Police E-Crime Unit Suspend 2000+ Counterfeit and Fraudulent E-Commerce Websites
It is unclear as to the origins of the suspended e-commerce sites, presumably they were all/mostly based in the UK, unfortunatley this information is not given for analysis.
The press release states that the Metropolitan Police E-Crime Unit suspended more than 2,000 e-commerce website deemded to be selling fake or non-existent goods. The e-commerce websites were offering low price goods from manufacturers such as GHD, Ugg, Tiffany and Nike. The goods were either counterfeit or never arrived, some sites also harvested credit card, bank details and personal information given by customers.
It is also unclear as to if the sites were suspended, siezed (pending further investgation and prosecution) or shut down.
If many gangs registered sites in bulk, how many actual gangs or criminals are under investigation, facing possible prosecution ? Would more information be beneficial to help the consumer/potential victim be better prepared, other than advising the usual update AV.. dedicated credit card for e-shopping.. etc ? Would releasing more details hinder further or current investigation or help consumers to avoid similar ilegal sites ?
“.. Police officers worked with domain registrars to identify the rogue traders and then used Nominet’s powers to seize and shut down the offending domains .. the E-Crime Unit said many gangs registered sites in bulk solely to dupe customers. He said the campaign to close the criminal sites would continue in the run-up to Christmas .. consumers should check a website’s credentials to ensure it was approved and reputable .. also consider using a credit card for payments over £100 and perhaps reserve one card for online shopping ..”
“The E-Crime Unit took similar action in 2010 when it shut down about 1,800 sites.”
So happy shopping with the usual rules, ie. you don’t get something for nothing, and if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Police crackdown on fake shopping sites
BBC News, created 21 November 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15820758 – (Full Article) – last access 23 November 2011
E-Crime Unit take down fraudulent websites
Metropolitan Police, created 18 November 2011.
http://content.met.police.uk/News/ECrime-Unit-take-down-fraudulent-websites/1400004634037/1257246745756 – (Full Article) – last access 23 November 2011
/cobramark3
Measuring the black web
Current article in The Economist, discusses a paper published (and previously mentioned on CFL): Click Trajectories: End-to-End Analysis of the Spam Value Chain (PDF)
Snippets of the Economist article “.. well-worn assertion is that cybercrime revenues exceed those from the global trade in illegal drugs..
In the absence of figures from the practitioners, experts tend to fall back on surveys of victims, often compiled by firms that sell security software..
Few cybercrime surveys cite the methodology they used..
Stefan Savage, Mr Kanich’s PhD supervisor, says that the security industry sometimes plays “fast and loose” with the numbers, because it has an interest in “telling people that the sky is falling”..
in the grand scheme of criminal threats, hacker kingpins do not appear to be on a par with Colombian drug lords..”
Measuring the black web
Cybercrime, The Economist, 15 October 2011 (Print Article)
http://www.economist.com/node/21532263 – (Full Online Article) – last access 14 October 2011
I beg the question, a definition of the “Black web” ?
/cobramark3
Computer-Forensics-London 