What is a little surprising, however, is that Internet Auction Fraud—which was the most reported online crime for the last two years—no longer heads the pack, though at 25.5% of all reports, it runs a close second; instead, the most reported online crime for 2008 is Non-Delivery of Merchandise and/or Payment, which comprises 32.9% of all reported instances of internet fraud.

The IC3

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) began operating on May 8, of 2000, as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center—a partnership between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—to serve as a vehicle to receive, process, and refer cyber crime complaints.

IC3 was intended for and continues to serve the broader law enforcement community, including federal, state, and local agencies, and since its inception, IC3 has received complaints running the full gamut of cyber crimes, including online fraud (in its many forms), intellectual property rights matters, computer intrusions (hacking), economic espionage (theft of trade secrets), child pornography, international money laundering, identity theft, and a growing list of additional cyber crimes.

The 2008 Internet Crime Report is its eighth edition.

The Numbers

From January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2008, IC3 received 275,284 online complaints. This is a (33.1%) increase over 2007, which saw 206,884 online complaints.

Of all complaints received, IC3 referred 72,940 of them to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of these cases was of a fraudulent nature and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant.

The total reported dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $264.6 million with a median dollar loss of $931.00 per complaint. This is up from $239.1 million in total reported losses in 2007. Other significant findings related to an analysis of referrals include:

Non-Delivery

Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment was, by far, the most reported offense, comprising 32.9% of referred complaints—this is a 32.1% increase from the 2007 levels of non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment reported to IC3.

Internet Auction Fraud and Other Scams

Internet auction fraud accounted for 25.5% of referred complaints. Credit/debit card fraud made up 9.0% of referred complaints. Confidence fraud, computer fraud, check fraud, and Nigerian letter fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.

Access Method

E-mail (74.0%) and WebPages (28.9%) were the two primary channels over which the fraudulent contact took place.

Fighting Back

According to the IC3, the best way to guard against Internet facilitated scams is to stay informed. Keeping informed of the latest scams on the Internet may enable Internet users to recognize and report these scams instead of losing money or their identity information in one of them. To learn about the latest scams, we recommend periodically checking the IC3, FBI, and the FTC websites for the latest updates.

Additionally, the IC3 and its partners have launched a public website, www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com, which briefs the consumer about various consumer alerts, tips, and fraud trends.

Fighting Non-Delivery

The IC3 makes specific recommendation about fighting non-delivery of merchandise or payments:

• Make sure you are purchasing merchandise from a reputable source. As with auction fraud, check the reputation of the seller whenever possible, including the Better Business Bureau.
• Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number. Also, call the seller to see if the number is correct and working.
• Send them an e-mail to see if they have an active e-mail address. Be cautious of sellers who use free e-mail services where a credit card was not required to open the account.
• Investigate other websites regarding this person/company. Do not judge a person/company by their fancy website; thoroughly check the person/company out.
• Be cautious when responding to special offers (especially through unsolicited e-mail).
• Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside your own country. Remember the laws of different countries might pose issues if a problem arises with your transaction.
• Inquire about returns and warranties on all items.
• The safest way to purchase items via the Internet is by credit card because you can often dispute the charges if something is wrong. Also, consider utilizing an escrow or alternate payment service after conducting thorough research on the escrow service.
• Make sure the website is secure when you electronically send your credit card numbers.

Fighting Internet Auction Fraud

The IC3 also makes specific recommendations on how to battle Internet Auction Fraud:

• Understand as much as possible about how Internet auctions work, what your obligations are as a buyer, and what the seller’s obligations are before you bid.
• Find out what actions the website takes if a problem occurs and consider insuring the transaction and shipment.
• Learn as much as possible about the seller, especially if the only information you have is an e-mail address. If it is a business, check the Better Business Bureau where the seller/business is located.
• Examine the feedback on the seller and use common sense. If the seller has a history of negative feedback then do not deal with that particular seller.
• Determine what method of payment the seller is asking for and where he/she is asking to send payment. Use caution when the mailing address is a post office box number.
• Be aware of the difference in laws governing auctions between the U.S. and other countries. If a problem occurs with the auction transaction that has the seller in one country and a buyer in another, it might result in a dubious outcome leaving you empty handed.
• Be sure to ask the seller about when delivery can be expected and warranty/exchange information for merchandise that you might want to return.
• To avoid unexpected costs, find out if shipping and delivery are included in the auction price or are additional.
• Finally, avoid giving out your social security number or driver’s license number to the seller, as the sellers have no need for this information.

