The internet has been a blessing to humanity. It has made life easy and helped technology improve.
It’s really amazing how much we rely on Google to search information. School work, research, study material, News and much more can be found on the internet. But with the advantages of the internet, come its disadvantages too.
In the following sections, we look at 24 ways people misuse the internet everyday.
1. Identity Theft
On social media, like Facebook, it is hard to know for sure whether everyone you add to your friend list is a real account holder. It is an easy platform through which criminals using malware can have all our personal information delivered to them.
2. Online Crackers
Unlike hackers that only break into systems, crackers inject viruses with the intention to cause extreme damages to other peoples systems. The crackers usually breach the internet security and without paying royalties gain the access to various software.
3. Child Pornography
Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online. In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains. This number is far higher today. There are over 747,408 Registered Sex Offenders in the United States and only 265,000 are under the supervision of correction agencies.
4. Cyber Pirates
Piracy is the act of illegally copying or downloading copyrighted material such as movies, music and software. According to Go-Gulf, 67% of internet sites are used for piracy and more than 70% of internet users believe there is nothing wrong with online piracy.
5. Hackers
Forgetting to log out at a cyber cafe or sharing passwords with a friend online can put you at the mercy of hackers. It is one of the most widespread cyber-crime nowadays which makes it possible for criminals to hack security systems of companies and access sensitive data.
6. Junk Emails
Junk emails are unwanted emails that use a lot of network bandwidth and often have viruses attached to them. If one is not aware, opening or downloading such emails may infect one's computer with a lot of viruses and get the system corrupted and damaged.
7. Malware
Malware is the combination of the words malicious and software. It is a loose term used to describe harmful software that serve the purpose to completely shut down your computer system and make it unusable. Malware can infect a computer or other device completely by accident, often times by way of downloading software that is attached to a malicious application.
8. Online Negativity
It's easy to find yourself swimming in a pool of toxic negativity when randomly surfing on the internet. There are many websites like beheadedart.com that expose people to extreme violence like beheading, decapitation and other criminal videos. You can also easily find videos which teach you how to create explosives and how to commit suicide.
9. False Representation
Some people use the internet as a platform for fulfilling their malicious desires. One popular villain practice is false representation of products or services meant to mislead people into believing in the legitimacy of the website that is being presented to them in order to get personal information such as emails, private addresses and credit card numbers.
10. Internet Trolls
Internet troll is an online slang term to speak of a person who intentionally starts fights on forums and comment sections of videos or blogs, by posting discriminating and off-topic messages with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response.
11. Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
Get-rich-quick scheme websites are very common on the internet. They promise people they will obtain high rates of return with little risk, little skill, effort, and, or time by working from the comfort of their home. They often ask participants to invest money in an expensive book or program.
12. Deceptive Phishing
Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details. The most popular type of scam is when criminals impersonate a legitimate company like a bank provider and attempt to steal people’s personal information.
13. PayPal Scammers
PayPal scammers send out emails that instruct people to click on a link in order to either update their account or accept payments. In actuality, the link leads to a fake PayPal login page that collects the user’s login credentials and delivers them to the attacker.
14. Spear Phishing
In spear phishing scams, they customize their attack emails with the target’s name, position, company, work phone number and other information in an attempt to trick the recipient into believing that they have a connection with the sender. Spear-phishing is especially commonplace on social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook where attackers have access to valuable information.
15. Whaling Attacks
Whaling attacks or CEO frauds target high profile executives who have access to highly valuable information. The attackers impersonate an executive and abuse that individual’s email to authorize fraudulent wire transfers to a financial institution of their choice.
16. Fake Job Scams
Fake job advertisements can appear on almost every job board or search engine. They promise exceptional salary and work conditions at home without the need for major efforts. The advertisers often use this technique to access your personal information and sell it to marketing firms.
17. Cyber Bullying
Cyber bullying is mostly common among teenagers. It is a harmful behavior that can include posting rumors, threats, sexual remarks, a victims' personal information, or pejorative labels. In 2011, the National Crime Prevention Council reported that almost half of the teens in the United States of America are affected by the perils of cyber bullying.
18. Pharming
Pharming is a cyber attack intended to redirect a website's traffic to a fake site. A criminal targets a DNS server and changes the IP address associated with an alphabetical website name. That means an attacker can redirect users to a malicious website of their choice even if the victims entered in the correct website name.
19. Google Drive Phishing
Google Drive supports documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos and even entire websites. Google drive phishers can abuse the service by creating a web page that mimics the Google account log-in screen and harvests user credentials.
20. Illegal Adult Pornography
Pornography has dominated the internet since its inception. 12% of online websites are pornographic. This represents approximately 24 millions sites and a little over 2.5 billion of dollars every year. 40 million Americans watch online pornography on a regular basis. Over the years, it has affected how people perceive sexuality. Common problems that arise are porn addiction, chronic masturbation and inability to have emotionally healthy relationships.
21. Fake Online Reviews
Since a collection of five-star ratings can do amazing things for online sellers, it has now become common practice for them to pay for fake reviews or write fake reviews themselves. Others are offering refunds or bonuses in exchange for stars.
22. Additional Online Fees
It is not uncommon for eCommerce sites to charge additional fees like shipping and keep them hidden until late in the checkout process. Sometimes the actual final cost can be 20% to 30% greater than what the customer is lead to believe.
23. Counterfeit Consumer Goods
Counterfeit consumer goods are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another brand name without the brand owner's authorization. Such goods can be found on eBay, Craigslist or even Amazon.
24. New Dropbox Scams
Millions of people use Dropbox every day to back up, access and share their files. What makes Dropbox phishing campaigns the worst is that attackers try to lure users into entering their login credentials on a fake Dropbox sign-in page hosted on Dropbox itself.
