Hi there

Judging by the general level of competence of Governments around the world why does ANYONE think for an INSTANCE that a Govt would be able to do anything about Scammers or Scamming.

My only experience with Govt IT stuff is that the amount of time and procedures it takes to get even a TEENY WEENY change through the system would lead me to expect that even before work started on preventing SCAM X say the scammers would have long gone on to much newer and sophisticated scams while the original SCAM X would long be obsolete.

These people don't have to go through endless pointless hours of relatively USELESS change control and risk assessment procedures !!!

BTW some change control etc is always necessary or you'll get a repetition of various Bank IT disasters where people can't get at their own money for days in some cases. However Govts don't seem in their IT depts. to have any provision for quick fast track emergency stuff which is what would be needed in these cases.

Your best defence is to use IT sensibly - and if you must use torrents download to a VM and check very carefully before using. Most SCAMS though don't involve actual tinkering with your machine or even downloading malware on to it.

Things like fake web sites, crazy offers for non existent products / services and requesting sensitive information which the scammers can use to get at say your Bank / apply for passports / credit cards with fake identities are much more common or likely and are difficult to stop by technology,

You have to use Common Sense - and if you Must use "Farcebook" or sites like that - or even legitimate (non Porno) Sex / Gay Sex meeting sites be very careful what info you give out. Lurkers on these sites aren't always using them for the original purpose of the site in question.

(A good example of a Govt IT project failing miserably -- in the UK it's May Holiday / School half term (England - not Scotland) and the start of where people take summer holidays -- so of course what Govt service is failing to keep up with OBVIOUS demand -- no prizes for guessing the correct answer -- The Passport Office (which I believe has been offshored again to a very well known Asian firm) - years ago even though people had to stand hours in line you could get these things ON THE DAY at various offices).

Of course people should apply for these things in advance but we all know Humans just don't work like that so the demand for this service could EASILY have been predicted. Well if a Govt can't take care of a SIMPLE predictable thing like that -- I'm sure a few sophisticated IT Geeks could run rings around any so called preventative measures a govt might employ.

Cheers
jimbo