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Digital Survival from Electronic Crimes |
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Digital Survival from Electronic Crimes
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By Paul LeGrand, Investigations Manager,
Informed Decision Investigative and Background Information Services, Inc.
Think the black suits and sunglasses crowd is going to bust the guy who put airline tickets to Paris on your debit card? You might be in for a surprise. As an Investigations Manager for Informed Decision Investigative and Background Information Services Inc, I have a good pulse on the community, and we’re handling more electronic crimes investigations than ever before. Unfortunately, in many cases there’s little to do except clean up the mess so it won’t happen again.
Reality check! Cops like to go after people they can catch. That typically excludes complex electronic crimes that cross jurisdictional lines. Without an effective means to obtain an arrest, your case isn’t very interesting to the local cops, because their case isn’t very interesting to the local district attorney. The Feds have better tools to prosecute cybercriminals, but they’re not going bother with busting and extraditing the guy who bought two iPod Nanos on your debit card through Dixon’s of Salt Lake.
Since the USA Patriot Act was passed in October 2001, the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force has been one of the lead agencies in “tracking down cybercriminals causing significant economic or community impact, or involving organized criminal groups participating in transnational organized crime.” Think carefully about that mission statement. When some cybercriminal charges $1400 worth of electronics to my debit card, it may cause “significant economic or community impact” as far as my home life is concerned, but it’s not going to raise any eyebrows at the Secret Service. In fact, to get some government agencies to seriously investigate your cybercrime case, the threshold is now north of $100,000. Kinda makes you want to do business with a stack of Jacksons, but that’s not real convenient these days.
Personally, I like being able to buy that Big Mac Combo with a half second swipe of the plastic, or fill my tank without visiting a greasy haired cashier in a Plexiglas booth. Here’s how to find a good middle ground:
1) Use credit instead of debit transactions whenever possible. The fewer places you punch in your PIN, the less likely your information is to be stolen. You’re in a better position disputing a fraudulent credit transaction than a fraudulent debit transaction with your bank, especially if it’s pricey!
2) Don’t have high balance accounts like savings and brokerage accounts at the tip of your fingers unless there’s a good reason to have them there.
3) Don’t have large lines of credit linked to your plastic. When knucklehead tries to do serious damage, the firewall of “insufficient funds” will stop him in many cases.
4) Firewall your computer and use good anti-virus software.
5) When you surf the internet, think before you click. That porn site ending in .RU or that email marked “Bank of America – Account Deactivation Notice” might drive a stake through your checkbook with a single click.
6) Watch your account online and report anything suspicious right away.
If you see a problem, call your bank’s fraud number and either go to the bank and change your PIN, or have them kill off your card and overnight you a replacement. Then send them something in writing documenting the fraudulent charge. The bank’s fraud hotline people will tell you how to write it up. There is a happy medium you can find between ultimate security and ultimate convenience to eliminate electronic crimes
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