As commercial Internet use continues to grow throughout the world, Internet crime continues to expand along with it. Individuals, consumers, and companies need help with identifying Internet Crime, figuring out how to stop it from occuring, and finding out where to get assistance after it occurs.

Internet crime is currently defined as, "any illegal activity involving one or more components of the Internet, such as websites, chat rooms, and/or email. Internet crime involves the use of the Internet to communicate false or fraudulent representations to consumers". 

Criminal offenses could be as simple as SPAM e-mail, or may also include "advance-fee schemes, non-delivery of goods or services, computer hacking, or employment/business opportunity schemes". There really is no limit to the types of schemes that can be developed by Internet criminals.

BJC recently became a victim of Internet crime. It wasn't highly complex or extremely costly. Someone copied and modified an Internet purchase form, which is used to sell software scripts. The suspect changed the cost from $10 USD to $0.01 in the form.  The suspect was then able to submit the form, purchase the software, and to download it.  They were able to obtain the software for a total cost of $0.02.

There were two separate transactions, and they inspired us to investigate how this occured and what we could do about it.

Here are the steps we used to identify the Internet Crime, prevent future problems, and get assistance

First, we had to ensure that future transactions were protected.  We modified our purchase process to further verify that accurate pricing was being applied before allowing the software download. In the future, this minor change prevents internet criminals from executing the same fraudulent process used by this suspect.

We searched our web site logs and determined the hostname and IP address of the computer that was responsible for implementing this fraudulent activity. We were able to obtain the exact date/time by simply looking for the scripts that were downloaded.  This logfile is important evidence of the fraudulent activity.

Using the hostname and IP address retrieved from the logfile, we were was able to identify the originating ISP that provides internet access to the suspect. All the identifying information was sent to the suspects ISP, requesting some type of censorship of the user. Sine the suspect is from China, we don't expect much of a response, but at least we clearly identified this activity in order to hopefully prevent this user from defrauding other web site owners.

We then communicated this internet fraud to the vendor used for payment processing. They have all the account information for this suspect, and they have handed the issue off to their fraud department for additional follow-up.

In discussing this issue with their customer service group, we were advised of another resource for identifying Internet fraud.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) teamed up to create the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).  The IC3 organization serves to receive Internet related criminal complaints, and to research and refer criminal complaints to federal, state, local, or international law enforcement or regulatory agencies for investigation. The IC3 doesn't investigate crimes, they simply forward the complaints to appropriate agencies. The referral agencies then take whatever action they deem appropriate.

To report Internet Crime, the IC3 web site is located at:  http://www.IC3.gov

Our case is simply one type of internet crime. There are many other types that everyone should be aware of, and watchful for.

If you feel you are a victim of internet crime, you have options available to identify the criminal activity and possibly prevent future occurrences. The IC3 web site contains information on many other types of Internet crimes. In many cases, affected individuals may be inclined to simply be more vigilant in preventing future problems for themselves, but it's also important to communicate the problem to other unsuspecting individuals who could become future victims.