Effect of Internet on Fraud and Identity Theft Essay

Effect of Internet on Fraud and Identity Theft - Essay Example The number of adult Americans with Internet access was expected to increase from about 88 million in mid-2000 to more than 104 million at the end of 2004. (Claburn, 2004)The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce approximated that in the fourth quarter of 2000, online retail sales amounted to $8.686 billion, a boost of 67.1 per hundred from the 4th quarter of 1999. (Haeberle, 2004) Total e-commerce sales for 2000 were an approximated $25.8 billion, accounting for 0.8 percent of all sales. Bankers, for instance, who conduct online banking transactions are particularly vulnerable to fraud and identity theft (Sullins, 2006). Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the rise in e-commerce has become fertile ground for fraud, resulting in a loss of billions of dollars yearly worldwide (Bolton & Hand, 2002). Apparently, the fraudsters are quick to realize the potential of a new technology or system to propagate deception and identity theft, and early on exploit it to their benefit. Long-distance telemarketing became the channel of such criminal activity when it was first introduced in the 1970s. So too the pay-per-call service when it became accessible in the late 1980s. Internet technology is the newest attraction for opportunistic fraudsters who take advantage of it for personal gain. The problems facing law enforcers is the rapidly evolving techniques used by the fraudsters (Acoca, 2008). The rapid increase in the number of complaints associated with online deception and fraud bears this out: in 1997, the Commission obtained less than 1,000 Internet deception complaints; the following year, the number had expanded eight-fold. Although most Internet deceptions arise from customary scams, the variety of techniques ingeniously devised to exploit the new technology is quickly proliferating.