Predator (30 page)

For the most part this is an amazing achievement for mankind. The ability to instantly share knowledge, education and experiences … unfortunately, as with such things there is also the darker underbelly. It is this area that I wish to address.

To understand what we are facing in the world around us, one must first understand the size of proverbial iceberg that is there. There are, of course, several locations where one can look up information about various cybercrimes. One of these places is the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3®) that has been in operation for thirteen years and produces an annual report.

‘
Now in its 13
^th
year of operation, the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3®) has firmly established its role as a valuable resource for both victims of Internet crime and the law enforcement agencies investigating and prosecuting these crimes. For the victims, the IC3 provides a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities to suspected criminal violations. For law enforcement agencies, the IC3 serves as a conduit to receive Internet-related complaints, to conduct research related to them and to develop analytical reports based on them for state, local, federal, tribal or international law enforcement and/or regulatory agencies. These agencies then develop investigations based on the forwarded information, as appropriate.

In 2012, the IC3 received 289,874 consumer complaints with an adjusted dollar loss of $525,441,110
¹
, which is an 8.3 percent increase in reported losses since 2011. In recognition of this increase, the IC3 expanded its efforts to inform the general public about online scams by publishing several public service announcements and providing additional tips for Internet users.

The IC3’s success has attracted international interest. Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany use the IC3 as a model for similar cybercrime centres. In furtherance of its continuing support of foreign law enforcement, the IC3 prepared dozens of country-specific statistical reports and disseminated hundreds of complaint referrals to the FBI’s legal offices all over the world. In 2013, the IC3 will continue to pursue its mission to serve both the online public and law enforcement and regulatory agencies across the entire global community.
’

Complaint Totals By Year

Note: Method of evaluating loss amounts: The FBI IC3 staff reviewed for validity all complaints that reported a loss of more than $100,000. Analysts also converted losses reported in foreign currencies to dollars. The final amounts of all reported losses above $100,000 for which the complaint information did not support the loss amount were excluded from the statistics.

Combine those numbers with the various other country-based organizations tracking the same types of information and we begin to get an extremely scary picture of the problems lurking below the surface and the types of scams that evil people in the world are capable of.

Years ago, I myself was a victim of identity theft which in itself is no great loss; my online activities and heavy online presence helped me avoid most, if not all, of these stalkers’ activities and their attempts to make my life miserable. However, at one point they used not only my image but also information they had gleaned from my profiles and online activities for one sleazy goal – to meet women. I found this out when one of these young ladies called to ask me to leave her alone – I was, understandably, confused as I had no idea what she was referring to. However, within minutes of speaking to me, she realized I was not the person she had been in communication with, and quickly agreed to provide me with all the information I asked for in order to speak to the local law enforcement agency.

That there are people out there whose sole preoccupation is doing their utmost to make someone else’s life miserable is a worrying thought. However, it does not compare with one’s outrage when one’s own data is used by a predator; what possible motive could someone have to try and meet someone in real life using fake pictures and information – at their very first face-to-face meeting it would immediately become apparent that they were not who they said they were – and then what? Would they walk away? I don’t think so. That is why this person’s information is now sitting with the German Cyber Crimes division and being ‘watched’ for any additional predator-like activities.

This evil, be it against children, or adults, is unacceptable in our world – not today, not after so many years in the evolution of our civilizations. However, when money is involved evil grows.

• Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography
  
• Every second 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography
  
• Every second 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines
  
• Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion. (Internet Filter Review, 2006).
  
• Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 child abuse domains. (Internet Watch Foundation, Annual Report, 2008).
  
• The fastest growing demand in commercial websites for child abuse is for images depicting the worst type of abuse, including penetrative sexual activity involving children and adults and sadism or penetration by an animal. (Internet Watch Foundation, Annual Report, 2008).
  
• In a study of arrested child pornography possessors, 40 per cent had both sexually victimized children and were in possession of child pornography. Of those arrested between 2000 and 2001, 83 per cent had images involving children between the ages six and twelve; 39 per cent had images of children between ages three and five; and 19 per cent had images of infants and toddlers under age three. (National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children,
  Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings from the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study
  ).
  

The above statistics all range between the years 2005 and 2008 and we know they have increased by 2014. Revenue online, in general, has decreased as more and more sites are opening their content free of charge. This means the evil will only grow and continue to threaten our children, friends and families.

By 2015, mobile adult content and services are expected to reach $2.8 billion per year, mobile adult subscriptions will reach nearly $1 billion, and mobile adult video consumption on tablets will triple. We are already starting to see an increase in mobile adult content. (
http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/
)

As technology advances and this evil spreads we need to begin to understand how best to protect our friends and loved ones from these predators! However, how do you protect someone from the curiosity, which is built into our very DNA? I cringe when I hear about the increased use of SEXTing (sexual images via mobile messaging) by kids; yet is that not something that I, as an adult with a wife or girlfriend, might do myself?

