Modus Operandi by Mauro Corvasce (universal ebook reader txt) 📕

Computers play as basic a roll in crime as they do in business and science. Computers are targets of thieves and as instruments of swindlers and intruders. Hackers pride themselves on gaining unauthorized access to data files. Money launderers cover the trails of dirty money, and common thieves can steal millions without leaving their desks. Their plundering can leave a crime scene empty of conventional clues. Only recently have states begun to pass laws that deal with computer crimes.

The annual loss from computer crime each year in the United States has been estimated as high as $100 billion. The average loss per incident can be as high as $600,000 compared to the average loss of $19,000 from all other kinds of thefts combined. The experts agree that computers will be the single greatest crime generator that we face in the future.

Telephones and Computers

Crimes involving the telecommunications industry have grown, especially since the break-up of the AT&T system. The Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA) has estimated that phone companies lose as much as $500 million each year. The most common crime is the theft of long-distance access codes.

Fraudulent Telemarketing

Fraudulent telemarketing costs the industry about $200 million a year. You receive a card in the mail that says you won a prize and you need to call a particular number to claim it. These prizes can range anywhere from a new car to a "diamond" pendant. You call the company to redeem your prize, and they ask for your credit card number. You tell them that you want to know what prize you have won. They tell you that before they can tell you what prize you won, they need your credit card number to verify who you are. That's a fallacy in a couple of ways: (1) your credit card number isn't going to tell them who you are, only the banks have that information and banks do not reveal this information; and (2) most reputable companies do not do business this way. Now, there is a giant legitimate telemarketing industry out there. The problem occurs when you make the call or when you receive an unsolicited telephone call trying to get you to buy anything from land to travel packages, vitamins and water purification systems.

Travel. The travel industry, by and large, is legitimate and well run, but there are problems with postcards that say "you have won three days, four nights in Cancun or Florida or New Orleans, call this number." What they are trying to sell you is a $300 travel club membership. What they don't tell you is that you probably have to pay for plane fare to take a travel package to an exotic locale in the off-season. Or, they overbooked the hotel so the room will not be as nice as they described to you. They are going to sell you a lot less than what you think you are buying.

Scams seem to go in a cycle. As law enforcement tries to put these telemarketers out of business, they reappear through a method called laundering. The telemarketers go out to a small family business in a rural area that has come across hard times. They approach the owners with a way of bringing money into the business every week. All they want to do, they say, is use the business' merchant number to process credit card charges, and the telemarketers will give them a percentage. This seems like an easy way to make a couple thousand dollars a week, but when the people who purchased these items start calling and complaining about the product they received, the complaints fall back onto the small business owner. Their business will fail, and the bank will ultimately take the loss. We are starting to see more and more of this operation in Florida, Texas, California and the Midwest.

Computer Crimes

Individuals possessing modified personal ethics have long been at work devising methods to use the computer to satisfy greed. Money, physical assets, information, plans and virtually every other aspect of business entrusted to a computer have been stolen or otherwise criminally violated.

Losses can occur through criminal acts, malfunctions and natural disasters. Fraud, espionage and sabotage can be instigated by people, who may be employers, employees, suppliers, customers or other outsiders. Their intent may be personal gain or harm to the company. They may be interested in obtaining assets or information to establish or improve a competitive business. Finally, they may attempt to blackmail management with threats to perform criminal acts unless they are paid off.

What are the objects of computer crime? What attracts the criminal? Deliberate crimes against a company are always perpetrated for one or a combination of these three reasons: financial gain, competitive advantage or harm to the company.

Financial Fraud. Financial gains through fraud are perpetrated far more often than the other two. Many embezzlers have the attitude that "the company can afford it" or "the company will never miss it." The targets are money or property such as the computer itself or the company's products, services, information, marketing strategy or personnel records. Products and services are fenced for money, while information, marketing strategy or personnel records are sold to competitors or used for blackmail.

Payroll. Most sizable companies generate paychecks with the computer. Generally the information necessary to compute a payroll is stored in permanent computer files. This exposes the company in three ways: (1) Money can be stolen by manipulating the payroll; (2) These files can be sabotaged and are extremely costly to reconstruct; (3) Payroll information may be stolen and used to the detriment of the company.

Generally, tampering with payroll files can be made to appear accidental. If the criminal is discovered, he will plead accidental error and merely return the funds. Properly executed, the risk of prosecution in this type of theft is minimal.

In one case of payroll manipulation, a company submitted their payroll to a data processing center with a separate payroll report for