How the net changed the ancient art of the con

The art of deception

This in turn has stimulated the emergence of 419-baiters, people who pose as dupes in a bid to out-cheat con artists or to simply waste their time so they're less likely to find gullible marks.

In popular culture, such as films like The Sting, this interaction (through set-up, hook, tale and sting) is playing out face to face for dramatic effect. In cyberspace, 419-baiters chronicle how they lead fraudsters on a merry dance on various websites (such as this), to no less entertaining effect. Our particular favourite is how scam-baiter "Shiver Metimbers" managed to persuade a hapless fraudster into carving a wooden Commodore 64 keyboard in the hopes it might lead to a generous scholarship.

Superb.

From Russia without love

Fraudsters sometimes cultivate a different approach online by trying to hook prospective marks frequenting dating websites. After cultivating a relationship, grifters claim they are unable to leave their home country and need to borrow money to visit their sweetheart. Naturally, the scammer never makes the trip and the victim is left broken-hearted, and broke.

One common form of get-rich-quick scam email involves so-called pump and dump scams. Crooks seek to inflate interest in a low-value stock on the back of bogus insider information in the hopes of selling the stock on a high before the inevitable crash and burn.

Malware authors have also begun dabbling in confidence tricks. A scam called the badger game - where a married mark is tricked into a compromised position with another woman and threatened with exposure unless extortion demands are played - has been reapplied in cyberspace.

Browser hijacking programs might leave indications of visits to porn websites on compromised PCs and we've heard of a handful of cases where victims are threatened that their actions will be reported to the police unless they hand over the booty. More commonly, threats that users' systems are been monitored by the authorities are tricks designed to fool users into opening record files (actually malware executables) or visiting maliciously constructed websites.

Any pretext will do

Cyber ruses and deception are not always for financial gain. Social engineering techniques, similar to those used in fraud, can manipulate people into performing actions (such as disclosing confidential information) at the behest of an attacker, who typically never meets his target.

For years, reformed computer hacker Kevin Mitnick was the most notable proponent of this technique. But this year "private detectives" hired by HP gave him a run for his money with their use of pretexting to trick phone companies into handing over confidential call records of HP board members and several journalists as part of an ill-fated mole hunt.

Is there a lesson to learned? As one long-time scam watcher says:

"Con games never remain stationary. The principle may be old, but the external forms are always changing, for con men know they must adapt their schemes to the times. This is especially true of the Big Con. A good grifter is never satisfied with the form his swindle takes; he studies it constantly to improve it; as he learns more about people, he finds a way to use what he has learned", from The Big Con, by David Maurer

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