Google Hacking for Identity Theft Listed as Top Scam
The National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA) has identified its top-five spam scams of March 2005. Google Hacking was listed as one of them as identity theft specialists have identified the information indexed in Google as a channel to scrape for such info.
Google Hacking: NCFTA has identified a site advertising several hundred instances of scammers using the Google search engine to retrieve sensitive information from individuals.
Using an explicit search command, it is possible for scammers to find business resumes that individuals have posted on the Web. These documents often contain information such as Social Security numbers, family history, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers, and education.
Individuals who unknowingly provide all this personal information are very susceptible to identity theft.
Online fraud cost merchants $2.6 billion in 2004, an increase of $700 million from 2003, according to a survey conducted by CyberSource Corporation. Approximately two percent of all online sales are fraudulent.
