The International Journal of  Cyber criminology reported from Symantec about the cybercrime differences between various countries with the US being at the top. It was found that spam emails were one of the most common forms of attacks for cyber crimes, however, they have taken a new form with the use of botnets which account for approximately 76% of all the spam that is sent. A botnet is a network consisting of malware-infected machines with controls over the internet. Since these botnets do well at going undetected the damage done can reach several PCs and send thousands of emails. The IJCC reported on the top spam-sending countries ranking China first the United States third and Russia following. It also reported that India, Vietnam, and China are the top three for problems involving botnets. The use of botnets and internet fraud can take many forms and fall under 3 categories: phishing, 419 scams, and ransomware-related schemes. 

Phishing is when hackers will try to deceive others to obtain information that can be turned into cash ( credit card number, bank info, etc). The hackers deceive the person by creating identical sites where information like login credentials would be entered and use the information from there. 

419 scams do not require significant technical skills, but do just as much damage if not more. This kind of scheme is when information is offered about various things that are appealing but in order to get it there has to be a front fee that is paid known as an “advance fee”. The goal is to drag the process along and get the person to send multiple advance fees. This kind of scheme is common in the United States and South Africa. 

While there are many advancements in technology rules, oftentimes scammers and hackers are up to date also and looking for another way to scam or find loopholes in already established regulations, it is important that countries have clear laws and that their citizens pursue protective measles for their information.