The article to be reviewed is called Exploring Fraudsters Strategies to Defraud Users on Online Employment Databases. The research that was conducted in this article is to explore the tactics that fraudsters are using to fool a victim. The studies show methods that fraudsters used to pretend to be a legit employer/employment opportunity online. Additionally, the results show that a fraudster also must have a technical ability that affects the social engineering tactics to defraud targets.
Social engineering is the practice of intentionally deceiving or manipulating users into giving away their personal or financial information. The Internet Crime Complaint Center reported scams increased financial losses by 36.99% from 2018 to 2020. This information shows the importance to be aware of current scams and phishing attempts. Research shows that fraudsters identify theft and online fraud to evade law enforcement detection. This is an example of Neutralization Theory where the criminal justifies their scams because there were no physical injuries.
Research also shows that victims are psychologically manipulated with fear, isolation, and monopolization tactics. These fraudsters target certain personalities that users may possess. Neuroticism personality is an example. Fraudsters target users with this personality because they have emotional instability, Therefore, the criminal would send them an email that would trigger a certain emotion and would be more likely to give away their information. If the victims are more aware of fraudsters becoming trolls in order to stimulate emotion, they would perhaps be less willing to be gullible.
Job seekers of lower socioeconomic status in major metropolitan areas have a limited understanding of technology and the importance of securing their digital data. This is a great example of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. The theory suggests that some individuals are addicted to instant gratification. Therefore, computer users with low-income jobs are more likely to fall for phishing attempts that say will award them prize money or other things. This is an unfair advantage and can be overcome by providing equal online victimhood training to all financial classes so everyone is on the same page regarding the types of threats out there in the cyber world.
In conclusion, this was a great article overall. It provides a good research and brings to the reader’s intentions how serious social engineering is. From 2018 to 2020 cases of identity theft increased by 118.546%. This just shows how serious it is for every online user to be aware of the dangers in the cyber realm and not trust every message they receive.
Article: https://cybercrimejournal.com/menuscript/index.php/cybercrimejournal/article/view/90/28