Aug 5, 2008 2:58 pm US/Eastern
Awareness Campaign Urged Against Cyber Crime
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
"They just told us this card was declined. I called the bank and it said insufficient funds," said Idelmis Suarez, an identity theft victim, to CBS4 Consumer Investigator Al Sunshine.
Idelmis Suarez explained that she's very careful with her credit cards, and never lets them out of her sight.
She was surprised when she recently found her credit card number was used to rack up almost $2,000 worth of unauthorized charges.
"The card must have been cloned because I had it in my possession," Suarez added.
Given her circumstances, a cyber thief could have stolen Suarez's credit information by using a growing tactic, which is tapping into a wireless network.
If one uses a cell phone or digital assistant, then you know that wireless networks allow access to information through the Internet.
According to Michael Fithen of the U.S. Secret Service, this type of crime is a major problem in South Florida.
"This district led the country in federal and state arrests last year. We locked up over 700 people for that, and now we're on a record course to exceed that."
Most people use some sort of wireless network every day through a digital cell phone, like a Blackberry, or a so-called personal digital assistant.
It's easy to access wireless networks, and that's where one must be careful. CBS4 performed a demonstration at NW 25th St. and NW 87th Ave. in Doral, where it was able to pick up up four wi-fi hotspots without any problem at all. Three of them had little "lock" symbols on them showing that they were secure sites, and one of them was a free, public wi-fi area.
The little "lock" symbols offer some protection and are not supposed to be accessible to the general public.
But cyber scammers are finding new ways to crack into wireless networks even those that are highly-secured.
They know that somehow the thieves have tapped into the point of sales swipe and are getting information," said Jeffery Isherwood of Cyber-Science Laboratory. "They are not sure where or how much but they know it's happening."
To protect oneself, always use "secured" network connections even when casually browsing the Internet.
- Try to find out who runs the network and what special security is in place to keep your data private.
- Avoid using financial or credit card data on a public network.
- Double check your monthly statements for unauthorized charges.
- If you have a wireless network at home, use the strongest security protection available.
Fighting cyber fraud is not just for crime-fighters anymore. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that "network integrity" is now a major focus of its national security efforts.
It knows foreign groups are not only trying to break into bank accounts, they're trying to break into the U.S. government's most sensitive computers, too.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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