Cyber Crimes and Computer Security

Cyber Crimes and Computer Security

Identification and assessment of the fraud and its impact on the investors and creditors of the organization

eBay is an online company that facilitates its customers in shopping and buying or selling process. The company was hit by a fraud perpetrator and severely affected the reputation of the company in the online marketplace. EBay is an online auction market maker. A seller on eBay by the name of eBay- Seller successfully carried out fraud on eBay. The fraudulent activity lead to the loses of several members of eBay. The account holders on eBay suffered losses because of the weak feedback reputation system of eBay and the fraudster took advantage of the same.

Detection of the fraud through the financial forensic investigation

The forensic fraud investigating team of eBay gathered the information and evidences against the fraudsters suspect and they investigated the matter in depth in order to deliver the report of investigation to the law enforcement agency so that further prosecution can be made. The trust and safety department of eBay worked as the medium for coordinating and forming the safety strategy of eBay in the online market place and they developed the policies that could lead to the identification of the fraud. The investigation team used data mining software in order to identify the identities of the sellers on eBay and maintain their record pertaining to the fraudulent activities and transactions on eBay (Goff, 2001).

Risk Factors

The risk factors that lead towards the weaknesses of the organization to be a victim of cyber crime includes the weak feedback reputation system that provided only a subtle stability to the organization and more risky environment for trading (Dellarocas 2003, Ba et al. 2002 and Resnick et al. 2002). The risk factors affected the probability of the sale and the prices of the products and had a severe impact on the feedback of the customers. The negative feedback provided influenced the buyers' behavior. The risks in the reputation system feedback of eBay were used for the manipulation of the system by the fraudster.

The elements of Fraud

The most important element in the fraud case of eBay seller was obtained through the data mining and it is the opportunity that was exploited by the eBay seller in order to carry out the fraudulent activities and make profit. A large number of the eBay sellers tend to receive an average positive feedback from the customers and they also tend to be honest. Whereas in the case of fraudulent eBay sellers, the sustainability of those sellers is a short lived yet successful or the time being. Ty could not carry out a fraud for multi years and therefore, they have a shorter sustainability. The eBay seller involved in the fraudulent activity had a double feedback which was a suspect because of double outlier presence and it was also dishonesty on part of the seller.

Analysis of competing hypotheses

The competing hypotheses in the selected case involve grounded theories of ...