E-mail from a dead man and a billionaire businessman

Mamun Rashid My beloved boss at ANZ Grindlays Bank Shahed Noman had an untimely death early this year. Though we were very sad, yet along with his family we all reconciled to the fact he was no more. However, the other day I received an e-mail from him, telling me that he had not been in contact for quite a few days and that he was passing a tough time without money. This became a story, because it was from a dead man. Few days back, I received an e-mail from a billionaire, in USD terms, Bangladeshi businessman asking for some monetary help in London, since he lost his wallet with all the credit cards and some money inside. In the similar way another mail was received from a secretary to the government, who went to Kenya as a member of an official delegation, appealed for some money in Nairobi, since his money bag was stolen from the hotel room. I also keep on receiving lucrative offers from the widows and relatives of deceased kings and queens in Africa (even lately from Middle East) to help transfer their money from their countries or facilitation of their investments abroad. My friends have all other quite similar and interesting stories. Besides, I keep on receiving e-mails from various G-Mail and Yahoo sources at frequent intervals giving me the good news of winning many lotteries (popularly known as Lotto) in UK, Germany, Spain and the United States. Primarily a very happy 'man', I did a calculation and the figures in total were more than a few billion dollars. As a G-Mail user I also keep on receiving instruction type mails to re-register into my G-Mail account with updated details, which, according to my technology savvy friends, were hoax. Many readers are aware of these types of cyber crimes: crimes being committed with the help of mainly internet. Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of crimes such as spread of computer viruses, malware, denial-of-services which primarily targets computer or computer network. Other examples of cybercrimes includes: harassment via e-mails, cyber-stalking, dissemination of obscene material, defamation, unauthorised controlaccess over computer system, indecent exposure, email spoofing, cheating & fraud etc. When cybercrime go beyond country and are used to conduct sabotage and espionage, it's called Cyber warfare. It's getting attention of hackers to do undercover work. Cyber warfare causes more devastation than war because it is irrespective of country and place. A cyber criminal usually only worries about his or her ability to compromise secure systems or trick someone into revealing his or her financial information. Cybercriminals can operate borderless where they risk little interference from law enforcement. Through internet that makes e-commerce possible, cybercriminals are able to commit crimes easily. Cybercrime not only hurts personal, group or national interest but it also causes monetary losses to the target population. You will be shocked if you come to know the amount of this financial losses caused by cybercrimes. According to an article named -- "First Annual Cost of Cyber Crime Study," conducted by Ponemon Institute in 2010 revealed that cyber crime cost these organisations on an average $3.8 million dollars each annually. The study covered 45 midsize and large organisations, employing between 500 and 105,000 people and representing a mixture of industries and government agencies. Prevention is always better than cure. So certain precaution should be made as part of cyber life. If you like to prevent cyber stalking avoid disclosing any information pertaining to yourself. Always avoid sending any photograph online particularly to strangers and chat friends as there have been incidents of misuse of the photographs. Often latest and up-to-date anti-virus software acts as guard against virus attacks. In case of virus attack, to avoid data loss always keep back up volumes. Never use your credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard against frauds. Have a constant monitoring if children have access to internet, to prevent any kind of harassment or depravation in children. It is better to use a security programme that gives control over the cookies and send information back to the site as leaving the cookies unguarded might prove fatal. Though, it is very nice to be a billionaire or as a very kind person saving the life of a friend or helping a widow, there are no instances where the person receiving mails from these unknown sources actually got paid or the friend in distress were actually in distress. Technological advancement alone cannot safeguard us from the cybercrime. It is awareness among the internet users that can protect the cyber generation from the cyber crime. Therefore, proper education in the school and colleges along with cyber awareness campaigns is necessary. As Bangladesh and Bangladeshis are increasingly getting into the internet space, it is better that we also get educated on the possible downsides and avoid surprises. (Mamun Rashid is a banker and economic analyst.) E-mail: mamun1960@gmail.com