Police to get tough on internet trolls.

[RichardCoulter]

Todays You & Yours programme on Radio 4 featured calls for a separate Economic Crimes Bill as the Online Safety legislation only covers user generated fraud.

It took the Government long enough to feature fraud at all and they only agreed to include it in the bill a matter of months ago.

It also highlighted again how self governance isn't working. For example, in the case of Instagram, they do little to help victims until the media get involved. It's almost as if they couldn't care less and are simply interested solely in making money

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

For example, in the case of Instagram, they do little to help victims until the media get involved. It's almost as if they couldn't care less and are simply interested solely in making money

Victims of what exactly ? Is using Instagram a crime now ?

Much as I dislike social media in general, its ridiculous to keep blaming them for how people choose to use it.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Ah yes, the old GDPR. Funny that some people didn't seem to think this would impact on businesses at all. I'm looking forward to our bonfire of regulations to rid ourselves of oppressive regulations such as these.

But then comes the Online Safety Bill. Christ! Are we getting the bureaucracy bug as well? Hopefully this destructive piece of legislation will get binned once the politicians think it through.

GDPR won't go or if it does we'll likely have something similar. Firms should already be abiding by it, a lot of them will still want pan-European access so might as well keep it and the U.K already had the Data Protection Act so was quite good on it.

Besides the fact Facebook are against it should be a warning sign there is something to it. The job of the Government is to protect its people and not shareholders of Facebook.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Damien

GDPR won't go or if it does we'll likely have something similar. Firms should already be abiding by it, a lot of them will still want pan-European access so might as well keep it and the U.K already had the Data Protection Act so was quite good on it.

Besides the fact Facebook are against it should be a warning sign there is something to it. The job of the Government is to protect its people and not shareholders of Facebook.

Yes, firms that sell internationally won't relish having an extra pile of bureaucracy to handle by way of another rule book to follow alongside GDPR. It's already quite proportionate legislation so there's little obvious scope for any quick wins here.

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

It's already quite proportionate legislation so there's little obvious scope for any quick wins here.

GDPR proportionate ?
You're having a laugh, its probably the most instrusive thing we have had to suffer since the internet began, on every fracking site. Its hugely irritating.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Paul

Victims of what exactly ? Is using Instagram a crime now ?

Much as I dislike social media in general, its ridiculous to keep blaming them for how people choose to use it.

It ranges from hacking their accounts that they use for a business and blackmailing them to duping people into giving them access to their accounts and defrauding them and their friends (whilst purporting to be them). A lot of paedophiles use it to groom children, obtain obscene pictures through blackmail, threats, manipulation, social engineering etc.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

It ranges from hacking their accounts that they use for a business and blackmailing them to duping people into giving them access to their accounts and defrauding them and their friends (whilst purporting to be them). A lot of paedophiles use it to groom children, obtain obscene pictures through blackmail, threats, manipulation, social engineering etc.

It won't matter how much online 'protection' is offered through legislation if people refuse to be educated on how to stay safe online.Despite all the warnings constantly underlined in the media we have still been seeing on the BBC and other media outlets only this week how people who are supposedly internet savvy are getting stung out of huge sums of money. Education is the key and followed by really heavy punishment for those caught.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60380467

[RichardCoulter]

These people are really clever,; even those that think they would never be caught out can be. There was a case where even a man whose job it was to prevent online fraud was caught out!

It's why the vulnerable, such as children, the elderly, the mentally disabled etc, don't stand a chance.

Hopefully, such a law will result in harsher punishments and, by default, result in more education or preventative measures to try and prevent this.

I believe that those that are caught out should be more readily helped by the Financial institutions instead of being blamed for it themselves.

The banks have pushed everybody online whilst saving huge amounts on premises and staff costs, yet when something goes wrong tend to try and blame their customers.

Once again we see a voluntary code of conduct being blatantly ignored, which usually leads to yet more regulation.

As time goes on, it's getting worse too. There are reports in this mornings newspapers saying it is going up by a fifth and rising all the time. Sorry, it won't let me post the link for some reason.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

It ranges from hacking their accounts that they use for a business and blackmailing them to duping people into giving them access to their accounts and defrauding them and their friends (whilst purporting to be them). A lot of paedophiles use it to groom children, obtain obscene pictures through blackmail, threats, manipulation, social engineering etc.

Of all the social platforms, paedophiles use IG the least for their crimes. Dating apps are far more popular for that kind of thing.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by Maggy

It won't matter how much online 'protection' is offered through legislation if people refuse to be educated on how to stay safe online.Despite all the warnings constantly underlined in the media we have still been seeing on the BBC and other media outlets only this week how people who are supposedly internet savvy are getting stung out of huge sums of money. Education is the key and followed by really heavy punishment for those caught.

Yep, you can only protect people so much, after that it comes down to whether they think "something too good to be true" is actually a bargain . . . or a scam.

Internet shopping and online banking is a massive boon to the criminal fraternity, and although banks have procedures in place to prevent theft & fraud, once you've been hit by it you need to prove to the bank that you didn't give any details out that you shouldn't have done.

I've never been a lover of internet shopping, but it's getting to be the only way you can buy items . . . and I don't trust many of the 'review' sites out there to give me an honest appraisal of items I'm looking at.
It's easy to order a pair of trousers and return them if they don't fit or wrong colour etc . . . not so easy with a fridge freezer.

As far as punishing the scammers, difficult to do if they operate outside of certain jurisdiction areas or are 'fly by night' boys that come and go.

Education is definitely key, but complacency is an easy trap to fall into if you've never had a problem with the first 500 transactions.

[Mythica]

Originally Posted by Russ

Of all the social platforms, paedophiles use IG the least for their crimes. Dating apps are far more popular for that kind of thing.

Dating apps are usually 18+, so I doubt it would be the first place paedophiles would go looking for underage people.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Mythica

Dating apps are usually 18+, so I doubt it would be the first place paedophiles would go looking for underage people.

You’d be very surprised. We catch most predators via dating apps.

Just because someone signs up saying they’re 18 doesn’t mean they actually are.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Mythica

Dating apps are usually 18+, so I doubt it would be the first place paedophiles would go looking for underage people.

Russ is part of a paedophile hunter team, so will have more insight than you.

Paedophile hunters join dating sites for over 18 year olds and then state that they are underage in order to snare the paedophile.

---------- Post added at 14:48 ---------- Previous post was at 14:46 ----------

Originally Posted by Russ

You’d be very surprised. We catch most predators via dating apps.

Just because someone signs up saying they’re 18 doesn’t mean they actually are.

Indeed.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

It ranges from hacking their accounts that they use for a business and blackmailing them to duping people into giving them access to their accounts and defrauding them and their friends (whilst purporting to be them). A lot of paedophiles use it to groom children, obtain obscene pictures through blackmail, threats, manipulation, social engineering etc.

So again, how is that the fault of the service provider (Instagram) ?

Is the Post Office to blame if someone posts you hate mail ?