9781422283981

International Cooperation Police around the world have had to reinvent themselves as they battle against new kinds of criminals. They are up against something entirely new. The following is a true example. A Visa card was used by a man (myself) in an English village to buy software from a company in California. A hacker in an unknown location found the number of the credit card and sold it to another criminal in the United States. It was then used to place bets totaling $6,000 with a betting Web site in Costa Rica. TheWeb site used a credit card merchant service inMontreal, Canada, to process its transactions. TheCanadianbusiness banked inPort of Spain, Trinidad. TheCaribbean bank debited the card-issuing bank in Manchester, England. The computer at that bank was bright enough to recognize that I did not have a history of gambling and raised the alarm. Police in at least five countries could have an interest in the case, but how can they gather evidence? And where exactly was the crime committed? Big sporting events, like the soccer World Cup, give a massive boost to betting organizations around the globe. Legal betting shops, like this one in Macao, face increasing competition from offshore Internet gambling, which can escape national laws and regulation, and is sometimes open to fraud and money laundering as funds move rapidly through cyberspace.

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CYBER CRIME