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Most
online commerce is safe if you protect yourself from credit
card fraud
By
Bill Bongle
When
I was a kid, exploring meant a walk through the woods and
checking out an abandoned farmhouse. When I moved to the
city, my exploring evolved into bike rides through the neighborhood
and finding trails that lead to some unknown place. With
the infiltration of the home computer my exploration has
taken on a more academic role via the Internet. It's an
amazing source of knowledge and a wonderful tool, but there
are hidden dangers that we must all be aware of. For a kid
exploring the farmhouse, caution was needed to avoid stepping
on a board with a rusty spike. As a police officer I can
tell you that the Internet's dangers are for more subtle
and potentially more dangerous than the rusty spike.
Before
I go on I would like to explain that this article is not
meant to frighten anyone or discourage people from online
shopping. I simply hope to raise your awareness so that
you may take steps to protect yourself from fraud.
A few
years ago I met a teenage boy who had a keen interest in
computers. For this story we'll call him Bobby. Bobby comes
from a good family and he is very intelligent.He accessed
the Internet at the Brown County library and was soon absorbing
knowledge byreading hundreds of articles about computers
and how they work. But then something happened that Bobby
hadn't anticipated. He found himself in
possession of a stolen credit card number, which had been
e-mailed to him by a friend.
Bobby
explained there was a certain excitement about simply having
the number. He held onto it for weeks and later explained
he could have deleted it with a mouse click, but there was
something tantalizing about it. Ordering merchandise with
a credit card number didn't really seem like stealing. There
was no person or face attached to it, just a screen and
a keyboard. There seemed to be little risk getting caught.
After all, the merchandise was coming from hundreds if not
thousands of miles away.
So,
Bobby began to order things on line with the number. It
seemed very easy at first. To avoid detection, Bobby planned
to have the items delivered to a vacant apartment and then
simply pick them up when the coast was clear.
Perhaps
fortunately for Bobby, the deliveryman knew his route all
too well and became suspicious about the deliveries. The
delivery service conducted its own investigation and learned
that the packages had been ordered through an e-mail account
from the library. Once Bobby had been identified, it became
a police matter. A boy who probably never would have taken
a candy bar from the grocery store would now face several
counts of credit card fraud. It was a difficult time for
all involved, especially his family. But Bobby was glad
he got caught when he did, before the monster got even bigger.
As tears streamed down his face he told me that he accepted
full responsibility for his actions. He refused to cast
blame on a system that made it easy or the friend who provided
him the stolen number.
This
whole incident left me wondering how someone like Bobby
could get his hands that kind of information. It was now
clear how Bobby's friend obtained the credit card number
but through our investigation
we learned of a number of ways clever people can access
this information.
There
are a number of "hacker" web sites that give detailed
information explaining how to obtain credit card numbers
and use them. One site even allows you to download a program,
which generates fictitious credit card numbers. Here are
just some of the methods the online thieves can use. In
our case, the victim had conducted an online transaction
at a library computer.
-The
victim failed to delete his card number upon completing
the transaction.
-The
thief may simply watch the victim enter the information
while pretending to look at a magazine.
-Software
programs that record every keystroke to a text file can
be set to run invisibly on a computer. This system is used
by some network administrators to see if employees are stealing
corporate secrets.
I believe
that online shopping is relatively safe. Credit card numbers
are encrypted and nearly impossible to intercept. Personally,I
would avoid making credit-card transactions on computers
with public access. Thieves are more likely to use conventional
methods of obtaining the information they need, such as
digging though you garbage and obtaining account numbers
from old receipts. A paper shredder is a good investment.
The
Internet can be a wonderful tool but like anything good,
it can be used for bad. It's good to let our children explore
but we need to help them avoid stepping on the rusty spikes.
Bill
Bongle is a 13-year veteran of the Green Bay Police Department
and is currently a community-policing officer in the Broadway-Fort
Howard district. He is also employed as a computer technician
at CyberExchange.
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