Posted: February 14th, 2023

Online Fraud and Scams

Cybercrime
Student’s Name
Institution

Cybercrime
Online Fraud and Scams
The paper will evaluate the prevalence of online fraud and scams in Canada. Online sellers and law enforcement agencies can undertake measures to resolve online frauds and scams. The selected chapter is chapter 6; economic crime and online fraud are common cybercrimes that occurred during the pandemic. The article by Toronto Star Newspapers (2020) reported that the number of internet fraud has doubled in the last 12 months in the Waterloo region because of COVID. In most instances, victims usually send money before getting the products, leading to significant financial loss. From January 1 to July 31, the cases of online purchase and sales of items were 36, valued at around $43,715. In an incident, an online buyer responded to an online ad involving the sales of household appliances, and the ad demanded a deposit from the buyer to reserve the items. The article shows that the victim paid the deposit and did not receive the products, and the seller permanently removed the ad. Online fraud and scams are a significant problem affecting people in Canada, and there is a need to implement protective measures against the scams.
The understanding of other common types of online and frauds is critical. Other online fraud and scams include the fraudulent online sales of gift cards, pets, and vehicles. The reports of gift card fraud also indicated the persistence of online fraud. Evidence is provided from an example from the article whereby a victim received emails from an individual believed to their employer. The online fraudster requested the purchase of gift cards and offering the activation pins for the gift cards. The victims recorded losses of over $2,000 from gift card scams (Toronto Star Newspapers, 2020). These online fraud scams prompted the police to state to the public to be vigilant on the potential scams in online shopping and avoiding to respond to email requests for sending money. However, reporting scams to the police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre was essential to investigate and potentially arrest the perpetrators. These types of online frauds and scams have increased with the considerable increase in social media use, and online sellers should introduce proper controls.
The current ecommerce environment has contributed to the increase in online fraud and scams. Chapter 6 provides essential information about economic crimes and online fraud and the agencies responsible for investigating such fraud. Consumers rely on the safety and security of online retailers to help them in the management and protection of their financial data. Online services such as Amazon store the customers’ credit information on a file and allow the customers to purchase products with a single click (Holt et al., 2018). Third-party payment systems such as PayPal usually send and receive payments after purchasing and selling products and services. The COVID pandemic pushed people to rely on their online retailers to purchase groceries and consumer electronics, among other products. The ability to access products online reflects the revolution of ecommerce. Technological innovation has the benefits of making it easy for customers to purchase online but increases the risks of compromising customers’ personal information.
The dependence on Internet had led to increasing cases of online scams. The online fraud in the article by Toronto Star Newspapers (2020) shows that society is becoming heavily reliant on the Internet and computer technology to manage their financial lives remotely. The advantages of online platforms include the tracking of the expenses and monitoring of purchases in real-time. The ability of online connections to others and payment for purchases also increases the risks for fraudsters who capitalize on the vulnerable populations. For example, email scams allow people to convince replicas of online messages from valid service providers and vendors (Cross, 2020). Consumers must be careful when observing online messages. The sensitive information on people’s financial and personal lives should be controlled and regulated to prevent potential fraud opportunities. Online data thieves and fraudsters often victimize people quickly, thus leading to increased profits from the sales of data (Holt et al., 2018). It is challenging to arrest people involved in online fraud and scams.
Canada has a fraud reporting structure referred to as the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center (CAFC), a joint task force of various police departments, and the Competition Bureau. The CAFC gathers reports and compliances from victims for online and offline crimes. The complaints are combined to create intelligence briefs for the Canadian agencies who investigate the crimes, prepareprepare fraud prevention, and reduce the potential for fraudsters communicating with victims and their ability to launder the stolen money (Hodler, 2020). Collaboration with non-governmental agencies is also beneficial in dealing with online fraud, such as the Anti-Phishing Working Group formed by computer security experts, financial industry professionals, researchers, and law enforcement members who record and analyze potential phishing attacks and offer practicalpractical policy recommendations to prevent crimes in globally. The Canadian agencies should continue to work with non-governmental organizations to capitalize on their expertise in preventing online frauds and scams.
To sum up, COVID-19 led to increasedincreased online fraud, such as false sales of online ads and purchase of gift cards, and fraudulent use of the activation pins from the gift cards. Reporting the fraud events and scams to the Canadian local law enforcement and other non-government organizations will protect against online fraud incidents. The Canadian law enforcement officials should continue to improve the consumers’ awareness of potential online fraud to reduce the possibility of victimization and expand the law enforcement officials’ capabilities in responding to these crimes. Implementing proper steps to reduce the risks of online fraud is effective in improving online scams.

References
Cross, C. (2020). ‘Oh we can’t actually do anything about that: The problematic nature of jurisdiction for online fraud victims. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 20(3), 358-375.
Hodler, A. (2020). Can graphs mitigate against coronavirus-related cybercrime?. Network Security, 2020(11), 6-8.
Holt, T., Bossler, A., & SeigfriedSpellar, K. (2018). Cybercrime and digital forensics. An introduction. Second Edition. New York: Routledge.
Toronto Star Newspapers. (2020, August 13). Internet fraud instances double from last year in Waterloo region during COVID. Toronto.com. https://www.toronto.com/news-story/10137710-internet-fraud-instances-double-from-last-year-in-waterloo-region-during-covid/.