If so you have seen the sparkle of gold dust, which promises wealth and value but is easily brushed aside by the slightest breeze. Gold dust is the stuff of fraudsters, who were quick to adopt the Internet, using everything from spam to auction sites to ply their dastardly trade.
However novel the delivery, Keith Inman has seen it all before.
"The Internet is just another medium for these guys to get their message out there," Inman says. "It's a new way of getting to people, that's all."
And while binary compensation programs, pyramid investment schemes, credit card fraud and insider trading are certainly not new, the Web is providing fraudsters with new and innovative methods of delivery. This is there Inman comes into the picture.
Having worked for years in investigations and intelligence for State and Federal enforcement agencies, Inman is now heading up the Electronic Enforcement Unit (EEU). This was established within the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in 1999 in response to eight 'electronic enforcement cases' which surfaced in 1998. Barring any need to justify its existence, 2001 saw close to 300 fraudulent matters recorded by the EEU, as well as a raft of successful prosecutions.
The unit consists of five members, two technicians, a senior investigations manager, a lawyer, and Inman the director.
"I will use their first names to protect their confidentiality," says Inman as he launches in to an array of the agency's staffing backgrounds. "Pat has had the role of IT Manager in a number of agencies, and Col, the other techo, is a former police officer who nurtured an interest in all things Internet. Steve, the investigations manager, was a former detective, and Dave, our lawyer, used to be a police prosecutor."
IT skills are generally a complement to the law enforcement expertise of the unit's members -- which it relies heavily on.
Though small, the EEU has already chalked up a number of important stings.
Working in conjunction with its US counterparts, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the EEU traced a global spam campaign to Steven Hourmouzis of Victoria, and Wayne Loughnan of Queensland.
In May 1999, the pair took it upon themselves to talk-up the share price of a NASDAQ-listed company Rentech, which after eight years of trading was hovering around the 33 cent mark.
In the 24 hours following their campaign, which consisted of a large volume of unsolicited Internet e-mail messages predicting that the stock would increase by up to 900 percent in a short period, the stock doubled in price and traded ten times the volume it had in the previous month.
By March 2001 Loughnan was pleading guilty to two charges relating to making false or misleading statements likely to induce the purchase of securities in Rentech, and a third relating to the interruption of the lawful use of computers operated by ten unrelated third parties.
"Without a doubt the sentencing of the two spammers in the Rentech case was a significant event," Inman said.
Unlike other crime-fighting agencies, the EEU charter is not limited to hunting down the culprits. Due to the highly evolutionary nature of online offerings, the unit must also work closely to ensure that legislators understand the requirements of online crime-fighters.
"We have found that the majority of laws are still applicable in the electronic environment, but there are some things we used to be able to do that just don't exist anymore, so the laws are no longer effective," Inman said. "We work with other agencies to identify these gaps and present a business case to the government so they can work toward reform."
However, this diplomatic role is not limited to government liaison. The EEU finds itself working with a range of groups including the auDA (.au domain administration), IIA (Internet Industry Association) a range of ISPs and private sector interests, as well as its overseas counterparts.
"A fraud is a fraud, irrespective of the fact it takes place in cyberspace," says Inman unwaveringly, although he admits that the apparent anonymity of the Internet tends to make crooks bolder than they otherwise might be.
In November 2001, Leonard John Smith received a seven year jail sentence after being found guilty of 22 charges pertaining to loans he had solicited for the fictitious British Marine Bank. Smith and his cohorts, Raymond Strano and George Balos, had created the entity which existed only in name and an online presence. They had even invented a fictitious country in which to locate the bank, gaining credibility through their online presence.
Balos was sentenced to 11 years jail on September 11 2000, and Strano awaits his sentence.
However, not all EEU cases are as complex and drawn-out. In September 2001 the EEU announced it had managed to shut down a pyramid investment scheme which offered to pay up to AU$200 000 worth of debt, as long as the e-mail recipient sent in a deposit and managed to sign up a raft of other participants. The EEU became involved because the offer was made by the fraudster's newly preferred tool - spam.
-These guys are doing the same things they always did," reiterated Inman. -They are just delivering it online, and that's where we come into the picture.
The EEU also documents the unfortunate experiences of unwary investors on ASIC's fido Web site.
-The two messages are; do your homework, and if it sounds too good to be true, it is probably a lie," Inman warns.
And while a career change appears ever tempting, Inman is not about to jump ship, and neither, it seems, are his colleagues.
"With this sort of experience there is no doubt we could demand higher wages elsewhere within the public service, or the private sector," he admits. "But it would be hard to match certain aspects of the EEU job, particularly the 'thrill of the hunt'."
