McMafia by Misha GlennyMcMafia by Misha Glenny is primarily about crime and organised crime in particular. The dust jacket mentions 'phishing' as a subject covered and it was this that alerted me to the book and made me read it. All! The book is split into geographic areas and the criminal gangs and a description of their operations and brief historical outline. In this regard, the book is very interesting. Glenny was a journalist in the Balkan region at the time of some of the Yugoslavian civil war and break up. As such, he has been able to watch the collapse of a nation and the way in which gangs leaped into the vacuum to make money. As a region, the Balkans may not seem all that important. And though most people could not find Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria or Ukraine on a map, these places - and others - are having a profound impact on the rest of the world. These countries and others have seen the collapse of Communism, a temporary end to the rule of law and opportunity everywhere! In addition, the majority of nations in this area have Slavic languages. This makes it relatively easy to communicate with the powerful Russian criminal gangs. Some of the book looks at smuggling - things like stolen cars, drugs, weapons and people - which seems to be a stock in trade of criminal networks. Some of this is in an underworld economy, but as Glenny finds, some of it is not only with the knowledge of governments, some of it is actually on behalf of governments! I'll leave that surprise for you to find in the book. With regards to identity theft and fraud, there is a section that looks into the Nigerian 419 scam and how it works - including the impact of using email rather than normal postal services. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, he finds people involved in the online trade of personal information. In truth, this section is so short and he goes into such little detail, that it appears that he did not understand what was going on. In some ways, this is understandable. Subjects like phishing and pharming involve some incredibly in-depth computer knowledge, however, he seemed to have found a real 'techie' to explain things to him - and so he couldn't explain them to us... In conclusion, if you are hoping to learn more about identity theft and fraud, this may not be the book for you. But, if you are interested in reading about some real-life crime and what is going on 'in the shadows' of the global economy, this is a well informed and interesting read. You will be vaguely familiar with some of the things you read, but it is almost impossible to imagine that there is nothing new for you here. To read more book reviews, please visit:
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