitimate links. If recipients clicked on the "AOL Billing Center" link, however, they were taken to a spoofed AOL Web page that asked for personal information, including credit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs), social security numbers, banking numbers, and passwords. This information was used for identity theft.

sources:

1) http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html

2) http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci916037,00.html