Try to report Online Fraud to Gardai

Mad Mike

Recently got an unsolicited email from this crowd: http://lgp-incorp.net/
offering me a job.

Now I know this is a scam - others in my job have been targetted by this before. You are hired to act as a go-between in apparently legitimate sales transactions and the seller dissapears with either your money or some third parties money - leaving you to face the music.

A lot of work went into the website - even creating phony product descriptions so I reckon they intend to get a big payback for that effort. Therefore I thought it would be good citizenly of me to report to the Gardai. I know they have little hope of tracking down the culprit but there is an Irish address given (almost certainly bogus) and an Irish mobile phone number (possible traceable).

Anyway I tried the Garda website.

Problem number 1: It doesn't work with firefox.
Problem number 2: Having dug out Internet Explorer - I follow the email link to be told:

"Please do not attempt to use e-mail to inform us about a crime or an incident in progress as Emails are NOT monitored 24 hours per day"

In fact the only option offered to report a crime is:

"Should you wish to speak directly with the Gardaí, please contact your local station. (Email facilities are not presently available at Garda Stations for external communication). "

Argghhhhhh - So much for citizenly duty.

Martyr

Maybe I am naive on the state of Gardai expertise in the field of computer security..but would it be fair to say they are uneducated..i mean educated sufficiently to deal with computer crime on all levels.

Not enough resources.

What was the "operation" Gardai had to tackle those known to have viewed child pornography on the internet?

Well, in the UK, i remember the so-called "Operation Ore" in which only 1300 of 6000 suspects were arrrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2652465.stm

And BT has stated in the past that up to 400,000 people in the UK attempt to access child pornography a day and that it is an increasing problem.

MiCr0

Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation (GBFI) was established in April 1995 and is based at Harcourt Square, Dublin 2. Its remit involves the investigation of Fraud on a National basis principally dealing with the more complex of cases.

The Bureau is headed by a Chief Superintendent who reports directly to Assistant Commissioner, National Support Services.

The primary objective of the GBFI may be summarised as:

* To investigate serious caess of commercial fraud, cheque and credit card fraud, computer fraud, money laundering offences and counterfeit currency.
* To collate information and intelligence and act as a resource centre on fraud related matters
* To play a pro-active role in the prevention and detection of fraud

The Bureau maintains extensive liaison with the business and commercial sectors of the Community, in addition to all the relevant regulatory agencies within the State.

Five different sections are contained within the Bureau, namely


* Assessment Unit - Examination and analysis of all complaints at an early stage and deciding whether matter should be investigated by local Gardai or specialist units.
* Commercial Fraud - deals with the more complex fraud cases involving Banks, Insurance Companies etc
* Money Laundering - Primarily investigating breaches of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994 concerning money laundering offences. This crime often has a multi-jurisdictional aspect.
* Cheque/Credit Card Fraud - Serious cases and organised cheque/credit card fraud cases are investigated by this section
* Computer Crime - This is a national reference center for Gardai requiring assistance in the investigation of computer related crime. The unit members have expertise in the examination of computer hardware and storage devices.

http://www.garda.ie/angarda/gbfi.html

The Telephone number for Harcourt Square is 01 - 4755555.

The following Sections are located there :

* Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation
* National Bureau of Criminal Investigation
* Criminal Assets Bureau
* Community Relations Section
* Special Detective Unit
* Command and Control Centre
* Assistant Commissioners Office, Dublin Metropolitan Region

tck

Theres's a difference between people working in that area to get paid and people who love working with technology and actually get paid for doing it.

I think they are well understaffed more so than anything else, they have some technical skills and they aren't stupid. For forensics the Irish are definitely on the ball, they even sought help from a university student of UL to do a nice linux based tool Encase you didn't know :P

Martyr

What does the linux tool do that most other software freely available can't already do on UNIX-variants?
I'm not going to name drop, mainly because i don't know of any forensic tools for unix..except maybe TCT.

Mad Mike

OK I emailed my story into the Gard aPress Office and asked them to pass it on to the computer crime section of the fraud bureau. This salves my conscience if nothing else although I do realise that my email may well never get through to someone who understands it.

tck

Average Joe wrote:

What does the linux tool do that most other software freely available can't already do on UNIX-variants?
I'm not going to name drop, mainly because i don't know of any forensic tools for unix..except maybe TCT.

Exactly what i was thinking, who knows but anyways heres a nice round up

http://www.linux-forensics.com/links.html

Stephen

Why don't you just ring them on the phone?

i71jskz5xu42pb

Stephen wrote:

Why don't you just ring them on the phone?

That would be too much like effort ..... somehow he thinks that the Gardai will be willing to put some effort into investigating it even though he can't be ar5ed picking up the phone reporting it.

The Gardai not having email is a really good idea as it filters out this kind of time waster.

Victor

The website, um, doesn't appear to be working.

lynchie

The website seems to be back up and running. Contact address is 135 Capel Street which seems to be occupied by the "Irish Sports against Racism". Also, Company registration office doesn't have a company called lgp registered. Im sure that is enough for the gardai fraud squad to investigate it? Mad Mike, any reply from your email?

rsynnott

Average Joe wrote:

Maybe I am naive on the state of Gardai expertise in the field of computer security..but would it be fair to say they are uneducated..i mean educated sufficiently to deal with computer crime on all levels.

Not enough resources.

What was the "operation" Gardai had to tackle those known to have viewed child pornography on the internet?

Well, in the UK, i remember the so-called "Operation Ore" in which only 1300 of 6000 suspects were arrrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2652465.stm

And BT has stated in the past that up to 400,000 people in the UK attempt to access child pornography a day and that it is an increasing problem.

Actually, they're still arresting people under Operation Ore.

And no, the Gardai won't deal with this sort of thing. Ignore it.

zyndacyclone

apparently, it's not possible to contact the garda online, which is BS. crimes unreported because of this: 1

Wile E. Coyote

zyndacyclone wrote: »

apparently, it's not possible to contact the garda online, which is BS. crimes unreported because of this: 1

Why should they be contactable by e-mail? Pick up a phone. They haven't the money to equip them with basic items, I doubt they've the cash to buy them all blackberries.

Oh and 10/10 for resurecting a 6 year old thread.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Garda man years saved by not having to deal with the kind of time waster who is too lazy to pick up the phone: > 1

jhegarty

zyndacyclone wrote: »

apparently, it's not possible to contact the garda online, which is BS. crimes unreported because of this: 1

I agree.

I tried to report a criminal thread bump but got no where with them.

KoolKid

Resurrection of old threads =waste of valuable mod time.
Closed.