Steps To Take If Victimized:

1. File a complaint with the online auction company. In order to be considered for eBay’s Fraud Protection Program, you should submit an online Fraud Complaint within 90 days after the listing end-date.
2. File a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
3. Contact law enforcement officials at the local and state level (your local and state police departments).
4. Also, contact law enforcement officials in the perpetrator’s town & state.
5. File a complaint with the shipper: USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.
6. File a complaint with the National Fraud Information Center.
7. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

A Closer Look at Non-Delivery

Doing the non-delivery math paints an unpleasant picture:

Since Non-Delivery constitutes 32.9% of the 275,284 reported cyber crimes in 2008, this means we saw 90,568 reported non-delivery cases. Now, since according to the National White Collar Crime Center’s August 2005 report, The National Public Survey on White Collar Crime, only one cyber crime in seven is actually reported to police or a regulatory agency, we will have to multiply this number by seven to get an accurate count of perpetrated non-delivery crimes for 2008, which ends us up with 633,976.

This in turn means that 1,736 such crimes occur every day, or 72 ever hour, 24/7.

Or, to put it in another light, here in the United States, every minute of ever day (24/7), a product is fraudulently sold (and gullibly purchased and paid for) online.

Not a laughing matter.

Fraudulent Online Escrow Protection

One of the IC3’s key recommendations is to consider utilizing an escrow or alternate payment service after conducting thorough research on the escrow service.

However, please take careful notice of the line “after conducting thorough research on the escrow service.” Why did the IC3 include that warning?

It is because fraudulent online-escrow protection has proven to be a very profitable online fraudulent activity, masquerading as it does as protection, while only intending theft.

It is nothing short of escrow wolves in sheep’s clothing. For this is the world of praying on the innocent and unsuspecting; of perpetrating fraud in the guise of help.

This is the world where the weary online buyer—well informed perhaps about online auction frauds and false promises—to safeguard his money turns to an online escrow service to make sure that he receives and approves the merchandise before his funds are released to the seller.

He Googles “Online Escrow” and is met with a host of sites, one seeming more legitimate than the next. He reads the “about us” carefully, and as much of the fine print as he has time or mind to absorb. Finally settles on one: Integrity Escrow.

He establishes an account, and his email is verified by the site, over a secure https link. So far so good. Seeing the https and the little security symbol in his browser makes him feel warm and fuzzy.

He then provides the details of the transaction, and, as a final step, deposits the purchase amount—in this case $3,500—in his newly established escrow account.

And that, as the saying goes, was the last he saw of that money.

How do they do it?

Impersonating the Solution

Turns out Integrity Escrow was nothing but a slick impersonation of a bona fide escrow company, established—normally in China, Russia, or the former Eastern EU—for the sole purpose of stealing your money while pretending to do the exact opposite, i.e., preventing theft.

Unfortunately, online escrow fraud is escalating, due to factors such as:

• Online identity/credit-card theft
• The Anonymity of the Internet
• A lamentable lack of public awareness about fraudulent escrow sites
• Web hosting companies that allow fraudulent escrow sites to be created with stolen credit cards, and then allow them to remain on their service even after they have been reported.

To this, add an increasing number of tech savvy criminals with zero concern for their fellow man.

Luckily—for those who’s job it is to track the fraudulent online escrow sites down—those who set then up fraudulent are, as a rule, lazy people, who wouldn’t (probably couldn’t) create original copy if their lives depended on it. No, too much work.

