(Tokyo Tower)NO TELEPHONE, NO INTERNET, NO MONEY, BUT LOVE?
What we need today are excellent director of U.S. FBI and highly committed National Public Safety Commission Chairman of Japan.
It is because nowadays telephone lines and Internet connections can easily and directly link a law-abiding citizen with a gangster living in a shadowy network.
PART I: TELEPHONE BASED CRIME IN JAPAN
There is a big concern among the Japanese society on "Furikome Sagi," a type of crimes in which a criminal impersonates someone on the phone familiar with, or associated with, the person called so as to persuade the called to transfer money to a certain account using an ATM machine installed at a bank or so.
In 2007, the number of criminal cases, so reported and categorized, was 17,930 and a total amount of money obtained by this fraud was about 25 billion yen ($250 million).
Based on this statistics, almost 400 criminal telephone calls per day all over Japan resulted in actual robbing of money.
The average damage per criminal telephone call was 14 thousand dollars.
I suppose this can be a major factor in the next general election in Japan.
( http://www.npa.go.jp/toukei/seianki7/h20kamihanki.pdf )
PART II: INTERNET BASED CRIME IN THE U.S.
As for the Internet-related criminal situation in the U.S., FBI provided some information:
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The Internet Crime Complaint Center
2006 Internet Fraud Crime Report:
January 1, 2006-December 31, 2006
Executive Summary
In December 2003, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) was renamed the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to better reflect the broad character of such criminal matters having a cyber (Internet) nexus. The 2006 Internet Crime Report is the sixth annual compilation of information on complaints received and referred by the IC3 to law enforcement or regulatory agencies for appropriate action. From January 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006, the IC3 website received 207,492 complaint submissions. This is a 10.4% decrease when compared to 2005 when 231,493 complaints were received. These filings were composed of fraudulent and non-fraudulent complaints primarily related to the Internet.
In 2006, IC3 processed more than 200,481 complaints that support Internet crime investigations by law enforcement and regulatory agencies nationwide. These complaints were composed of many different fraud types such as auction fraud, non-delivery, and credit/debit card fraud, as well as non-fraudulent complaints, such as computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited e-mail, and child pornography. All of these complaints are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts.
From the submissions, IC3 referred 86,279 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of cases were fraudulent in nature and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $198.44 million with a median dollar loss of $724.00 per complaint. This is up from $183.12 million in total reported losses in 2005. Other significant findings related to an analysis of referrals include:
• Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 44.9% of referred complaints. Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment accounted for 19.0% of complaints. Check fraud made up 4.9% of complaints. Credit/debit card fraud, computer fraud, confidence fraud, and financial institutions fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.
• Of those individuals who reported a dollar loss, the highest median losses were found among Nigerian letter fraud ($5,100), check fraud ($3,744), and other investment fraud ($2,695) complainants.
• Among perpetrators, 75.2% were male and half resided in one of the following states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The majority of reported perpetrators were from the United States. However, a significant number of perpetrators where also located in United Kingdom, Nigeria, Canada, Romania, and Italy.
• Among complainants, 61.2% were male, nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and one-third resided in one of the four most populated states: California, Texas, Florida, and New York. While most were from the United States, IC3 received a number of complaints from Canada, Great Britain, Australia, India, and Germany.
• Males lost more money than females (ratio of $1.69 dollars lost per male to every $1.00 dollar lost per female). This may be a function of both online purchasing differences by gender and the type of fraudulent schemes by which the individuals were victimized.
• Electronic mail (e-mail) (73.9%) and webpages (36.0%) were the two primary mechanisms by which the fraudulent contact took place.
• Recent high activity scams seen by IC3 include hit man scams, phishing attempts associated with spoofed sites, and counterfeit checking scams.
http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2006_IC3Report.pdf
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As the total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was about $198 million in the U.S. society, it is apparent that the telephone-used criminal situation in Japan (about $250 million) looks graver.
The fact that almost 200,000 cases were received by Internet crime investigations by U.S. law enforcement and regulatory agencies nationwide means that probably two million citizens must have experienced similar cases.
And, 20 million citizens must have heard or observed the similar cases in their neighbors or communities.
It will probably influence the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election, since now possible terror by foreign terrorists on the U.S. soil seems to have less drive force in minds of voters.
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Therefore, I recommend you not to use a telephone often privately.
Make sure you use an answer phone with a caller's-number display function.
Even do not pick up the receiver if the call is originated from an unfamiliar source.
And, do not trust a website or an e-mail originated by a company or a person you do not know.
Ideally, stop using any types of telephone, including a cellular phone, since any gangster can dial your number from any place.
You had better stop using the Internet for purposes other than business or other public or official functions. The Internet is not for amusement. The Internet is originally a weapon invented by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The telephone must be rather regarded as a means to call the police.
The Internet must be rather regarded as a means to file a crime-related complaint to FBI.
It is because Jesus Christ said not to contradict a gangster (if you fell in such a situation).
So, use a postal mail and in-person communications in public or before a police station if you have money to protect.
(As I am so worried about security of Tokyo, I may go and check some public places in Tokyo tomorrow, say such as Tokyo Station, though not for someone like Shahrazad…
http://www.hpmix.com/home/kitano/images/sc4_4_1.mid
Source: http://www.hpmix.com/home/kitano/C4_3.htm)
Luk 10:4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.