REPORT #185 Feb 2000
USA COMPUTER CRIMINAL WAGES WAR ON THE SMALL COUNTRY OF BELIZE INTERNET PRESENCE!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

AVOWED AIM TO DESTROY E-MAIL SERVICE, INVESTORS, RETIREE RESIDENCE PROGRAM AND TOURIST BUSINESS!

A USA citizen computer criminal has been destroying Belize web sites, tourist business's, investment information sites, chat rooms, message boards and sending virus's via e-mails to Belize, closing down chat rooms and message boards with overloading using derogatory messages about Belize and generally causing financial losses in the $50,000 USA range to web site companies sponsoring Belizean web sites.

The Government of Belize seems helpless to do anything about computer criminals from abroad. The criminal claims that with an IP address, he can enter anyone's e-mail, or web sites and mess them up and fully intends to do so, in a self-declared war with the country of Belize internet business systems.

The cost in labor trying to clean up the messes this criminal is causing, runs in the $20,000 USA range now, over the past six month period, with labor. The costs in bandwidth, from message overloading on message boards and chat rooms is running actual costs of around $300 USA per month per business operation paying for servers, in excess bandwidth charges. The person waging war on Belize businesses and the government tourist and investment industry claims to have forced down the closing of belizenet.com message boards and has several times closed down Ambergriscaye.com and others. He also claims to be attacking the operations of Tony Rath in Dangriga and is certainly attacking Ambergris Caye web sites and message boards.

Fictious addresses and names seem the order of the day, with names like Randy Snyder, Rumtree, Tom, and even the use of regular respectable e-mailers on Belize listserves like Lansluder in cases of fraudulant impersonation use of real names. Yahoo.com has received more than 50 e-mail complaints from at least one provider at Ambergriscaye.com but has failed to find, or stop the perpetrator using their server to perpetrate the crimes against Belize in this self declared war on Belize the country. The last attack was signed [email protected]

The Belize tourist industry on the internet and the government itself with legislation encouraging retirees to retire to Belize and foreign investors to invest in Belize are self-declared targets of the perpetrators attacks. The attacks seem to come through the USA side of server locations. Belize does not permit competitive internet operations and most businesses in the tourist field and investment field use stateside servers for maintaining web sites.

It would seem this is a case of the Defense Department of Belize, the Tourist Board, the Ministry of Telecommunications in Belmopan, the Ministry of Finance and Business and Commerce should have a meeting and decide how to defend the nation against this war and attacks from computer criminals abroad. The use of the US Embassy in Belize, the State Department, the FBI computer criminal section and Interpol all seem proper contacts for stopping these ruinous attacks on the country of Belize by this particular criminal. But others will arise and a procedure and cooperation with countries abroad to trace, apprehend and prosecute such criminals is now an imperative.

Operators of Belize business's have requested the Belize Development Trust to ask for assistance from the Government of Belize in finding this computer hacker. Since we do not have any e-mails for appropriate departments and we know there are no procedures for computer crime in place, this will have to take the form of government to government cooperation between Belize and the USA. Belmopan government departments and the cabinet, through this public medium are therefore officially requested to tackle this computer war on Belize. Messages are being saved and can be made available to any FBI computer task force, or that of Interpol on request.

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