Lazy people normally resort to templates, made to order scam sites (which abound as well) where they go to download a respectable site. As for trust-inducing copy, few sites are better than bona fide online escrows, which is where they go for the words.

Safeguard Your Money
How can, you, the average Internet user protect yourself against online escrow fraud?

Firstly, it is important that you (as recommended by the IC3) research these sites before ever sending money or merchandise. First, do a WHOIS search on the domain. This will show you how long the site has been up, where it is being hosted, how many times the site has been taken down. These are clues. If it smells fishy at all to you, go elsewhere.

It is your money. Handing it over to a cyber criminal probably has not yet made it onto your top-ten list of what to do with it.

There are many great deals online. There are many great auction houses online. There are bona fide online escrow sites, but nowhere near as many as there are fraudulent ones.

So do all the online research you can. When you have found a site that seems legitimate, you should take one of several additional steps:

• Firstly, while fraudulent sites can buy the necessary certificate to make it a secure site, they seldom do;
• Secondly, you can check at escrow-fraud.com to see if the site you have decided on is listed as a fraudulent site by them; they also maintain a list of bona fide sites;
• Thirdly, you can call the site’s customer service department to make sure they are based in the United States. If you have any doubts about that, ask them to call you back, and check the caller ID—if it is an international call, beware. Also, if the site does not have a customer service department, again, beware;
• Once you know that you’re talking to a U.S. based service department, ask any questions you can think of to ensure they are legitimate, such as which bank are they using for their escrow accounts, and who is their main contact at that bank (whom you can then call to verify that this online escrow company does in deed have an escrow account there);
• If the answer is a well-known American bank, and if the customer service rep can supply contact information at the bank, you are 99% there. Then, if you want to reach 100%, make that final call to the bank to rule out any vestige of doubt.

Now you have found an online escrow company you can trust; register with them and enjoy your purchase.

Escrow.com

To make your life a little easier: there is an online escrow company with the credentials to put your mind at ease.

Licensed by the state of California—as well as by the States of Idaho and Arizona, who require separate licenses—Escrow.com is the only on-line escrow company credentialed to serve every state of the Union, and who indeed does so 24/7.

While Escrow.com will handle transactions of any size, it may not make financial sense to turn to them for low cost items since their transaction fee is $25, and their commission is $63 per $1,000 value of the transaction if payment is by credit card and $32.50 per $1,000 for wire transfers.

But, if you value your sleep, Escrow.com would be indispensible for any transaction of $250 on up.

While Escrow.com is gaining increasing recognition as the Internet escrow company to turn to for peace of e-commerce mind, their staff, on a daily basis, also hunt and diligently work to shut down fraudulent impostors, which are encountered daily.

And they spring up like mushrooms, these impostors: there are days that Escrow.com staff discovers as many as ten new such sites.

The good news is that as these sites are tracked down, authorities are alerted and the sites are soon off the air.

eBay Weighs In

To quote the biggest online auction site of them all, eBay: “Pay safely – beware of fake escrow services when you consider using them to pay for your eBay item.

“For eBay transactions, you should use eBay’s only approved Escrow Company: www.escrow.com.”

Escrow.com—A Soon-To-Be Household Name

As Escrow.com gains further and further recognition on its way to become a household name, it gets harder and harder for impostors to defraud the public for the excellent reason that they are not Escrow.com—the only name you know you can trust.

Here’s to peace of mind and a good night’s sleep.

What is a little surprising, however, is that Internet Auction Fraud—which was the most reported online crime for the last two years—no longer heads the pack, though at 25.5% of all reports, it runs a close second; instead, the most reported online crime for 2008 is Non-Delivery of Merchandise and/or Payment, which comprises 32.9% of all reported instances of internet fraud.

The IC3

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) began operating on May 8, of 2000, as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center—a partnership between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—to serve as a vehicle to receive, process, and refer cyber crime complaints.

IC3 was intended for and continues to serve the broader law enforcement community, including federal, state, and local agencies, and since its inception, IC3 has received complaints running the full gamut of cyber crimes, including online fraud (in its many forms), intellectual property rights matters, computer intrusions (hacking), economic espionage (theft of trade secrets), child pornography, international money laundering, identity theft, and a growing list of additional cyber crimes.

