Internet fraud has cost United States banks and credit card companies an estimated $1.2 billion in 2003.

Behavior and social sciences Network Systems Manager Alex Keller gave a lecture on internet security Tuesday, Nov.9 in order to educate SF State students on how to avoid becoming another statistic.

"Education is the key," said Kelller. "The best thing to do is to identify the attacks, so you are not a victim."

The most common way criminals solicit their victims is by phishing. Keller explained that phishining is when someone sends out mass emails, like putting fishing line into a lake, with the hope that one fish will take the bait. Internet users are the fish, and these defrauders are the fishermen patiently waiting for their catch.

"Phishing is so successful because the FBI does not know how to track the email," said Keller. "These emails come from anywhere in the world, and sometimes they are sent by computers whose owners have no knowledge of the activity."

Through many different tactics, hackers can break into one's operating system, then send messages through that person's email address, without the owner ever having knowledge of the email's existence.

Often the culprits will design deceitful advertising banners or websites instructing the user to install plugins. The plugins are known as "Malware", because they will infect the operating system, and can often be found on file exchange programs like Kazza.

"Internet explorer is the biggest vector of these viruses," said Keller. "Hackers have figured out how to manipulate the address bar."

Some of these "Phishing" emails direct patrons to a Wells Fargo or Citibank website, but these sites are fraudulent, explained Keller. The address is often falsified to display a prominant credit card or bank internet address, which leads the user to believe that the site is official.

"I've heard of this sort of thing before," said environmental studies major Vicky Ramos. "I will definately be more careful about what I click on."

Keller later showed examples he created on his own. He showed how the fake website was running on his own server, but it looked just like the real Wells Fargo site. These criminals try to get unknowing internet surfers to type in their banking information. The biggest target for these crimes are frequent internet users, which are primarily 16-35 year olds.

"It's very helpful to see the examples, now I know what to look for," said Ramos.

Keller advocates computer users to stay away from internet explorer, and keep all virus software up to date.

For more information log on to http://www.bss.sfsu.edu and click on "on the spot training" for future dates.