Page 41 - 201002 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2010

February 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 18/02/2010 9:04 AM Page 41 Alien Life Already Among Us? 41 Alien life already among Government to combat us and hiding in plain online fraud with £4.5m sight? cyber team Rich Dahlquist Concerned about the fact nobody has www.abc15.com unexplained phenomena, but finding it might ever been convicted of internet fraud by UK authorities, the Government is putting together require expanding our minds beyond a new team whose job it is to tackle online fraud TEMPE, AZ -- Look all around us at the conventional thinking. abundance of life here on Earth and it must Dr. Kitei says, "Just because we can't see in Britain. The “cyber enforcement team” will be make you wonder if we're the only ones in this these tiny living organisms or electromagnetic universe that can think and communicate with energy, radio waves or TV waves, doesn't mean set up as part of a £4.5m investment project by the government over a period of three years to each other. that they're not real. We may just be looking on tackle, among other things, internet and email There are many in the science field that the AM dial for an FM frequency." think we're just one small piece in a larger scams. Internet fraud is estimated to cost the puzzle. The signs are not just here on Earth but US Jury Convicts flying above us all the time. UK economy £3.5bn per year and, to give an idea of the persistent nature of the cons, recent Believers say the well-known "Phoenix Nigerian on Wire Fraud research by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) lights" phenomenon from 1997 is just one found 73 per cent of adults had received a scam example of extra-terrestrial life. Charges email in the past year. 10 per cent of these (more Dr. Lynne Kitei, author of The Phoenix Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service Lights, tell us that any of the sightings that are than four million people) admitted they had responded to a scam email. Whilst almost a half happening now and around the world are being A 31-year-old Nigerian man could face of those who responded to a scam lost more compared to the historic Phoenix lights. up to 20 years in prison after being convicted than £50, 5 per cent were unfortunate enough to People continue looking to the skies for other signs of life, but one local award-winning Tuesday of charges related to running advance have lost more than £5,000. Speaking on the reasoning behind the free fraud scams for five years, according to the physicist believes it's already living among us. U.S. Department of Justice. cyber enforcement team investment consumer Dr. Paul Davies, an Arizona State Okpako Mike Diamreyan lived in minister Kevin Brennan commented: “The University physicist known for his popular Nigeria, Ghana and the U.S. between August internet is rapidly transforming the way we science writing, says, "We know Earth and Mars 2004 and August 2009, running scams that shop. It presents massive opportunities for have exchanged material over the years and it's involved sending e-mails and making phones easy to imagine a microbe hitching a ride in a calls in order to perpetrate advance free fraud consumers, but unfortunately it also harbours fraudsters who can leave consumers upset and rock through space and going from one planet to (AFF). out of pocket.” the other. I think it's inevitable that if there was The scams try to entice victims into Common scams highlighted by the life on Mars in the past it would have come to sending money with the false promise they'll government included fake concert or football Earth and vice versa." receive a greater sum of money in the future. Dr. Davies has long studied the ticket sellers as well as fraudulent charity Diamreyan posed as a government or microbial realm. He explains that because less bank official, sending fake documents to collectors. Speaking to the BBC trading standards than 1 percent of microbes have been studied, victims in order to persuade them to send officer John Peerless reiterated how difficult it the key to finding outside life lies in the money via money transfer services such as is to identify the criminals behind online scams. unexplored microbes living here on Earth. Western Union. Prosecutors alleged "numerous" "If we go back, it's those primitive life Even after suspicious website are closed down forms that the scientific community thinks victims sent money to Diamreyan, both directly he pointed out many end up reappearing under a and indirectly. different name within a matter of hours. might have given rise to larger multi-cellular Diamreyan is scheduled for sentencing As well as combating online fraud the life forms like ourselves," Davies said. in U.S. District Court for the District of £4.5m funding the government’s cyber Darwin's idea of the tree of life begins Connecticut on May 7. He could also face a fine with a trunk and then branching out into many, of $250,000 for each of three wire fraud counts, enforcement team will also be used to track down legitimate sites that fail to offer customers many different species. the DOJ said. the right to obtain refunds if they are unhappy Davies is proposing that in addition to Advance fee fraud scams have existed the tree of life, there may be another tree. for many years, but fraudsters have been able to with their purchase. Maybe there are a whole lot of different trees, canvas an ever-increasing number of people perhaps the story of life on Earth is a forest. using spam e-mail. The type of scam is also Lottery scam costs woman $370 He believes that life didn't arise from known as 419 fraud, named after part of the one source of DNA, but from a variety of DNA Nigerian criminal code that deals with fraud. An elderly Cleveland woman fell victim at various times in our history. He's conducting Advance fee frauds are believed to be a to a scam that cost her $370. The Rowan County studies to prove it has been here the whole time multi-billion dollar industry, but prosecutions Sheriff's Office reported the woman received a -- if we redefine our concept of life. are rare. Technology companies such as call notifying her she had won $1.3 million. The "I'm not proposing that these other Microsoft and Yahoo have filed some lawsuits caller told her she had to pay taxes in order to forms of life are radically different. It would due to the use of their brands in a version of the collect the winnings. On Feb. 11, the woman still be made of the same elements, in particular scam that falsely informs potential victims sent $275 by Western Union to an address carbon, the life-giving element, would be they've won a lottery run by the companies. specified by the caller. Two days later, the caller essential to this other form of life," Davies The top three countries for AFF losses in insisted she send $370 via Western Union for explained. 2009 were the U.S. at $2.1 billion, U.K. at $1.2 immediate pickup. Capt. John Sifford said "But the molecules would just be put that soon after she sent the second payment, the together in a different way. We thought to look billion and China at $936 million, according to woman's sister told her she had been scammed. figures released last month by Ultrascan, a whether among the vast microbial realm, some Dutch private investigations company. The The woman then went to Western Union and of those little bugs might be an alternative form figures are estimates based only on the cases attempted to get her money back. She was able of life. Now we can call them alien life, not Ultrascan has seen, and the actual fraud figures to get the initial payment of $275, which had not because they come from space like they are likely much higher, according to Ultrascan. been delivered.The payment of $370 was might've done, but simply because they already gone.Sifford warned everyone to be represent a separate origin," he said. The ‘X’ Zone Radio & TV Show wary of schemes on the Internet or by phone Whether we want to look under a rock or with Rob McConnell promising large amounts of money while asking up to the night sky there is still a lot of www.xzoneradiotv.com for taxes or some type of fee to be paid.