Introduction
According to the intelligence service, online fraud has been the most commonly used type of digital crime. In addition to that, they have released a report that says that one out of every ten users of the internet has at one time or the other been a victim of the online fraudsters who pose as clients or sellers or merchandise (Harkins, 2011). This prompted the government to create a website where one can be able to report any incidences of online fraud.
Thesis Statement
With reference to the given question, this paper will a scenario that details of a digital online fraud and will also give the specific detail of the fraud.
Scenario of an online fraud
A very good example of an online fraud is where internet users fall victim to the rogue security software that is found over the internet.
This type of software is used to trick the internet user into buying and installing a fake antivirus which in term takes over the operations of the computer (Harkins, 2011). This rogue security software can appear on a website in the form of an advertisement which in most of the time informs that internet user of their win for being a visitor to the website and once it has been clicked it automatically installs itself into the operating system of the computer (Bird, 2011).
The website will then display a warning of a virus in the computer operating system and will then encourage the internet user to buy and install an antivirus that they have. The internet user will go ahead and buy the antivirus without realising that it is not a genuine antivirus. The antivirus then installs its components into the computer which may appear in many forms.
Once the components have been installed, the website will continue to alert the internet user of more malicious components and will lure the internet user into paying for more services. The components will then disable some of the parts that are involved in the uninstalling of the malware so as to stop the user from being able to uninstall the components that are in the operating system (Bryant, 2008).
The developers of this rogue security software will play with the internet user’s mind to be able to make him / her pay for services using his / her credit cards yet nothing is being done to fix the situation. This kind of fraud account for 50% of the internet advertisement that are seen on a daily basis and this gives a more likely chance for internet users to be able to fall into the traps of the internet fraudsters.
These developers create a problem for the internet user who clicks on the fake advertisements that are displayed on websites and thereafter charge him / her lots of money so as to able to fix the problem which is not what they will do. They instead continue creating more problems for the internet user and continue luring him / her into paying for the services of trying to remove the malware that has been installed into the operating system of the computer (Thorsteinson, 2009).
Conclusion
In conclusion, for the developers of the rogue security software to be able to lure the internet users into their traps, they are creating an advertisement that informs that internet user of a win from visiting the website and after he /she has click of the win, malware is automatically installed into his / her computer thereby giving the chance to the developer to charge the internet user for the services of removing the malware.
References
Bird, R. (2011). CyberLaw: Text and Cases, Oklahoma, OK: Cengage Learning.
Bryant, R. (2008). Investigating Digital Crime, London, UK: Oxford University Press.
Harkins, B. (2011). Rogue Software. London, UK: John Wiley and Sons.
Thorsteinson, P. (2009). Net Security and Cryptography, New York, NY: Sage.