You all may very well be aware of the online crimes and e-SCAMs. “Losses being incurred as a result of cyber crime are increasing at an alarming rate and now we have reached a point where people are more fearful of being a victim of cyber crime than they are affected from physical crime”, according to blogs. In the USA, FBI records indicate that there was an increase of 25% in the money lost during 2005 – 2007 due to online fraud. While Australians have been losing roughly half-a-million dollars a month in 2005, it has been reported that the losses were about a million a month in 2006 and about 36 million a year in 2007. That increase is no accident and does not appear to be slowing anytime soon according to security analysts and press reports. According to Gartner, losses in 2008 as a result of phishing alone could top the 4 billion dollar (US) mark globally!

There are all sorts of e-mail SCAMs and they reach us under every conceivable pretext. Scammers lead their target(s) to believe that they have won millions from a non-existent lottery; landed a lucrative job but nothing more than collectors of money for the scammers; or secured a loan, grant, bursary, scholarship or financial assistance on unbelievably attractive terms despite without any paperwork until then. People of Indian origin are reported to be targeted for visa SCAMs and romance SCAMs, because of their penchant for anything foreign.

With the credit crunch, small businesses and individuals have been turning to alternate lending sources for getting access to much needed funds for survival. And it is so easy to fall prey to the scammers who offer fake loans. As unemployment rises, incomes shrink and the benefits of the government’s economic incentives under rescue package(s) disappear, as responsible members of the community, we may automatically be inclined to claw back our spending, yet looking for more money from any source that one can find. That in turn may make us more vulnerable to falling into the hands of scammers. So much has been built into the business of SCAMs globally and any inertia to recognise this fact and/or delay to create awareness among our community through coordinated efforts could keep more people falling victim.

The victims are generally believed to be naïve, technically illiterate or overly trusting. But this is not true. People from all walks of life fall victim to SCAMs. To make matters worse, people generally do not ‘care’ about, until they or anyone they know, fall victim. It is sometimes difficult too, to convince a potential victim that what he/she was relying on was just a SCAM. So, the question is: As responsible members of our community what more can we do to help our fellow netizens before criminals go to whatever lengths they can to trick the most vulnerable people amongst us?

We may continue to refer people to umpteen advisories, blogs or web sites as usual. There are commercial products offering varying degrees of security too. However, the efficacy of those solutions depends on the ‘awareness’ of the user concerned, because you have to take the call ultimately on what is in and what is out of your inbox. Sensing this need to create adequate awareness about SPAM, e-mail SCAMs and more importantly, how to be safe from them, I have written a book. With over 30 illustrated examples, ‘SPAM 2 SCAM How 2 B e-SAFE’ prepares readers to recognise patterns of fraud in many forms and thereby helps them not to fall victim to such schemes. Readers will also find suggestions on how to fortify their information environment including choosing a strong password, which they can remember easily.

Our efforts to educate our community have not been very effective so far if news reports are anything to go by. I am urging for every support to pass this word around in whatever ways you can. I would also appeal to every employer/provider of any service out there to buy and distribute copies of this book to every employee or customer as the case may be, so as to save people from a potential fall into the traps of e-mail SCAMs and the accompanying unsavoury consequences. The misery of anyone who loses job will often be compounded if his/her efforts to find jobs make him/her fall to the scammers’ designs. The chain reaction so generated could end up costing the community a great extent.

One can’t really prevent people falling victim to online SCAMs without adequately educating the community. And that is why I believe this book can help. Giving a copy of this book to every netizen may not be the perfect solution to online SCAMs; but it is a good start, I know. It is also true that creating awareness alone won’t solve all incidents of people losing money from SCAMs. But adequate awareness when created among people, they will consciously seek the benefit of all other tools such as advisories and technology.

Big businesses and other agencies such as membership organisations could come forward to give complimentary copies of this book to their employees/members and/or use in their marketing programs as a give away to people as mentioned above. The money involved in providing a copy of this book would be relatively insignificant compared with the huge sums spent on other marketing programs. Organisations would be preventing considerable operating cost from lost productivity due to the potential consequences resulting from, had people fallen victim to online frauds and/or identity theft.

Please feel free to contact me for any further information and/or clarifications. Also please feel free to pass this message around. Together, let us try to save as many vulnerable netizens as possible and as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

P.S. The book is currently available in the USA from ‘CreateSpace’ (https://www.createspace.com/3355182), and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/SPAM-SCAM-How-B-e-SAFE/dp/1440424616). You are invited to evaluate this book and post your comments, reviews or critiques at Amazon to help others.