The RMIT academic added that even the advertising systems can be compromised – platforms sometimes fall victim to "malvertising" where seemingly legitimate advertisements lead users to fraudulent sites. Many organisations, such as social media, do not conduct due diligence on the “marketers” to verify whether they are real companies or not. They usually just concentrate on the ad sales.
In Vietnam, the National Cyber Security Centre's weekly reports are alarming: the majority of the identified phishing websites in the reports are fake bank or e-commerce platforms. Dr Dwight said that these might not be isolated incidents but part of a systematic, tech-enabled criminal infrastructure.
Beyond phishing and direct attacks
Scam compounds are a related issue that Dr Dwight is investigating in collaboration with a non-profit organisation. This is a rising crime in Southeast Asia where criminals use job sites and social media to recruit people into fake jobs, human trafficking them into facilities in Myanmar and Cambodia to commit cyber crime. Such crimes include but are not limited to e-commerce fraud.
What makes these crimes particularly harmful is their escalating impact. As Dr Dwight explained, there can be significant second-level harm. What starts as a seemingly simple online scam can rapidly transform into more severe crimes: human trafficking, forced labour, money laundering, and even physical assault.
Deviant behaviours are also a common, yet often overlooked, aspect of e-commerce fraud. These activities usually take advantage of business policies focused on providing a great customer experience such as free shipping and returns.
“You have people who buy a product and it gets shipped to them, but they falsely claim that they did not receive it. Most of the time the e-commerce sites will give a refund because they are trying to make the customer experience as nice as possible,” Dr Dwight said.
“Or somebody might open an online shop and get their friends writing hundreds of positive reviews. That is not necessarily illegal, but not exactly ethical either. Yet, such deviant behaviours can cost consumers and e-commerce sites a lot of money.”
