Most of us like to think we're too clever to be caught out by internet fraudsters. In fact any of us can be caught out by these scroungers . Their tricks have gone far beyond the infamous fax from a "Nigerian prince" , "the 419" or variants of these - asking you for money. 

Now frauds are increasingly sophisticated and you are much more likely to be contacted (email,sms or telephone) by someone you trust (seemingly). Fraudsters dupe their victims using a type of psychological manipulation known as "social engineering". It is essentially a confidence trick that influences a person to take action that may not be in their best interest. With many technical security defences in place to prevent large and medium size enterprises from being hacked directly, it is us humans that present the best medium and to a certain extent, the sweet spot for criminals to target. To explain how "social engineering" works here is an analogy - Children are little people we all loved. And they get us to do things which under normal circumstances we'd never thought of doing ever. The same psychological principles is what the scammers are applying . They build rapport, get us to like them, trust them, and often inject a sense of urgency into the scenario. This all releases certain chemicals in our brain that allow us to take actions we perhaps shouldn't take.Why is it growing? Social engineering fraud has been identified by the international police agency Interpol as one of the world's emerging fraud trends. In the last two years there has been a spike in this type of fraud, with reported losses in 2015 doubling to nearly $1bn (£675m) 

It's a lucrative crime. You don't need a skilled programmer to do social engineering - just someone who's willing to talk to people or write emails. On top of this, the growth of the internet has played right into the criminal's hands. A key part of social engineering is having information on your target. Criminals can get this from buying hacked company data and studying their victim's social media profile online. 

Vishing: 

Most of us like to think we're too clever to be caught out by internet fraudsters. In fact any of us can be caught out by these scroungers . Their tricks have gone far beyond the infamous fax from a "Nigerian prince" , "the 419" or variants of these - asking you for money.

Now frauds are increasingly sophisticated and you are much more likely to be contacted (email,sms or telephone) by someone you trust (seemingly). Fraudsters dupe their victims using a type of psychological manipulation known as "social engineering". It is essentially a confidence trick that influences a person to take action that may not be in their best interest. With many technical security defences in place to prevent large and medium size enterprises from being hacked directly, it is us humans that present the best medium and to a certain extent, the sweet spot for criminals to target. To explain how "social engineering" works here is an analogy - Children are little people we all loved. And they get us to do things which under normal circumstances we'd never thought of doing ever. The same psychological principles is what the scammers are applying . They build rapport, get us to like them, trust them, and often inject a sense of urgency into the scenario. This all releases certain chemicals in our brain that allow us to take actions we perhaps shouldn't take.Why is it growing? Social engineering fraud has been identified by the international police agency Interpol as one of the world's emerging fraud trends. In the last two years there has been a spike in this type of fraud, with reported losses in 2015 doubling to nearly $1bn (£675m)

It's a lucrative crime. You don't need a skilled programmer to do social engineering - just someone who's willing to talk to people or write emails. On top of this, the growth of the internet has played right into the criminal's hands. A key part of social engineering is having information on your target. Criminals can get this from buying hacked company data and studying their victim's social media profile online.

Vishing: 

This was originally written in Dec 2014

In 2014, after the kidnapping of 200 school children in the North East of Nigeria, many people became aware and sympathetic to the nightmare that was slowly and surreptitiously creeping in to Nigeria in the form of extreme religious fundamentalism called "Boko Haram". It is imperative to explicitly make this point absolutely succinct - there are religious fundamentalist in all the major religious denominations or groupings _ Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism et al. But none has shown or exhibited the same callous, depraved and inhumane instinct as demonstrated by the aforementioned group. It beggars the question - Is there an intrinsic attribute within the fundamental set up of Islam that necessitates this outcome? The main two branches or divisions in Islam i.e. Shia and Sunni and their fundamental differences being allied to the successor of the Prophet Mohamed are clearly understood. Thus, one can categorically states that the above mentioned branches(Shia, Sunni) both adhere to the same fundamental principles and beliefs that emphasize that Allah is all knowing, merciful of all, all present and powerful and is the sustainer of life.

Now, going back to the original question and considering all that has been said herein, one can only infer that the basic structure of the religion creates the seed for this type of depraved organ to emerge or easily come in to being. Consider this thought for a moment. Apart from Islam, all the other major religious denominations have a top down layer structure. In these sort of set-up, religious edict pronounced from the top is actively move down the structured layers to the masses who follow to the letter. For example, a subhead, leader, pastor, rabbi, priest, etc; within the organisation falling foul of one of its tenet is easily brought to book as detailed in its procedures.