Internet Trauma

[cousinlucky]

I ran into a woman on the ferry today that used to work at a bank on Staten Island.

I asked her about her sister who had had massive trouble with her checking account being robbed on line. The woman explained to me that both she and her sister have vowed never to go on line again.

Recounting the things that they had went through brought tears to her eyes. I told her that I had gone to using Linux to solve my windows reformatting problems.

Unfortunately I know all too many people who will never touch a computer again because of what they have went through. A person feels safe inside their homes and as a consequence they are not as cautious while using their computers.

These people are middle aged and elderly and too trusting. I'm just wondering if any other forum members are acquainted with any sufferers of Internet trauma.

[arinlares]

my aunt got phished by an Amazon impersonator a few years ago. Oddly, my mom took it harder than my aunt, and refuses to buy anything online, unless they have a pay-by-phone option, too.

[glaston]

I understand that this is all too familiar.

But refusing to do business online, or refusing to get online because of it is a knee jerk reaction that is only justified using a heightened state of fear.

Because a person who gets burned like that, becomes more aware of things.
So it would actually be the safest time for them to be online.

There are telltale signs of internet deceptions.
And they only work on people that aren't paying enough attention.

It's good to pay attention to patterns that exist in URL's.
Secure sites have a lock that appears before the URL.
That doesn't mean a lock anywhere on the page means that it's a secure site.
Get familiar with where the lock appears on your browser indicating a genuine secure site.
Disable the "messenger service" and the "alerter service" in your services options.
These aren't the services that windows messenger uses, they're the ones those deceptive looking pop-ups that look like administrative alerts use.
For instance, in Windows you got pop-ups that fool people into thinking it's something being generated by the system and they need to take immediate action.
A good rule of thumb is that when a pop-up appears, and hovering over the pop-up makes the mouse cursor turn into a large gloved hand, that's gonna take you to an internet address.
This is made worse when you install mouse cursor themes you download from the internet that change the default behavior.
Don't do that unless you know what you're doing.
Don't install toolbar enhancements, don't mindlessly click around and change/delete toolbar settings, don't keep clicking on things when they won't run.
Repeatedly clicking is the same as giving the same command over and over, it just makes everything take longer.
It's most likely a Linux system you're being served by that uses the kernel-shell computing model.
Where every click is essentially passing the kernel another command to process.
And if the last one hasn't fully executed, well you get the idea.

[cousinlucky]

Please pardon me, Glaston, but there are a lot of people in the world that are not as computer savvy or Internet aware as you are. To assume that someone is having a " knee-jerk reation " to having their money stolen is a bit out of line as far as I am concerned.

[smolloy]

To be honest I used to be quite confused as to how so many people were tricked out of their money by online crooks -- I always thought that it was just dumb people who deserved what they got. But watching my Mum's husband use a computer completely changed my mind.

He is definitely not a dumb person, but is just someone who really has no idea how a computer works, and how the internet works. He wanted to check his email, so I opened firefox to a blank page, and clicked on the address bar for him to type in the address of his client (hotmail or gmail or something similar), but he had no idea what to do! He tried typing his email address into the address bar, but that basically executed a google search for his address. Then he tried clicking on a link to msn, but that brought him to the msn searh page, not the email client.

After that, he entered his email address into the search bar, and got another page of search results.

After several tries at this, he eventually reached a *very* suspicious page. It was a blank screen, with black text requesting his MSN email address and password. To me, it was entirely obvious that this was a phishing site, but to him it brought a lot of relief cos he finally saw something that looked right!

I interuppted him before he gave over his password, and I put him on the right page, but the experience taught me that, although he's a pretty bright guy, his complete lack of knowledge of the internet leaves him very exposed to crooks.

I was very glad when he told me that he doesn't bank online. There are, of course, ways to bank online *safely*, but I think they would be too hard for him to learn.

This is why so many people are ripped-off every day. Not stupidity, but lack of understanding of a very confusing system.

Us geeks are just lucky we grew up with the internet!

[arinlares]

i once read a report on how people fall for scams. a good scam is so close to the original, the human eye can't tell the difference. but, there's the URL bar, which can, of course, show an official-looking name. fortunately, browser coders got smart, and warn you by checking digital certificates. it isn't always a lapse of jusgement, but a good scam.

[techieMoe]

Please pardon me, Glaston, but there are a lot of people in the world that are not as computer savvy or Internet aware as you are. To assume that someone is having a " knee-jerk reation " to having their money stolen is a bit out of line as far as I am concerned.

I don't see this as out-of-line at all. It's a basic human trait to "knee-jerk" when we've been burned. What makes a person (in my opinion) is how we deal with our life after the initial knee-jerk period has passed.

