Due to the unfortunate story of University of Notre Dame
football star Manti Te'o's "fake" girlfriend in
late 2012, much of America is now familiar with the phrase
"catfishing." This practice refers to a situation where a
person, through false social media identities, pretends to be
someone he or she is not. However, celebrities are not the only
victims of such deception. While the Te'o case was not a
particularly sophisticated digital "scam," it
demonstrates the potential for unscrupulous persons to use
technology even in a simple way to take advantage of trusting
victims.
Victims of digital scams can also include companies that are
taken advantage of by their own employees and business associates
seeking to steal from the company. Such activities can include
embezzlement and intellectual property theft, with some of those
cases involving unfaithful employees stealing from companies (and
even secretly working for competitors) for years.
