Stop internet crime. Better to be well informed than to be scammed

The Internet offers us possibilities that we could not have imagined years ago. Many habits from our daily lives are conveniently digitized: payments, online purchases and bookings, administrative communication with the government. This ever-expanding digitization has also shifted the area of action of criminals to the Internet. While there are now fewer home burglaries, cybercrime has tripled in the period 2017-2022. People with bad intentions can make many victims anonymously and more quickly via the Internet. Phishing is the most common form of Internet crime among private individuals. The criminal pretends to be a reliable party and attempts to extract something from the victim, such as codes, passwords, and ultimately money or goods. Some attempts are amateurish and can be recognized quickly. A classic is that you have received a large inheritance from a faraway country. Or B-post reports that an (unordered) package requires an additional payment. Or that a police investigation into pedophilia has been initiated against you. But the forms in which phishing occurs today have become much more credible with a professional-looking interface, with real Microsoft logos or logos of a government service. Mails that seem reliable, but with edited e-mail headers lead to false addresses, accounts and websites. Fraud via the internet is an advancing problem, which is also difficult to limit by the police. That is why Wim VAN DER BIEST - who as a commissioner led the Regional Computer Crime Unit of the Federal Judicial Police in East Flanders for 20 years - finds it important to raise awareness about this. To avoid misunderstandings, he gives this lecture as a private person and not in his police function. He will try to alert us - with videos and fascinating examples from his own police practice - to the most common forms of internet fraud. The most commonly used methods are illustrated with examples and fascinating anecdotes. How “monkey mules” operate. What traces each of us leaves behind when surfing the internet. Where you can go if a problem occurs. Which new trends and techniques (including artificial intelligence) will develop in the future are discussed. And of course there is ample opportunity to ask questions.