What is cybercrime?

Cybercrime is a term that covers a wide array of attacks and scams. Generally, it is a crime in which a computer or network is the place, source, target or tool of said crime. Cybercrime covers everything from phishing and pharming techniques to devastating network viruses, from identity theft to cyberstalking and harassment, from self-replicating crime ware programs to cyber terrorism. Detailed below are three methods of financially motivated cybercrime that target individuals.

Phishing — Phishing is a way of fraudulently obtaining personal information through spam or targeted emails that appear to be from trusted sources. These fraudulent emails often contain well-known logos and slogans and inform the user that their account password has expired. The cyber crooks goal is to fool a significant number of individuals that receive the fraudulent email. The individuals that are fooled by the fraudulent email either give up their personal information directly by replying to the email or are directed to a spoofed website where they are asked to provide their personal information.

Pharming — Pharming uses Domain Name Service hijacking to misdirect users to a spoof site that collects credit card numbers, passwords, and social security numbers. Sometimes the cyber crooks use a pop-up to try to obtain this information before directing users to the real website.

Malware — These are tools frequently used by cyber crooks. Malware applies to any kind of malicious software used to cause harm to your computer. These technologies, which include Trojans, worms, and keystroke loggers, can take over some aspect of your computer in order to steal your personal information and ultimately obtain access to your account.

What is 'Spoofing'?

Pretending to be something it is not, whether an email, website, etc…

How to report 'Phishing' or 'Spoofing'

We suggest reporting "phishing" or "spoofed" emails to the following groups:

• The Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov
• The company that is being spoofed (e.g. "spoof@ebay.com")
• The Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ic3.gov

Do not forward the spoofed email. Instead, save the entire email to a PDF file including the orignal header information and then send it as an attachment