Free Course Spotlights Online Fraud

    /24-7PressRelease/ - SANTA BARBARA, CA, April 05, 2006 -- Last year, millions of Internet users were duped into divulging credit card numbers and passwords to illegal web sites, inflicting staggering losses on the banking industry. Now the Internet community is fighting back.

A free online course will examine the growing epidemic of online fraud and help educate users on how to avoid becoming victims of cybercrime.

The four-week course begins April 17 and is being hosted by Virtual University. Powered by a grassroots army of techies and volunteers, VU was one of the earliest sites built on the World Wide Web and has been teaching people how to navigate cyberspace since the mid-1990s.

According to an FBI study, online fraud cost banks and consumers more than $130 million last year. Actual losses could be far greater because this kind of crime often goes unreported. Banks typically won't discuss cybercrime because they fear that bad publicity will drive skittish customers away from lucrative online services.

One of the most pervasive online scams today is "phishing," a form of email fraud where users are tricked into divulging passwords and other personal information to scammers, says author and network administrator Richard Dean, who will teach the cybercrime-fighting course.

Phishing victims receive an official-looking email asking them to click a link that supposedly takes them to their bank's web site. Once there, they are asked to verify their password. The web site looks genuine and even sports the bank's logo and page layout; but it is actually a fake, Dean said.

Most phishing sites are hosted on servers located in Eastern Europe or Asia where criminals operate beyond the reach of the law. Soon after a victim has compromised their account details, unexpected withdrawals or debits begin appearing on their bank statements.

Phishing attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Dean cautions. A new scam that has surfaced recently invites users to participate in a "$20 Reward Survey" being conducted by a major bank.

"This is disturbing because many online merchants conduct surveys and offer rewards," Dean said. "Although the method differs, the result is the same: users log in to a fake web site and unknowingly reveal their passwords and other sensitive data to criminals."

Further information about the free course and how to attend is available online at http://vu.org/events.html

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