Internet Fraud Preventive Measures (Thesis Proposal Sample)

Internet Fraud Preventive Measures
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Internet Fraud Preventive Measures
As cyberspace continues to evolve, so does the internet's influence on typical social, cultural, economic, and cultural interactions and activities. For instance, e-commerce has altered how people conduct business; people no longer pay in cash but use electronic money transfers to transact. However, the internet is a double-edged sword. Its rise in prominence has sparked a wave of cybercrime. Cybercriminals illegally mint millions of dollars from unsuspecting people annually. For example, in 2019, the FBI received over 400 000 online fraud complaints and estimated that cybercriminals stole over $3.5 billion (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2020). These criminals steal identities and perpetrate phishing scams that jeopardize people's privacy and steal from them outright. This paper discusses two of the most commonly used online fraud techniques (identity theft and phishing) and recommends preemptive measures to curb their spread.
Identity theft is a globally menacing problem that continues to ravage the online space as the internet penetration rate grows. In 2019 in the US, it ranked as one of the most reported fraud complaints together with imposter scams and debt collection. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received over 167 000 complaints of identity theft that led to credit card scams (Federal Trade Commission, 2019a). The eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the issue as many people work from home now. Cybercriminals target unsuspecting innocent people and steal their personally identifiable information, medical data, and financial information. They then use this information to defraud these same people of their hard-earned money. Curbing this form of fraud starts with protecting one's personal information online. According to Gasparini (2020), people should be wary of imposters who ask or deceive them into sharing their personal information online. Secondly, people must also ascertain that their data is encrypted in all online transactions. One way of doing so is ensuring there is a "lock" icon on the browser address bar of the website one is transacting. Finally, people should keep all their passwords private and minimally share any personal information over social networks. These three methods thwart identity thieves' efforts to mitigate online fraud by depriving them of any personally identifiable information that may imperil personal identity, medical data, or financial information.
Similar to identity theft, phishing is another prevalent form of online fraud. It affects millions of people annually who lose unimaginable sums of money to phishing scams. For instance, in 2019, the FBI reported that phishing attacks directly led to over $57 million in losses (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2020). Although scammers are continually evolving and developing new tactics, the Federal Trade Commission (2019b) recommends various practices to identify and stop online phishing scams. One, since scammers prey on people's naivety to trick them into revealing their personal information through text or email or disclose their social security number, bank information (credit card and account numbers), or passwords, people should install online security software. The same goes for people who transact or regularly use their smartphones to access sensitive information. This software prevents online attackers from exploiting computer security gaps to solicit, mine, or capture this information. People should also set their security software to update automatically to receive the latest protection tools and techniques to avert any breach attempts. Complementing this software with multifactor authentication adds an extra layer of online security and thwarts scammers' efforts to access accounts even if they have account usernames and passwords. Despite email providers adding spam filters to primarily filter out possible phishing attacks and scams, the above measures provide an extra layer of security and help to mitigate such attacks and fraud perpetrated in this manner
In all, internet fraud is worryingly on the rise as the number of online users continues to