by Crystal Shih
Would you lend money to a person you’ve never seen? I’m talking about cyber crime. On the BBS, a 19-year old girl pretended to be a graduate student of Taiwan University, and she borrowed money from her new boyfriends. Later, she changed her phone number so she couldn’t be contacted anymore. What’s incredible is that the victims (more than five of them) had never even seen her. The girl claimed a beautiful model’s picture as her own. Because of her sweet voice on the telephone, her victims believed that she was the girl in the picture. One of them even broke up with his girlfriend of more than ten years. Another thought he was going to marry her. After this event went public, some people commented that they thought the girl was fat, and that therefore she was forced to do such terrible things. Others said that the men were stupid; one of them was even an advanced medical student at NTU. But the real focus of the crime is the net itself: it has become a tool for committing crimes. If the suspect hadn’t pretended to be a beautiful girl, these men wouldn’t have entered the snare so easily. Many people hope they can meet a beautiful girl or a handsome boy on the net. These men wanted to have a romance with a beautiful girl, and this “beautiful girl” showed an interest in them. They couldn’t resist. But it’s correct to say that the victims only cheated themselves. People have fantasies about unseen things. These men seem to idealize things too much. They hadn’t tried to make sure the girl of the picture really existed but blindly believed according to their illusions. They thought they were lucky enough to meet their Ms. Right, a beautiful girl with a good educational background – even though she always made excuses for not agreeing to meet them for a date. Or perhaps they just chose to see the better side of things regardless of the doubtful signs. The girl, in other words, used the net to her advantage. On the net, nobody knows your real name or background. One can say anything one wants without having to take responsibility for it. Hence, you can tell others you are a cute high school girl even if you are a blowsy housewife in her forties. Moreover, “she” might even be a man in reality. There are many cyber crimes recently. A man used the net to seek female employees. When they met to discuss the job in detail, he put sleeping pills in their drinks and raped them. Another man sold stolen electrical equipment. Cyber crime is becoming more and more common all the time. Of course, we cannot stop people from committing crimes. However, we can prevent ourselves from becoming the victims. First, we should keep our attitudes simple. If we mean to find a beautiful girl or a handsome boy on the net, we are likely to be fooled by others. Next, we should be very careful. Before we take any action, we had better think a while. Do we know that person well enough to trust him/her? Check out a person first. If he or she has nothing to hide, there won’t be any problem with giving information. In a word, we must cultivate the ability to protect ourselves. At least, don’t give others opportunity to make you the victim of cyber crime. a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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