Chapter 13. The Internet Con Artists

Obviously crime pays, or there’d be no crime.

G. GORDON LIDDY

When most people think of Internet crime, they picture hackers stealing credit card numbers and racking up huge charges for somebody else to pay. Although this can and does occur, the biggest threat on the Internet isn’t hackers, it’s con artists, many of whom are no more competent at using a computer than the people they’re victimizing.

Whether con artists are fleecing a victim in person, through the mail, over the telephone, or over the Internet, all follow the same basic approach:

  1. Promise a fantastic reward in return for little or no effort. (Victims are usually too blinded by their own greed to question why the con artist would want to help them ...

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