On
line Fraud and Protective Countermeasures
A.
Online
Fraud General Background: Internet Fraud is becoming
an increasingly serious problem due to the following
factors:
(1)
Internet provides easy access to new players with relatively
low start up costs. This imparts the ability to create
a significant Internet presence and the appearance of
being an established company without the traditional
costs associated with such a task.
(2)
Multi-jurisdictional Nature: Fraudulent Operators may
feel protected because they operate outside of the jurisdiction
where their victims are located.
(3)
Anonymity: Fraudulent operators may feel protected by
the sense of anonymity (although this might be a misplaced
feeling) that the Internet provides.
B.
Thailand Laws: Thailand has no special laws concerning
Internet fraud. There are current draft laws being considered
concerning electronic signatures and electronic commerce.
However, existing laws in Thailand may govern fraudulent
transactions on the Internet, for example:
(1)
The Thailand Penal Code Section 341: This section proscribes
fraudulent conduct against another through deception
or through not revealing material facts for the purpose
of taking property or causing to damage to another person
or causing another person to renounce a document.
(2)
The Consumer Protection Act: The intent of this Act is
to provide consumers protection against deceptive trade
practices.
C.
US Law Enforcement Efforts on the Internet: The U.S.
Federal trade Commissions and various State Attorney
generals have "surf days". These are periods where the
agents of these governmental regulatory agencies peruse
the Internet, concentrating on particular consumer areas
in order to locate fraud and deceptive practices. In
the past, frequently investigated areas have included:
(1)Pyramid schemes
(2)Business opportunity schemes
(3)Health claim schemes.
D.
Example of Online Fraud (The Inter-nic incident): Inter-nic
is listed at www.internic.net and was formerly run by
Network Solutions under the auspices of (the U.S.) National
Science Foundation. At the time of the dispute, Inter-nic
charged 100 USD for domain name registration. In contrast,
www.internic.com was an Australian company that charged
250 USD for the service of registering domain names,
whose web site was designed to appear similar to the
official Internic site. The United States Federal Trade
Commission ("FTC") stated that the Australian company
is likely to be in violation of the FTC Act. Aggravating
factors included that the Australian company had not
actually paid for all domains it had registered, further
misleading consumers.
