Cyber Scam Artists: A New Kind of .con

Scam Artists have been around for centuries. Time progressed and technological innovations emerged and so have a new breed of con artist; the online fraudster. Utilizing various aspects and tools of the Internet, the online fraudster has become more successful then ever in defrauding a large target audience. So successful, that the issue has been the subject of much concern in recent years. Although, much is being done on multiple levels of government and within the public and private sectors, online fraud is still continuing to thrive. As long as the fraudster is motivated by greed and able to deceive others, fraud will always be in existence. This paper will closely examine the emergence of the fraudster into cyberspace. It will discuss what tactics and methods the online fraudster utilizes in his/her attempts to successfully deceive others. Furthermore, it will provide a profile of those individuals who are victimized by such fraudsters. Moreover, it will analyze the steps being taken to help deal with the issue of online fraud. Lastly, several conclusions will be drawn regarding Internet fraud.