Internet Crime

Crime has moved online. Big time.

We all know about things like identity theft. Hacker attacks. E-mail scams.

While they show no signs of abating and in point of fact are growing worse every year, so is much more serious crime.

As you read this, organized gangs of very tech savvy criminals are scouring the Internet trying to find victims, steal passwords, glean personal information like passwords that will let them into your bank account, access your credit card and con, trick and mislead you into giving them money.

Internet crime is doubling every year, says the FBI.

The criminals behind this epidemic are clever almost beyond belief. And they’re armed with tech tools of immense power. “They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers. Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn’t have imagined just five years ago,” says the FBI’s Donald Brackman of the National White Collar Crime Center.

If you have a computer or smartphone that connects to the Internet, you are a target. Punch in your password or username at the wrong site and your checking account could be wiped out in minutes, Legitimate websites are illegally copied (“webjacked” is the term) and take orders (and payments) for products they can’t deliver. Spammers peddle useless products using misleading claims and violating federal laws about sending unsolicited email. Craigslist and e-Bay auctions are filled with fraudsters. Criminals monitor Facebook and Twitter and note when you’re gone from home so they can head to your address and steal you blind.

Then there are the pedophiles preying on your kids, the hackers who plant malicious code on your computer that gives them secret control over it and those porn peddlers sending you disgusting offers. Add to that the Internet marketers who use deception, misleading statements and high pressure tactics and you can see why you need an Internet Watchdog.

That’s what we are. Founded by veteran award winning investigative journalist Mike Wendland, we monitor and report the latest online consumer protection news. Read our blog for the latest dispatches and check out our warnings and archived records. And contact us with any questions or comments. We’re here to help. We’re The Internet Watchdog.

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