Can the world stop online fraud?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Online fraud takes many forms, from deceptive e-mails and websites which trick us into paying money to the wrong bank account, to romance scams and malicious software copying our bank and credit card details.
It's regarded by criminals as a highly lucrative and relatively low risk crime, so why is it so easy for fraudsters to manipulate our personal data and steal our money, what can be done to end online fraud?
Charmaine Cozier talks to some of those trying to disrupt the scammers and protect the public.
Guests: Rachel Tobac, Ethical Hacker CEO of SocialProof Security Muhammad Imran, Criminal Intelligence Officer, Interpol Financial Crimes Unit Stéphane Konan, Cyber Security Consultant & African Government Advisor Tamlyn Edmonds, Fraud Prosecutor, Edmonds Marshall McMahon
(Laptop owned by an online romance scammer, Accra, Ghana. Credit: Per-Anders Pettersson / Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry. I'm Charmincozier. Each weekay West, Kim Kardashian and Uber have millions of Twitter followers between them. |
| 0:26.0 | One day in July, they appear to be in a very generous mood. |
| 0:32.4 | Their verified accounts posted similar messages promising to give back to fans by doubling |
| 0:38.1 | all payments sent to various Bitcoin addresses within a strict 30 minute deadline, but it was a scam. They'd been hacked. |
| 0:47.0 | Twitter employees had been tricked into revealing security information. |
| 0:53.2 | At least $120,000 was paid over by people who thought the tweets were real. |
| 0:59.2 | A cryptocurrency exchange blocked another $280,000 from being sent out. |
| 1:06.4 | Investigators were quick to act. |
| 1:08.5 | A 19 year old from the UK and a 17 and 22 year old from Florida were arrested and charged. |
| 1:17.0 | It's just one example of a crime that targets people all over the globe. So this week we're asking, can the world stop |
| 1:26.7 | online fraud? Part 1 White Hat Hacking. Unfortunately fraud happens extremely quickly. I can |
| 1:48.2 | usually gain access to money or data in less than five to ten minutes. |
| 1:53.6 | Rachel Toback is CEO of Social Proof Security. |
| 1:57.5 | She hacks businesses for a living. |
| 2:02.4 | So companies hire me to tell them where their vulnerabilities are in their systems |
| 2:06.9 | so that I can help them patch them by telling them exactly how I would gain access to |
| 2:11.5 | their data or their money. |
| 2:14.0 | That's known as White Hat Hacking. |
| 2:17.0 | It's done with the full permission of the firms involved. |
| 2:22.0 | Rachel knows how hackers think. Her interest started at DefCon, the world's largest |
| 2:27.2 | hacking convention. She entered the Capture the Flag Contest which involved |
| 2:31.6 | breaking into a company network in front of a live audience. |
... |
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