"Seven in 10 here are victims of cyber crime" – ST 10/9/2010*
How unreservedly they surf cyberspace:
Wonder if they know –
How unsafe the cyber highway;
Lurking there cyber criminals: cheats,
Thieves, terrorists and social misfits!
A theatre of germ warfare, cyberspace;
Netizens must battle with virus and vicious worms –
Expensive engagements – why bother,
When victories are hollow and nought to rejoice?
Is it a no brainer or Hopson’s choice?
Wonder if they know –
Seven in ten of them will
Victims become of cyber crime*-
A figure so high, yet nonchalant seem they
To the dangers on the super cyber highway!
opinion piece – copyright
Poser: Has the Information (Technology) Age a better society made?
Your views are welcome. 
Oops! Spelling error in 2nd verse, last line…
“Hopson” should be spelt “Hobson”.
I also received some emails saying that I have won a prize, large sum of money and other mails asking for help to claim some inheritance. I always deleted them as they want details from me. Maybe I should forward these emails to our hometeam/police instead of deleteing them?
Hi Weng Hon,
i wonder why there’s a proliferation of scam email lately when it is possible to track down the sender(s), so i think it’s a good idea to reroute them to the police! ;)
agreed, jasmine, will forward to the police if I received another such email
Re-route/send scam emails to the polis? haha, siao huh?
For the same reason you think it’s an offence to send such scam mails, yr re-sending same to the polis wont make it any different, and you the sender of the re-sent mail will be in hot boiling soup.
Frankly, you’re not a complainant if you’re not a victim, and the polis only takes action of a complainant/victim.
So, if you must re-send, suggest that you send them to Terence………this fella has a lot of time. So instead of his left thumb twiddling ans hid right thumb digging deep into his nostril, he will now find more meaning in life when he starts opening bank accounts for these rich people to pay him $1,000 a month at least.
There is a better way which I have been doing it.
Just give the particulars of a CAD officer and request the scammer to contact directly by phone as the email address would have give the game away.
Go to the gov.sg website to search for the particulars of any CAD officer. Normally it is a director level.
It’s possible to track down the scammer whereabout BUT you need the co-operation of the scammer ISP and it’s normally be some African or East European countries. It would be a tedious job to get their co-operation especially from a country like Singapore. Maybe if it is a request from the FBI then it would be different.
Looks like there’s an unspoken consensus that cyberspace is fraught with dangers.
#5 TimL
Don’t say ‘siao’ so fast. Think the police may appreciate being alerted. They need public-spirited citizens to help keep the Homeland safe.
#6 Steven N,
Wa, so bold! Any repercussions? Sekali get called up by CAD for an interview!
Hi Jassmine,
Where got repercussions? It is the scrammer who call his/her potential business partner and it’s just happen he is the director of CAD. ;)
If he is hardworking then it is his job to trace the scrammer and I will be happy that my tax payment are being utilised to employ the right person to do the job.
WE are talking about cyber space, aka the INTERNET, not the safe-deposit box space in our letter box in the void deck.
Call the police? If the police can afford the time to trace all the scam mails (how many?), then they must be very free, in which case somebody else will complain that they are not out on the roads maintaining order.
People responds and acts on scam email for 1 of 2 reasons, or both – CURIOSITY and GREED. While curiosity only makes the reader laugh it off after reading, greed obviously does more harm. Surprisingly, many of the conned-victims are highly educated – probably better educated than the policeman who is tasked to look into his case.
Quote Jassmine,
“Seven in ten of them will
Victims become of cyber crime*-
….and I add
SEVEN in 10 will fall prey to cyber crime
SHAME on them who believe their luck is at its prime
NO DOUBT surfing the NET is like treading land mines
BUT THERE are websites like SilverHairs Club that give us a wonderful time.
Happy Surfing.
Hi Jassmine
Congratulations.. you write poems v well. V interesting indeed!
