When people
use the web on a regular basis, they are going to come across a number of
online scams. Some of these online scams are simple and easy enough to spot
while others are more subtle, harder to detect. At the end of the day, anybody
could fall victim to one of these scams.
However, if
you do fall for it, how many of you report a scam? Most people do not bother to
report a scam, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, people find it humiliating to
admit to others that they were conned by a bunch of faceless scammers through
the internet. The other problem is that of trust. Users assume that if they do
report a scam, governments are powerless to take corrective actions since cyber
crime laws are weak and there are serious jurisdiction issues.
Here
are some simple reasons why when you report a scam, you are actually doing a
good thing.
Losses
worth Millions
There are so
many online scams doing the rounds today, that is resulting in losses worth
millions of dollars for web users all around the world. A lot of it is due to
the fact that users tend to ignore the issue even if they happen to be
personally affected by it. In fact, if you decide to take a closer look, you
will find all types of online fraud. This involves identity theft, gaming
fraud, online Viagra scams, fake online business fraud, donation scams, work
from home business fraud, phishing scams, social media scams and the list goes
on.
Even if the
number of scammers operating in the world runs in thousands, the number is
going to be fairly limited. However the number of people who end up being
vulnerable to the scams perpetrated by scammer will run to hundreds of
thousands every year and in terms of financial damage, could collectively cost
millions of dollars annually. When you report a scam, you are pointing lawenforcement agencies in the right direction. They will track and monitor the
criminals before catching them red handed in the act. The sooner you report a
scam, the better the chance that you will have to recover money that was lost.
Cyber
Laws
Earlier it
was true that even when people report a scam, law enforcement agencies found it
very hard to pursue the issue. This was mainly because cyber laws were very
weak at that time and there were serious jurisdictional issues. The scammer
might be targeting customers from the US while residing in Africa making it a
jurisdictional nightmare for cops and local governments to deal with the
problem. However, the good news is that uniform cyber laws have been brought
into effect which allows law enforcement agencies from around the world to work
with one another. They have been very successful at nabbing thousands of
criminals and bringing them to justice.
When you
report a scam, you also put in measures to ensure that the scammer would be
eventually caught by the authorities. This will prevent him from conning other
people in the future. If every victim approached the issue in the same way, law
enforcement agencies would be in a better position to help people out. Furthermore,
users have a number of ways to report a scam these days. This way, multiple
agencies will be pursuing the issue simultaneously, thereby increasing the odds
of the criminal being captured.
The process
is also fairly simple. Visit your government website and go to the cyber fraud
division where you can register your complaints related to online scams. You
will be given a ticket which will help you contact the organization and get
regular updates on the complaint.
If
you have any more questions related to cyber crimes, you could look for
solutions by visit Big Scammer, the one stop solution to all web based
information.
