The psychology involved with cybercrime

Hey all, 

I was intending to make a post earlier in the week, however, I had my head buried in coursework all week, so I wanted to get that out of the way. Also, I've just finished a course on The Open University called: "The psychology of cybercrime" So I reckon now would be the perfect time to disclose everything I've learned with you.

Question overall: 

Why the need for cybercrime?

Let's explore the psychological factors!

First scenario:

Say if you were a Twitter user, and you noticed that one of your friends has a 2nd account for some peculiar reason, you then immediately presume they created it, and therefore, proceed to follow them.

However, what you fail to realize, is that your friend DID NOT create that account, in which it was created by somebody who has an intention of hacking them. By doing so, they know that you're following them on twitter, which will allow them to take advantage of your account by looking into your personal details, as well as your personal photos. (Some being inappropriate)

Furthermore, they have more intention of exploiting you all over the internet by sharing your private photos (which may be inappropriate) everywhere. This will then be followed by humiliation, violation and guilt, as to why you'd trustingly followed the hacker's account thinking it was one of your friends.

Here's some useful advice: When you see another social media account with a photo of your friend and their name - Ask them first if they actually DID create another account, because you never know beforehand who is on the other side of it...

Second scenario:

You were just casually browsing the internet, when all of a sudden... a random email notification pops up on your screen.

Now, you might be thinking: "Oooh, I bet this might be exciting or urgent, so I better check it out" This email happens to be sent from a branded company informing you that you need to re-new your membership by asking for your bank details, including the use of exclamation marks. You make the decision to go ahead and send your bank details.

But after a while, you get a notification from your bank, saying that a large portion of your money had been raided from your account. You will then immediately realize you've been a victim of 'fraud'.

This type of cybercrime asks for your bank details through your email pretending to be a branded company. 3 things to bare in mind here: A. Look for the @something.com next to the branded company name, B. Branded companies would NEVER ask you to send over you bank details through an email and C. You would not see any branded company use any exclamation marks in their form of writing.

Third scenario:

Again, you were just casually browsing the internet, when all of a sudden... a random notification pops up on your screen. But this time, it's stating that your computer/laptop is at risk of slowing down, so it's advising you to click on 'save file' to help reduce the lagging in the system.

But instead, another message pops up saying a "trojan" virus has been found in the system and starts to cause problems with every single thing involved. To put it in simpler terms, you're unable to access ANYTHING.

This type of virus is designed to send scam pop messages on your computer/laptop screen, which will only end up destroying every single tab and file on it. 

Thanks for taking your time to read and PLEASE stay safe when using the internet. I shall be back soon with another post. Stay tuned!