Daniel #9: wow, you’re a poet too…
Cheers,
Gabriella Chua
#8 Steven N
Take this scenario: The scammer phones the CAD man from tel no. provided by you. The CAD person gets angry after receiving the call. The scammer hangs up. The CAD man has the call traced. The scammer is identified. He maintains he has no intention of calling the CAD man’s no. – that he has been framed. So they track your email sent to the scammer…won’t you be implicated? This may sound far-fetched, but…
#9 Daniel C,
Huh? got safe-deposit box space in letter box at void deck, meh?
No need to split hairs. Next time a policeman crosses my path, will stop him and ask about the issue of police receiving forwarded scam email from desperate/irrate/frightened.. citizens for their action. Will find out their official position. :)
#10 Grabriella,
TQ. Received any scam e-mail so far? How do u deal with it? Do share.
Cheers to all :)
“….the police may appreciate being alerted….”
Jass-T, know why they are called “mata mata” and not mata kosong employed to eat mata kucing?
Their eyes rae wide-open and they are well aware of this scammers at work, if not already receiving the unsolicited mails themselves.
Unless there’s a victim who files a complaint or a spirit lost from the last 7th month get-away still loitering in the public, and he has witnessed a crime being committed or found a dead naked body, what can he find in those contents to say it’s criminal or it has an intent to commit a crime?
The CID Commercial Crime Branch gradually phased out after CAD was set up in the aftermath of the Pan-El crisis.
From the 1st director GKnight->R Neighbour->LAng->TSThye, I knew them all in the course of work or personally to be very very hardworking and dedicated people. But still, they have to follow procedures under the relevant Codes.
Imagine anyone of them knocking on yr door at 3 a.m. tomorrow and say they have a hunch that you’re abt to commit an offence without first receiving a complaint that has prima facie evidence of wrongdoing? Yes, if that happens, it gives you the right to call the polis……….
Oops! 2 ‘r’s too many…
Sorry Gabriella, for the extra ‘r’ in your name ( re. #11)
#11 – “irrate” also has an extra ‘r’.
case of more haste less speed. :(
Oops Jass..actually it is the size of the box I am suggesting. A typical safe-deposit box is the size of our void deck letter box, I think. Sorry if I am wrong. Some people have BIG SAFE. haha
Thanks Grab, just felt like singing.
Tim – agree with you. Although I don’t know any “DUA GAO” in the police force, I know these people are very careful about the fine line between a citizen and a criminal. Cannot catch B just because A says B is wrong or vice versa. Sometimes it puzzles me when the police just walk away after witnessing a heated skirmish between 2 persons. To the onlookers, the police are not doing their job. But are they ?
#12 TimL
so the intent to commit a crime is an offence; + if there is prima facie evidence, then the police will act? Well, the scam e-mail fulfills these two conditions – the scam e-mail is the p f evidence and the content/text of the e-mail shows the intent of the sender to cheat/steal.
The 1st director of CAD was impressive but he was convicted of…corruption(?) and struck off the roll. Was reinstated in recent years. A sad story …i suppose he lost his pension.
Jass-T, yes a criminal intent with evidence to support that intent, may constitute a crime. Thus, if there was a recent riot at a place and you carry a lorry load of baseball bats and hockey sticks there with men in red handkerchiefs as headgears, you can try to tell the plois that they are Liverpool supporters going to the Youth Olympic games.
However, if you pout at me without an inviting smile, I wd be mad to tell the polis that you hv an intent to kiss me.
In those emails, there’re no such intentions you had envisaged. Simply, they tell of a fool who wants to give you money, and that you need to do somthing first before you get the money. Until you do that smthg but dont get yr reward, then there’s cheating but by then, you find yrself the fool, not him.
There are a lot more to the GN saga but there’s no point dwelling on it and he has gone on with his life.
Hi all, please be aware mass emails imposting at Tan Boon Liang quote ”Hi, I set up a profile where I can post photos, connect and share. Do me a favor and confirm our relationship here. Thanks, Tan Boon Liang.
A check on the sender’s email reveal other email address than Boon Liang’s. cheers!