A person who has been mugged, for instance, might swear off any and all urban areas for a while, but over time they may find the necessity to return to those areas for one reason or another. Perhaps this time they'll bring a buddy, or stick to well-lit, well-trafficked streets. This person is a survivor.

Another person might hole themselves up in their home somewhere and refuse to leave, to the detriment of their social and economic well-being. They refuse to learn and adapt from their experience. This person is a coward.

It's very short-sighted to completely swear off internet access in an increasingly connected world. What will happen when (assuming they're still alive) banks start requiring online access to see your bank statements rather than providing printed ones in the mail? Email addresses are increasingly becoming as important or more than phone numbers. Internet access is being treated more like a utility than a service by more and more people worldwide.

The world will pass them up, all because they refused to learn the proper, safe way to surf and do business on the internet. It's like they're reveling in their own ignorance. These people are not survivors.

Now don't get me wrong; identity theft is a horrible, life-altering experience and these women certainly deserve some sympathy. However to say that they are above criticism is a bit far-reaching in my opinion.

[Geeth]

I think that for us trying to see this from a lesser knowledgable POV is quite hard since we have lived by the net for a long time.

There are some phising attacks that are just amazing i.e the torpig virus is an awesome peice of software. It will detect which banks website that you are trying to log into and load it's own, which is damn near identicle to the real one, even with a security cert the same as the banks one.

I work at a bank in Aus and we noticed it at the start mainly because after log in customer where asked for a social security number and mothers maiden name - Aus doesn't have a ssn.

There are scams like that one that are very good in design, but there are some which are plain old stupid and I think common sense should set off alarm bells.

Like the good 'ol you have won a lottory (which you didn't enter) send $500 as security for the money to be sent to you.

Though still the most common source of fraud is still immediate family.

[cousinlucky]

There are differences between just how men and women react to the very same trauma. If a guy gets thrown off a horse he is intent on riding he will get back on it.

A woman thrown from a horse is just as apt to give up on that horse as seek another " that does not have an attitude " with her.

Middle aged and elderly people are not wise to the crimnal element using the Internet, no matter if they are members of mensa or not. On the Internet, what you do not know can hurt you.

I warned a female relative a couple of years ago to stop sending checks to pay her bills. She did not listen to me and found money missing from her checking account because all someone needs is your name and checking account number ( on the bottom of your checks ) to electronically transfer your money to another bank.

The on-line age is definately here but there are an awful lot of people whose children are the only ones who use the computer in the house. I still hear of people getting ripped off by aol even though aol's dipping into their customers accounts is common knowledge.

My godson dragged me onto the Internet by helping me get a hotmail account. Years later his C.P.A. got aol to refund the thousands of dollars it had stolen from him over the years. He makes so much money and spends so much money flying all over the world he did not realize what was happening.

[glaston]

When I was a kid my grandparents used to be vehemently opposed to giving their credit card # out over the phone.

The problem as it appears to me is that when a person falls victim to this, they automatically swear off the part of the situation where they have the least amount of experience and knowledge.

The question is are they going to such extremes in every other aspect?
Why don't they swear off credit cards themselves altogether?
Because from a certain perspective THAT is the root of the problem.

Credit card information has been traveling around on computer networks LONG before there was e-commerce.
So why don't people question the security of all personal information in electronic form?

I mean, this womans credit card and banking information doesn't get removed from the internet just because she isn't going online anymore.
All of her personal information, including market data on her spending habits on OR offline is still everywhere.

Lucky, I'm sorry if you're offended by my comments.
Perhaps I could've worded things differently and avoided that.
But you have to wonder why it took this woman getting her checking account robbed to bring security into focus for her.
The thief that got her, could've just as easily obtained her information through an offline source and then used the internet to put the charges on the account.
An employee of a store she used the credit card at could've been the culprit.
He didn't charge her card, he just sold her information to someone else who would/did.
And how is not going on the internet again gonna solve that or prevent it from happening again?
Did she say if she knew the details behind HOW her account was compromised?

The decision to never again get on the internet is more of an emotional reaction to the psychological effects caused by the situation.
Not a well thought out logical solution formulated to prevent a repeat occurrence.
This is what I referred to as a knee jerk reaction.
It's like saying that because hot coffee burned your tongue, you're never gonna drink coffee again.
You're gonna nullify the possibility of a future incident because if you don't ever drink coffee again, it's impossible to accidentally burn your tongue on "hot" coffee again.
While this is entirely a personal decision that the person has every right to make.
It's also an over-extreme course of action.

Drawing on that experience to help make yourself more aware of the consequences behind not checking the temperature of the coffee before drinking it is clearly the most logical response.
Quitting coffee entirely over the situation means you'll have to give up something you like to reach an outcome that could've been arrived at sooner and with less sacrifice.
Minimizing the overall effect that the situation has on your life as a whole.