The 2008 Internet Crime Report is its eighth edition.

The Numbers

From January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2008, IC3 received 275,284 online complaints. This is a (33.1%) increase over 2007, which saw 206,884 online complaints.

Of all complaints received, IC3 referred 72,940 of them to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of these cases was of a fraudulent nature and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant.

The total reported dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $264.6 million with a median dollar loss of $931.00 per complaint. This is up from $239.1 million in total reported losses in 2007. Other significant findings related to an analysis of referrals include:

Non-Delivery

Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment was, by far, the most reported offense, comprising 32.9% of referred complaints—this is a 32.1% increase from the 2007 levels of non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment reported to IC3.

Internet Auction Fraud and Other Scams

Internet auction fraud accounted for 25.5% of referred complaints. Credit/debit card fraud made up 9.0% of referred complaints. Confidence fraud, computer fraud, check fraud, and Nigerian letter fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.

Access Method

E-mail (74.0%) and WebPages (28.9%) were the two primary channels over which the fraudulent contact took place.

Fighting Back

According to the IC3, the best way to guard against Internet facilitated scams is to stay informed. Keeping informed of the latest scams on the Internet may enable Internet users to recognize and report these scams instead of losing money or their identity information in one of them. To learn about the latest scams, we recommend periodically checking the IC3, FBI, and the FTC websites for the latest updates.

Additionally, the IC3 and its partners have launched a public website, www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com, which briefs the consumer about various consumer alerts, tips, and fraud trends.

Fighting Non-Delivery

The IC3 makes specific recommendation about fighting non-delivery of merchandise or payments:

• Make sure you are purchasing merchandise from a reputable source. As with auction fraud, check the reputation of the seller whenever possible, including the Better Business Bureau.
• Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number. Also, call the seller to see if the number is correct and working.
• Send them an e-mail to see if they have an active e-mail address. Be cautious of sellers who use free e-mail services where a credit card was not required to open the account.
• Investigate other websites regarding this person/company. Do not judge a person/company by their fancy website; thoroughly check the person/company out.
• Be cautious when responding to special offers (especially through unsolicited e-mail).
• Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside your own country. Remember the laws of different countries might pose issues if a problem arises with your transaction.
• Inquire about returns and warranties on all items.
• The safest way to purchase items via the Internet is by credit card because you can often dispute the charges if something is wrong. Also, consider utilizing an escrow or alternate payment service after conducting thorough research on the escrow service.
• Make sure the website is secure when you electronically send your credit card numbers.

Fighting Internet Auction Fraud

The IC3 also makes specific recommendations on how to battle Internet Auction Fraud:

• Understand as much as possible about how Internet auctions work, what your obligations are as a buyer, and what the seller’s obligations are before you bid.
• Find out what actions the website takes if a problem occurs and consider insuring the transaction and shipment.
• Learn as much as possible about the seller, especially if the only information you have is an e-mail address. If it is a business, check the Better Business Bureau where the seller/business is located.
• Examine the feedback on the seller and use common sense. If the seller has a history of negative feedback then do not deal with that particular seller.
• Determine what method of payment the seller is asking for and where he/she is asking to send payment. Use caution when the mailing address is a post office box number.
• Be aware of the difference in laws governing auctions between the U.S. and other countries. If a problem occurs with the auction transaction that has the seller in one country and a buyer in another, it might result in a dubious outcome leaving you empty handed.
• Be sure to ask the seller about when delivery can be expected and warranty/exchange information for merchandise that you might want to return.
• To avoid unexpected costs, find out if shipping and delivery are included in the auction price or are additional.
• Finally, avoid giving out your social security number or driver’s license number to the seller, as the sellers have no need for this information.

