CYBER STALKING, FRAUD AND AB

USE
CHAPTER 3
J.Matining, SM.Acuzar, DN.Cuario, JM.Martinez
CYBER STALKING

- It’s use of Internet or other electric communicatio

n devices to harass or threaten a person.

Stalking - repetitive and obsessive behavior such as wa

tching or following a person all the time and harass or
threaten the person.
 Real Cyber Stalking Cases
 In the first successful prosecution under California’s new cyber stalking l
aw, prosecutors in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office obtained a
guilty plea from a 50-year-old former security guard who used the Intern
et to solicit the rape of a woman who rejected his romantic advances. Th
e defendant terrorized his 28-year-old victim by impersonating her in var
ious Internet chat rooms and online bulletin boards, where he posted, al
ong with her telephone number and address, messages that she fantasi
zed being raped. On at least six occasions, sometimes in the middle of t
he night, men knocked on the woman’s door saying they wanted to rape
her. The former security guard pleaded guilty in April 1999 to one count
of stalking and three counts of solicitation of sexual assault. He faces up
to six years in prison.
Robert James Murphy was the first person charge
d under federal law for cyber stalking. He was accus
ed of violating Title 47 of U.S. Code 223, which proh
ibits the use of telecommunications to annoy, abuse
, threaten, or harass anyone. Mr. Murphy was accus
ed of sending sexually explicit messages and photo
graphs to his ex-girlfriend. This activity continued for
a period of years. He was charged and eventually pl
ed guilty to two counts of cyber stalking.
Black’s Law Dictionary7 defines harassment as foll
ows:

“A course of conduct directed at a specific person that c

auses substantial emotional distress in such person an
d serves no legitimate purpose.”

“Words, gestures, and actions that tend to annoy, alarm

, and abuse (verbally) another person.”
One reason law enforcement agencies are taking
a much closer look at cyber crimes is the frequen
cy with which they become real-world crimes with
real consequences in the physical world.
Cyber world can be connected to physical crimes.
In 2006, Arizona resident Heather Kane was arrested for usi
ng MySpace to attempt to solicit a hit man to kill a woman wh
ose picture had appeared on Ms. Kane’s boyfriend’s MySpac
e page. After finding a person she thought was a hit man, sh
e met with him and gave him a $400 down payment. The indi
vidual was in fact an undercover police officer.

In February 2009 in the United Kingdom, Edward Richardso

n stabbed his wife to death because she had changed her m
arital status on her Facebook page from married to single.
How to Evaluate Cyber Stalking
One obvious example of cyber stalking is the sending of thre
atening email messages. But even the definitions of harass, t
hreaten, and intimidate are somewhat vague. Obviously, if a
person sends an email to another person threatening to kill th
at person and provides photos of the recipient to demon- stra
te that the sender is familiar with the target’s appearance and
address, that would clearly be cyber stalking.
How do you determine whether to take a thre
at seriously?
Four Factors:
Credibility: must be some reasonable expectation that it could be carri
ed out.
Frequency: isolated threats are of less concern than a pattern of hara
ssment and threats.
Specificity: how specific the perpetrator is regarding the nature of the
threat, the target of the threat, and the means of executing the threat.
Real threats aren’t always specific but specific threats are usually real.
Intensity: refers to the general tone of the communications, the nature
of the language, and the intensity of the threat.
 FRAUD
- is intentional deception to secure unfair or unla
wful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right.
HOW INTERNET FRAUD WORKS?
INVESTMENT OFFERS
Investment schems involve getting you or your busines
s to part with money on the promise of a questionnable financi
al opportunity.

COMMON SCHEMES
One of the more common schemes involves sending o
ut an email that sugget that you can make an outrageous sum
of money with a very minimal investment.
 INVESTMENT ADVICE
-Investment advice is any recommendation or guida
nce that attempts to educate,inform,or guide an investor reg
arding a particular investment product or series of products.
-Investment advice can be professional-that is,the i
nvestor pays a fee in exchange for the qualified profesionals
guidance and expertise,as seen with financial planners-or it
can be amateur as with certain internet blogs,chat rooms or
even conversation.
-Sometimes these online stock bulletins can be par
t of a wider schemes often called a pump and dump.
THE US SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION LISTS SEVERAL TIPS
FOR

AVOIDING SUCH SCAMS

 Consider the source
 Independently Verify Claims
 Research
 Beware of High Presure Tactics
 Be Skeptical

AUCTION FRAUD
-Internet auction fraud involves schemes attributable to the misre
presenttion of a product advertised for sale through an internet auction site.
THE US FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FT
C) LISTS OF FF. CATEGORIES OF
ONLINE AUCTION FRAUD
 Failure to send the merchandise
 Sending something a lesser value than advetised
 Failure to deliver in a timely manner
 Failure to disclose all relevant information about a product o
r terms of the sale
IDENTITY THEFT
The US Department of Justice defines Identity theft in t
his manner "Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to r
efer all types of crimein which someone wrongfully obtains and
uses another persons personal data in some way that involves
fraud or deception,typically for economic gain"

PHISHING
One of the more common ways to accomplish identity t
heft is via a technique called phishing,which is the process of tr
ying to induce the target to provide you with personal informati
on.
THANK YOU