Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2013 | Page 24

FORENSICS JOURNAL

E-scams: Catching Fraudsters in a
Technical World
Katherine Massey
Technology has allowed fraudsters to communicate with each other
worldwide. Whether it is the single email sent to a personal email
address requesting help to transport goods, or even a spear phishing
fraudster claiming to be the vice president of a widely known company, e-scams are becoming more creative. Although e-scam mitigation is not an easy task, the right education and tools can assist to
reduce the risk of widespread damage.

victim to access his account and update information due to an unexpected system loss. The fraudster may go on to entrap the victim by
informing him that his account will no longer be functional if he does
not take immediate action to rectify the problem. (See Figure 1.) By
the time officials become aware of what has transpired, the fraudsters
have usually removed and relocated their fraud scheme somewhere
else within the Internet.

The introduction of computers and the Internet has not changed the
basic concept of a scam, it has just made it easier for the perpetrators to carry out their fraudulent activities (Easttom and Taylor, 20).
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has been established
to help Internet users report Internet crimes, and offer tips to help
users reduce the chance of being caught in an e-scam. In partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National
White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), the IC3’s primary objective is
to, “leverage both intelligence and subject matter expert resources” to
effectively combat cyber crime (Internet Crime Compliant Center).
Other organizations such as Canada’s Anti Fraud Centre have been
established to help combat cyber criminal activity and reduce the risk
of further exploitation.

FIGURE 1: eBay Phishing Scam

With the willingness of fraudsters to carry out their crimes on the
Internet, it is important for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and
E-mail Service Providers (ESPs) alike to have ways to report the suspected fraudulent activity. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has
a “Safety” icon which may be used to report a suspicious site, as well
as, a specialized email address to report potentially fraudulent email
communications. Many large-scale ISPs such as Yahoo and AOL have
established Feedback Loops (FBL) to segment out suspected spam
or scam-ridden communications that have plagued email systems
(Getting Into the Feedback Loop). FBL connects as a bridge from a
recipient’s inbox, outward to the source where the email originated. If
the recipient elects to report the email communication as spam, then
the complaint is documented. A feedback loop may also relay the
complaint to the sender, provided it is a trusted email sender such as
a large-scale ESP. As spam reports accumulate, the ISPs protect their
customers by placing the offending sender’s information on a blacklist
(Getting Into the Feedback Loop). If a sender’s information is blacklisted, it will be blocked and unable to deliver emails until the sender’s
credentials have been removed from the blacklist or filter. However,
different types of scams may require different types of tools based on
the attributes that the scams exhibit.

Gongol, Brian. “How to Recognize Phishing.” Online Image. 11
Mar. 2005. GONGOL.com. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. http://www.
gongol.com/howto/recognizephishing/
When analyzing a phishing scam, reviewing the grammatical composition of the email may reveal numerous spelling errors (Gongol).
This is attributed to the fact that fraudsters may not be native speakers
of the language they are using to write the email. The links within
the emails themselves also can indicate a problem. If a link in an
email appears to redirect to a different site, then it could mean that
the communication is fraudulent. By placing a mouse over the URL
listed in an email, the user can review the actual link information. In

Phishing is the impersonation of a seemingly legitimate organization.
It is an Internet fraud technique that leads to the theft of personal login credentials, bank account information, credit cards, and countless
other bits of confidential information (What is Phishing?). A phishing communication such as an email usually assumes the identity
of a real financial institution, auction site, or other familiar Internet
organization. The scam is predicated on an urgent requirement for a

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