Steps To Take If Victimized:

1. File a complaint with the online auction company. In order to be considered for eBay’s Fraud Protection Program, you should submit an online Fraud Complaint within 90 days after the listing end-date.
2. File a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
3. Contact law enforcement officials at the local and state level (your local and state police departments).
4. Also, contact law enforcement officials in the perpetrator’s town & state.
5. File a complaint with the shipper: USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.
6. File a complaint with the National Fraud Information Center.
7. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

A Closer Look at Non-Delivery

Doing the non-delivery math paints an unpleasant picture:

Since Non-Delivery constitutes 32.9% of the 275,284 reported cyber crimes in 2008, this means we saw 90,568 reported non-delivery cases. Now, since according to the National White Collar Crime Center’s August 2005 report, The National Public Survey on White Collar Crime, only one cyber crime in seven is actually reported to police or a regulatory agency, we will have to multiply this number by seven to get an accurate count of perpetrated non-delivery crimes for 2008, which ends us up with 633,976.

This in turn means that 1,736 such crimes occur every day, or 72 ever hour, 24/7.

Or, to put it in another light, here in the United States, every minute of ever day (24/7), a product is fraudulently sold (and gullibly purchased and paid for) online.

Not a laughing matter.

Fraudulent Online Escrow Protection

One of the IC3’s key recommendations is to consider utilizing an escrow or alternate payment service after conducting thorough research on the escrow service.

However, please take careful notice of the line “after conducting thorough research on the escrow service.” Why did the IC3 include that warning?

It is because fraudulent online-escrow protection has proven to be a very profitable online fraudulent activity, masquerading as it does as protection, while only intending theft.

It is nothing short of escrow wolves in sheep’s clothing. For this is the world of praying on the innocent and unsuspecting; of perpetrating fraud in the guise of help.

This is the world where the weary online buyer—well informed perhaps about online auction frauds and false promises—to safeguard his money turns to an online escrow service to make sure that he receives and approves the merchandise before his funds are released to the seller.

He Googles “Online Escrow” and is met with a host of sites, one seeming more legitimate than the next. He reads the “about us” carefully, and as much of the fine print as he has time or mind to absorb. Finally settles on one: Integrity Escrow.

He establishes an account, and his email is verified by the site, over a secure https link. So far so good. Seeing the https and the little security symbol in his browser makes him feel warm and fuzzy.

He then provides the details of the transaction, and, as a final step, deposits the purchase amount—in this case $3,500—in his newly established escrow account.

And that, as the saying goes, was the last he saw of that money.

How do they do it?

Impersonating the Solution

Turns out Integrity Escrow was nothing but a slick impersonation of a bona fide escrow company, established—normally in China, Russia, or the former Eastern EU—for the sole purpose of stealing your money while pretending to do the exact opposite, i.e., preventing theft.

Unfortunately, online escrow fraud is escalating, due to factors such as:

• Online identity/credit-card theft
• The Anonymity of the Internet
• A lamentable lack of public awareness about fraudulent escrow sites
• Web hosting companies that allow fraudulent escrow sites to be created with stolen credit cards, and then allow them to remain on their service even after they have been reported.

To this, add an increasing number of tech savvy criminals with zero concern for their fellow man.

Luckily—for those who’s job it is to track the fraudulent online escrow sites down—those who set then up fraudulent are, as a rule, lazy people, who wouldn’t (probably couldn’t) create original copy if their lives depended on it. No, too much work.

Lazy people normally resort to templates, made to order scam sites (which abound as well) where they go to download a respectable site. As for trust-inducing copy, few sites are better than bona fide online escrows, which is where they go for the words.

Safeguard Your Money
How can, you, the average Internet user protect yourself against online escrow fraud?

Firstly, it is important that you (as recommended by the IC3) research these sites before ever sending money or merchandise. First, do a WHOIS search on the domain. This will show you how long the site has been up, where it is being hosted, how many times the site has been taken down. These are clues. If it smells fishy at all to you, go elsewhere.

It is your money. Handing it over to a cyber criminal probably has not yet made it onto your top-ten list of what to do with it.

There are many great deals online. There are many great auction houses online. There are bona fide online escrow sites, but nowhere near as many as there are fraudulent ones.

