[ISN] Ghana: Cyber Crimes in Ghana

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Thu Oct 05 2006 - 23:31:01 PDT


http://allafrica.com/stories/200610040856.html

By Joseph Coomson
Ghanaian Chronicle
October 4, 2006

With the increasing threat of cyber crimes to Ghana's aim of becoming 
the hub of the information super-highway on the west coast of Africa, 
Information Communication Technology (ICT) experts in the country have 
suggested the establishment of a well-equipped and independent national 
cyber crime unit to fight ICT crimes, especially cyber crimes in the 
country.

This national body should be given the mandate to investigate and 
prosecute cyber criminals as well as all ICT crimes.

This conclusion was made at the I-Week 2006 ICT workshop where creative 
and innovative individuals and teams of ICT origin had discussions on 
'the new face of cyber crime - types and tools used' in Accra on 
Thursday.

The experts included Mr. C.K Bruce of Cutting Edge, Mr. Techie Mills, an 
ICT Consultant, and Mr. Quashie of Regent University, as well as 
participants from all walks of life.

The discussions also called for a proper legal framework for the ICT 
sector.

They further called for the creation of a department in the law faculty 
of universities in Ghana to handle crimes relating to ICT.

The discussions also centered on the fact that the government's drafted 
Electronic Transactions Bill intended to protect private rights of 
Internet users and owners' websites be facilitated, as many individuals 
and corporate entities are suffering from the menace of cyber criminals.

They called on the police to as a matter of urgency establish a 
department on cyber crime to help enforce cyber laws to the letter.

In his presentation, a lecturer from Regent University College defined 
cyber crime as crimes committed on the Internet using the computer as 
either a tool or a targeted victim. "It is very difficult to classify 
crimes in general into distinct groups as many crimes evolve on a daily 
basis," he confessed.

He said cyber crimes come in various forms; electronic theft, credit 
card fraud online auction fraud, pyramid fraud, fraudulent Internet 
banking sites, ATM fraud, phishing, cyber terrorism and lottery scam.

The most prevalent cyber crime in the country is the credit card fraud.

Many Ghanaians perpetrate this type of cyber crime. The most typical 
example is a group in Nima, a suburb of Accra, called 'Sakawa'. This 
group is alleged to be selling stolen credit cards numbers as well as 
using same to order for products from the United States and Europe.

These scammers buy or steal credit card and verification numbers from 
hotel employees and cashiers of super markets, either in the country or 
from abroad.

This situation has dented the reputation of the country leading to the 
black listing of Ghana from purchasing items from some commercial sites 
in the United States and Europe.

"They then go online, place orders and then work in partnership with 
people in the USA or Europe, whose addresses they ask the illegally 
purchased goods to be delivered. After delivery, the goods are then sent 
to them in Ghana," participants revealed.

At one point, an entire container shipment of compact disks arrived in 
the country.

On the global scene, an Internet retailer, CD Universe, refused to pay 
$100,000 to a Russian hacker known as Maxim, who stole 300,000 credit 
card numbers from their web site. In revenge, the hacker posted some 
25,000 credit card details on the web for all to see.

The second most prevalent is online auction fraud, which is the number 
one Internet fraud in the US. Goods often do not arrive.

In one case, a Russian fraudster ordered goods using a stolen credit 
card, then sold them on an online auction at a low price to United 
States citizens, who then wired money to an untraceable Latvian bank.

At the end of 2005, the US Department of Treasury announced that cyber 
crime overtook drug trafficking; it cost $180 billion.

While criminal activity via the Internet is still a fairly new 
phenomenon, the FBI ranks it just behind stopping terrorism and 
counterintelligence on their list of priorities.

Switzerland's federal cyber crime police unit has reported a further 
increase in suspected cases of Internet abuse.

They received 7,345 notifications of possible Internet abuse in 2005, 
100 more per month than in previous years.

In Russia, the Department 'K' (a department fighting hi-tech crimes) 
revealed 4,295 crimes in the sphere of high technologies for the first 6 
months of 2004.

The most notorious case discovered by 'computer' investigators involved 
7 hackers who stole $21m from credit card holders

Nigerian 419 scam stole the most money off Internet. Americans reported 
losing an all-time high of $183 million to Internet fraud in 2005, up 
169 percent from $68 million in 2004.

Copyright 2006 Ghanaian Chronicle.


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