Banks and financial institutions are losing more cash to
cyber-related fraud and scams than through more conventional means,
but such activity is being hushed up, a report claims.
"[The] scale of losses in the banking sphere are not registered
in official statistics. And defrauded victims more often even do
not suspect that they [have been] robbed," said the report ,
complied by the Computer Crime Research Centre.
"Experts regard criminal [theft to be] fourfold greater with the
help of computers than in cases of armed robberies of banks in the
US. For the past decade annual losses have increased more than 20
times and come to tens of billions of US dollars."
When asked if East Europe's reputation as a haven for e-crooks
and spammers was deserved, Vladimir Golubev, founder and director
of the Ukraine-based CCRC said, "I do not agree with such
statements, I think they are not true."
He added that although eastern European governments had come to
understand many cybercrime issues, they were yet to legislate for
them.
Golubev said that apart from countries such as Nigeria and
Russia, the US still remains a heavy purveyor of spam.
While the West may be besieged with offers of college degrees
and cheap loans, CCRC says the world of spam is dominated by sex
and drugs.
According to Golubev, 42.6% of ads are for pills and other
medicinal offers, 22% for Viagra and in third place is
advertisements of different porn sources and accessories.
"The problem of fighting spam cannot be solved without
international co-operation. I think that such agreements between
countries will be a resulting role of fighting spam."
"If spammers' activity will grow [at] the same rates it will be
difficult to use e-mail for most internet users in about six to 12
months. There is an approach to spam as a social and anti-public
phenomenon in Ukraine and Russia," he said.
Julian Bajkowski writes for Computerworld Today