So do all the online research you can. When you have found a site that seems legitimate, you should take one of several additional steps:

• Firstly, while fraudulent sites can buy the necessary certificate to make it a secure site, they seldom do;
• Secondly, you can check at escrow-fraud.com to see if the site you have decided on is listed as a fraudulent site by them; they also maintain a list of bona fide sites;
• Thirdly, you can call the site’s customer service department to make sure they are based in the United States. If you have any doubts about that, ask them to call you back, and check the caller ID—if it is an international call, beware. Also, if the site does not have a customer service department, again, beware;
• Once you know that you’re talking to a U.S. based service department, ask any questions you can think of to ensure they are legitimate, such as which bank are they using for their escrow accounts, and who is their main contact at that bank (whom you can then call to verify that this online escrow company does in deed have an escrow account there);
• If the answer is a well-known American bank, and if the customer service rep can supply contact information at the bank, you are 99% there. Then, if you want to reach 100%, make that final call to the bank to rule out any vestige of doubt.

Now you have found an online escrow company you can trust; register with them and enjoy your purchase.

Escrow.com

To make your life a little easier: there is an online escrow company with the credentials to put your mind at ease.

Licensed by the state of California—as well as by the States of Idaho and Arizona, who require separate licenses—Escrow.com is the only on-line escrow company credentialed to serve every state of the Union, and who indeed does so 24/7.

While Escrow.com will handle transactions of any size, it may not make financial sense to turn to them for low cost items since their transaction fee is $25, and their commission is $63 per $1,000 value of the transaction if payment is by credit card and $32.50 per $1,000 for wire transfers.

But, if you value your sleep, Escrow.com would be indispensible for any transaction of $250 on up.

While Escrow.com is gaining increasing recognition as the Internet escrow company to turn to for peace of e-commerce mind, their staff, on a daily basis, also hunt and diligently work to shut down fraudulent impostors, which are encountered daily.

And they spring up like mushrooms, these impostors: there are days that Escrow.com staff discovers as many as ten new such sites.

The good news is that as these sites are tracked down, authorities are alerted and the sites are soon off the air.

eBay Weighs In

To quote the biggest online auction site of them all, eBay: “Pay safely – beware of fake escrow services when you consider using them to pay for your eBay item.

“For eBay transactions, you should use eBay’s only approved Escrow Company: www.escrow.com.”

Escrow.com—A Soon-To-Be Household Name

As Escrow.com gains further and further recognition on its way to become a household name, it gets harder and harder for impostors to defraud the public for the excellent reason that they are not Escrow.com—the only name you know you can trust.

Here’s to peace of mind and a good night’s sleep.

20 years ago if you were to say the words video game to anyone it would conjure up images of fat moustache sporting Italian named plumbers making their way through a two-tone side scrolling magical land to an infuriatingly repetitive 8-bit soundtrack. However if you utter the same two words in 2009 you are likely to be greeted with a gasps and sighs of disgust as the image of a hooded teen in a darkened room with a year’s supply of energy drinks and crisps piled up beside them.

It seems very much that Video Games have become the enemy of the 21st Century however given the contradictory nature of video game critics it is difficult to take this view seriously, however that has not stopped passionate advocates of modern day video games doing their upmost in protest of this new medium of violence. None perhaps have done more for the cause than Florida based attorney Jack Thompson. Thompson has made it his mission over the past decade to rid the world of violent video games and ensure those that do slip through the new do not fall in to the hands of minors. Mr. Thompson has a particular bee in his bonnet regarding one Edinburgh based publisher Rockstar Games. Since the launch of Grand Theft Auto and the Creation of Rockstar games in 1997 the world of video game critics rejoiced at this new ‘scapegoat’, the combination of on screen violence and hands on game play led to concerns that video games may well be conditioning youngsters when it comes to extreme violence. The games questionable graphics and soundtrack lead to many claims being dismissed, as it was not believed a title with such graphics could have a serious influence on a minors mind.

