| Topic area | Fraud / Unfair Business Dealings |
| Target audience | Undergraduate and graduate level IS/CS/CE/EE majors in general. |
| Activity type | Reading assignment, Internet search and research, worksheet, class discussion. |
| Time required | Out of class time: 2 hours. In class time: 1 hour. |
| Attachments | Worksheet |
| Additional materials | A copy of the article ``Central Florida Man Charged in Fire Victim Charity Scheme'' in Tampa Tribune, August 1, 1998, Florida/Metro section, page 2. |
| Background needed to complete the assignment | Ability to explore various WWW sites describing federal and state computer fraud laws. |
| References |
U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library International Computer Security Association |
| Last modified | August 1998 |
Goals for the activity:
Students should develop an awareness of how easily Internet users
can abuse their access and commit fraud.
In the event they witness such fraud in the future, or
if they become an employee of an Internet
service provider, knowledge of such cases may help them to design and
institute policies to report and combat such crimes.
Knowledge / skills / attitudes to be developed (behavioral objectives):
Students should develop (a) some very basic knowledge of the ease with
which computers are used to aid fraudulent schemes, and
(b) an understanding of the sufficiency of codes of ethics,
federal and state laws which are developing to combat these crimes.
Procedure:
The reading is one page plus a worksheet, which can be handed to students
and discussed during the next class. In completing the worksheet, students
will have the opportunity to use Internet WWW sites to review
the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and various state laws and
statutes.
In class, students would meet in medium sized groups to compare and contrast the sites they visited and the company policies they would consider instituting to combat computer fraud. These groups can join together, with the ending discussion on which states are the most harsh or most lenient. An extra credit assignment can be provided for those students interested in drafting a memo to their representatives to address further legislation needed to combat computer fraud.
Assessing outcomes:
The top portion of the worksheet can be graded based on factual content.
The point of the bottom portion of the worksheet is to have students
think about how such fraud may escalate in the future if current laws
are not sufficient, and what action they can take to address this.
Additional remarks:
Find out how computer fraud is reported in your state and provide
this information to your students. Discussion of the Internet
Service Provider's role in this case can be used with discussions
on privacy.
Author contact information:
Melanie A. Sutton
Department of Computer Science
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514-5750
Phone: (850) 474-3055
E-mail: msutton@uwf.edu