The onset of video chatting that started back in the nineties triggered a tide with millions of teenagers and adults exploring their online personas, with aliases and nicknames to hide their name but not much more. The new age voyeurism and expeditionism has become a staggering reminder that humans as a whole are always pretending to be something we are not. This, of course, does not mean that it is a negative or a positive thing; it simply is what it is. Which brings us to the problem facing many people today – how do I explore these technologies without becoming a victim? How can I partake of the amazing technological world around me without losing myself?

I’ve given a lot of thought to this question over the years and I myself have experimented with many means of communication in the online world; at one point it was an obsession, I simply had to try out each and every new way to communicate online. In doing so I learned, experienced and saw a lot. It helped me develop some very simple ground rules to not only protect oneself, but also enjoy the experience without getting lost in it.

1.   ‘Peer Pressure’ is when your social group, your ‘friends’, force you to change your core values, attitudes or beliefs to mimic their own.

This is often, from my experience, the most common factor that invariably leads into situations where people find themselves in trouble in the online world. First you may create an account simply because your ‘friends’ are all there and therefore it would become easier to communicate if you were there as well. That in itself is not a bad thing and if you can achieve this then life is not so bad; however if, by joining, you now have to pay a fee or even display information about yourself that you would rather not then it starts to become negative. What if the service all of your friends choose is a video chat service that has an extremely active and strong ‘adult’ channel – how long before you find yourself drawn into one of those areas? How long before you find that many of your friends may be ‘active’ in those adult areas as well?

As these are your friends do you really want to ‘not be cool’ – on one side I would say if it stayed there in the online virtual world it may not be so bad, but in most cases, once you begin it is a slippery slope of ‘baring all’ virtually, and then you are bound to come across one of those friends in the real world who wants you to do it there as well, and may even become aggressive if you do not comply. Stand your ground and you will probably find yourself being attacked in the online world; it would be worse if captured imagery of you in the online world finds its way into the real life world.

Do not cave in to peer pressure, make your own decisions and realize that friends may not always be as honourable as you want them to be, or even consider them to be. This does not mean that your friends are all horrible and evil and just want to do nasty things, but it does mean that you need to reach deep down inside yourself and realize first who you are, what you want out of life and what you expect of your friends. If you don’t want to do something then say so; true friends will understand and not force you do it.

One rule that I live by is that if my friends have to try and convince me to do something then probably I don’t want to do it for a good reason. Granted, sometimes convincing is necessary but whether you should whip out your junk or pop your top online is definitely not one of them! If you agree with me, remember this ground rule, and you will stay safe in this big bad world.

2.   You must take time to understand the privacy settings of each online service you use.

The other item I want to bring up is about ‘TMI’ – ‘Too Much Information’. Time and again I see this with folks in the social and online worlds – if they are not caving in to peer pressure then they are becoming bulimic. If I had a dollar each time I see someone go nuts online with everything they posted and shared, and then frantically delete that profile because, at some point, they realize they had gone overboard (friendships changed or they’ve had other major personal life shifts), by now I’d probably be sitting pretty on a luxury yacht in the middle a beautiful ocean, without a care in the world. Social networking implies being responsible about what and how you share information, and, of course, who you connect with and how much information you share with each of these people.

Now with these two warnings in mind, I’d like to change tack and talk about getting involved and becoming active! Back in 2009, I had originally posted many of these thoughts online. As I think it is extremely relevant in this context, I have decided to recompile it here for you to read and think about. Now what follows will take on an angle from my professional ‘enterprise software’ life but I think you will realize how much it applies to every part of life regardless of job or activity.

I have spent a lot of time and energy focusing on audio and video media content over the past couple of years and have recorded hundreds of hours of combined audio and video material as well. Although probably not the most straightforward engagement, my interests in these types of channels of communication arise not from college work, expert studies or any such research, but rather from a film –
Pump Up the Volume
. Surprising?

So what about this film inspired me to set up my own Internet TV show now and invest in exploring these technologies? Well, one of the lines from the film was ‘Steal the Air’. Of course, this was all about a pirate radio station and the havoc one kid could cause trying to get the truth out to the world regarding the troubled lives of teens. I think we may actually be seeing this very concept now and in a very positive way. It could be the ‘HOP’ movement or simply something some of you would like to share.

The world is full of brilliant and creative minds and many ears that are willing to listen but HOW DOES ONE GET ONESELF HEARD? And where does all this lead? I think it leads to the following prediction: 98 per cent of the content on the internet will be (think ‘
Pennycam
’ from Lost in Space) video content sites like Kyte.tv, uStream, Qik and Veodia which could well be the new ‘black’ in terms of the places to be!

I explored this topic in the summer of 2007: