We all know we should be wary of online scams. But until you’ve been a victim, it’s easy to shrug your shoulders and expect it to happen to everyone else.
Covid has been a real driver in this increase of scams, pushing more and more sales online. In 2022, global ecommerce sales have reached $5.5 billion, and this is set to increase further to $7.3 billion by 2025. Of course, with a greater number of transactions, comes a greater number of opportunities for criminal activity. These take the form of identity theft, phishing scams, credit card fraud, auction fraud, investment fraud, even online dating scams.
The story of Jack the Ripper can teach us a lot about the confusing and confounding nature of scamming. The publication of the ‘Dear Boss’ letter and the ‘From Hell’ letter (which came packaged with part of a human kidney) highlighted the immense task the police had in trying to separate fact from fiction. These were part of hundreds of letters that were sent to the police and local press, claiming to be written by the killer.
Back in the late 1880s, there wasn’t the technology available today to ascertain whether these letters were fake or not. The police had to take them seriously – at least initially. And there is a school of thought that a proportion of them were genuine. Another is that the letters were penned by members of public and reporters wanting to keep the story alive and thereby sell more papers. Whatever the truth of the letters, they…
