Cyber crime is a crime that is committed online in many areas, but in the E-commerce industry it is mostly done in the transfer of currency. Cyber crime is hard to detect, thus giving the perpetrators plenty of time to flee the area in which the crime was committed, because of this fact the criminals can be in another country far away from the scene of the crime by the time it is detected. There are several distinct roles of computers in cyber crime. A computer can be the target of an offence when unauthorized access of computer network occurs. Next, the computer can be incidental to an offence, but still significant for law enforcement when transactional data of illegal acts such as drug trafficking may store transactional data on computers rather than paper form. Another is that a computer can be a tool for committing an offence such as fraud or doing cyber crime over the Internet. Thus, cyber crime affects E-commerce. The development of information technology and the widening usage of the Internet have made it possible for cyber crimes to happen. Some people argue that cyber crime gives advantages to certain individuals because it gives them an opportunity to enhance their computer skills and make a profit out of it. However, that is far from true. In reality, cyber crime kills e-commerce as seen through the unleashing of viruses, fraud, and variety of tools available on the net and unauthorized use of computers. Some people think it is safe to do business by e-commerce because they believe the security system is efficient. However, doing business by e-commerce is not truly safe because of cyber crime.
Many consumers are sceptical when it comes to online purchases using a credit card. This is mostly because of the threat of possibly the most common form of online crime: credit card fraud. “But what’s ironic is that while all the attention is being paid to the risks consumers face from online credit card fraud… it is usually the merchant who ends up being the victim�(Laudon, Traver: 229). It is no mystery that in the past credit card fraud has been very common and cost people a lot of money. However, when it comes to this subject there is mis-information. Often it is believed that the consumer loses out, but in fact the merchant is the one who has to pay the consumer for the lost funds. This shows that doing business online is a lot more dangerous than the conventional way. Possibly, the main reason for this is that it is less risky to steal online. It is not only intentional criminals that have been able to get away with credit card fraud, very often consumers who have legitimately purchased goods can claim that the goods have not been received, and in doing so, be reimbursed for the merchants apparent mistake. As a result of this, most merchants now require more proof that the card belongs to the consumer to allow them to purchase merchandise using a credit card. Therefore, when it comes to credit card fraud in e-commerce the consumers risk is no greater than in ordinary commerce (Laudon, Traver: 229)
Another form of crime that has arisen from the success of e-commerce is identity theft. This occurs when an individual has their personal information stolen and used to commit crime. This can happen through e-businesses that are insecure and their security is easily breached. Most often, when identity theft occurs the consumer is often unaware until it is too late as most of the time the credit card or driver’s license is still in their possession while it is being unlawfully used by an anonymous individual. However, despite these occurrences of online fraud it has been proven that shopping online reduces the chances of identity theft by up to 18 percent (Germain: 2004). Although it is harder to track online criminals it is less likely that they will succeed compared to criminals who use conventional methods to perform identity theft.
Louie Lishomwa 12:02, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)
(2004) 'Cyber Crime' [Online]: http://www.privacyinternational.org/index.shtml?cmd[342][]=c-1-Cyber+Crime&als[theme]=Cyber%20Crime&conds[1][category........]=Cyber%20Crime [Accessed 25 october 2004]
(2004), 'Cyber Crimes-part 2' [Online]: http://www.4law.co.il/6.html [Accessed 25 October 2004]
Laudon,K.C, Traver,C.G, (2001) "E-commerce", Boston Massacheusets ISBN 0201748150
