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Cyber mousetraps

AT THE click of a mouse, the world is at your fingertips. That’s the power of computer technology and if you are enamoured with it, look at the other side: By pressing a button of another mouse in a remote corner of the globe, somebody could transfer all your hard earned money from your bank account to his in a matter of seconds.

You may lose not only your money but your whole identity also if you are not careful enough to protect your ID and password. Organised urban crime is slowly giving way to cyber crime. Internet fraud, in all its manifestations, needs brains, not brawn, and more and more Smart Alecs are mastering the science of siphoning off millions from individual or corporate bank accounts to manipulating stocks and shares.

Though widely unreported, cyber crimes have been rising in proportion to the Internet penetration. The West is more susceptible with computer becoming an indispensable tool in everybody’s life. But in other countries too where computers are accelerating people’s progress at Pentium speed, Internet swindling is becoming as common as ordinary crime.

A case in point is the emptying of at least 10 private accounts from the third largest Czech bank by Net pirates. One family is reported to have lost a million koruna, about $45,000. It’s only the tip of the iceberg in worldwide cyber crime proliferation. There are no proper figures as how much money the corporate world and individuals are losing to Internet poachers.