The seamy side of US life

In every society there are seamy and dark sides of life which often go unnoticed. Yet they impact often the most vulnerable member of that society. And as they tend to be small they go under the radar though they make daily life a constant struggle and contribute to the unnecessary stress.

Here are three such strains in the US

Cramming: “Cramming” is the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading or deceptive charges on your telephone bill. Crammers rely on confusing telephone bills in an attempt to trick consumers into paying for services they did not authorize or receive, or that cost more than the consumer was led to believe. About 15-20 million households end up paying for services they neither wanted nor asked for but do so through their telephone bills. Less than 5 % even know that they are paying these charges which range to an average of about $ 20 per month. Since the telephone companies include these unauthorized charges in their bills- claiming that they are required to do so by FEC to allow equal access to all new comers- they too make a hefty profit perhaps as much as $ 1 billion per year! Here we have a perfect situation- the crammers make a killing perhaps $ 2-3 billion per year, the enablers the land line telephone companies piously condemn these practices yet continue to pocket $ 1 billion in extra profits a year while the consumers who pay only $ 20 extra per month often forget to raise this as an issue and consider the hassle of recovering these costs worth less than the cost!

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Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging,^[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to deceive users,^[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.^[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term "phishing" was made in 1996. The term is a variant of fishing,^[4] probably influenced by phreaking,^{[5] [6]} and alludes to "baits" used in hopes that the potential victim will "bite" by clicking a malicious link or opening a malicious attachment, in which case their financial information and passwords may then be stolen.