This changed with the release of the Playstation 2 in 2000 and Grand Theft Auto 3 the following year, this for the first time bought truly 3D gaming to users. It was with the release of GTA 3 that Jack Thompson’s ears pricked up with great attention and it wasn’t long before he was at it again. In 2003 Dustin Lynch made an insanity plea after being accused of murder claiming he was ‘obsessed’ with the game and been influenced by the game’s depiction of graphic violence. The plea was retracted and his mother stated that it had nothing to do with Video Games. As video games have improved both graphically and in terms of game play they have taken on new roles in society and in recent years have seen a return to the family orientated entertainment hub of yesteryear but can video game developers truly claim complete innocence? The Call of Duty series is one of the most popular and successful franchises in video game history and has even been adopted by the US army as a way of training the US armies soldiers in strategic combat so does this not enforce the argument that video games can indeed ‘train’ players in violent situations? Well not exactly yes the advancements made in video games has made the level of realism unquestionably detailed however can it really be argued that today’s youth are uneducated enough to struggle to differentiate between real life and a number of coloured pixels on a television screen? The contradictory nature I referred to earlier plays into this subject. Obesity in recent years has become a real hot topic in the USA and indeed Britain and what was being blamed? Yes, that’s right the time being spent in front of the small screen playing video games, so personally I find it very difficult to imagine these obese gamers who apparently spend nothing short of ‘all’ their time in front of the television causing mayhem and dysfunction on the streets of this nation.

The video game rating system ensures titles intended for adults are not sold to minors however it does not ensure that they will not be played by such minors at some point. A similar rating system is in place in the USA however it is not nearly as tight as that in the UK and mature titles have been sold to underage US kids. Grand Theft Auto although a favourite for the prosecution is not the only franchise to be blamed, the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 which saw the worst shootings of its kind in modern history, Jack Thompson was quick to lay the blame firmly at the door of Video Games after he stated, killer Seung-Hui Cho was a fan of first person shooter counterstrike however it was later revealed by Cho’s roommates that they had never even seen him playing the game. Never the less the claim had great resonance here in the UK leading to many retailers refusing to stock certain titles one of which is another of Rockstar’s titles ‘Canis Canem Edit’ originally known as bully which underwent a name change for the UK market due to pressure on the publisher, despite the game completely advocating bullying. The massacre also contributed to the banning of the sequal to controversial Manhunt in the UK market.

As with mobile phones and their apparent links to cancer much research has been done in to the link between violence and video games, and it is not just violence that has been researched, oh no, it is also video games apparent glamorization of sex, drugs and maybe even rock and roll’. And what is the conclusion? Well unsurprisingly research showed no significant link between video games and violent crimes, sexual assault or drug intake. However alcohol on the other hand can be directly linked with the above however has this led to a global damning of alcohol? No. So what of our friend Mr. Thompson? What did he make of this research? Well, not much as it happens however in a sign that video games are ‘fighting back’ in a totally non violent way of course he has since been barred by the state of Florida from filing any new cases due to improper conduct and abusing the system.

So great news video games are off the hook, well if only it were that simple. Critics will continue to look for an easy excuse in justifying a youngster’s behaviour and when the white coat clad forensics move in they may well continue to march past the sawn off shot gun and the latest edition of shooting for dummies and march straight for the games room and the latest video game with an 18 certificate. But I ask these critics to consider this, the violence or the video games which came first? In the meantime we await the latest medium that will warp and destroy the minds of the children of the world abandoning logic, reason in favour of blaming the glamorous and evolving world of modern entertainment.

Not sure what is the best strategy here. To pay off the amount of $196 or see a report that says paid off or take the pain to file a fraud case with police and pass on a copy to the creditor and wait for 6 months to see the improvements in credit file ?

For now I have the reports from the 3 agencies but confused what is the best course of action in this scenario.

credit companies want us to sign up for their membership and monitoring software. Is it worth it?

I used to love how I get instant credit on everything. Now it’s just an ass to go through getting credit.

what should i do? should I just buy the membership like $10 a month and that should solve my problem?