The warning issued Saturday by the Saudi National Central Bureau of Interpol, which works under the Ministry of Interior, against an increasing incidence of electronic fraud must be taken very seriously. In a statement, Saudi Interpol urged Internet users to exercise extreme caution while conducting any financial transaction via the web. Every Internet user has surely come across emails offering millions of dollars for business partnerships or recruitment agencies promising lucrative jobs in return for certain amounts of money. Swindlers always come up with new ways to fleece unsuspecting individuals, businessmen and even banks and large establishments. Banks in the Kingdom have sustained losses of $1 billion over the past two years because of electronic crimes, Dr. Jibril Al-Araishi, member of the Shoura Council and Deputy Chairman of the Transportation, Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee, said last year. According to the classification of Kaspersky Company, a Russian computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997, the Kingdom faces a high risk of falling victim to e-crimes. There are thousands of hackers or e-criminals in the Kingdom. The Kingdom has a cyber crime law which was issued in 2007 and it's a good law but it needs to be amended to keep up with new methods of cyber crime and deterring penalties must be imposed on violators. Most cyber crimes or attacks that take place in the Kingdom are launched from Internet cafes in public places and it is difficult to track down perpetrators because most of them use a proxy to hide their identity. Last year, the Saudi Embassy in China warned businessmen in the Kingdom about fraudulent schemes by fake Chinese companies after a number of Saudis complained of losing millions of riyals in business deals done electronically. Electronic fraud is not limited to financial theft but also involves blackmailing, espionage, harassment, threats, drug trafficking, terrorism, etc. Blackmailing is also one of the top methods of cyber harassment in Saudi Arabia. So the General Presidency of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is planning to set up a unit for cyber crimes at its headquarters to track down any attempt to blackmail women on the Internet. But these efforts by the government will not be effective unless each individual remains alert and exercises caution whenever conducting business on the Internet. __
