[citw150] Lesson 3 Question 6
- From: "Matthias Bell" <matthias2b@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: citw150@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2004 21:22:37 -0400
I mentioned a scam called "phishing" in my last e-mail and that is related
tothe Societal Issues topic I chose for this question.
Internet Fraud is becoming big business, epecially as it relates to Internet
Auctions. E-bay is the largest auction internet website and from what I've
read they E-bay estimates that at least 1 in 40,000 persons are scammed. I
think that number is more and it is rising. The Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) said that 55% of half a million fraud complaints in 2003 were
internet-related. This is an increase of 404,000 since 2002. In the 2003
FTCreport, ?National and State Trends in Fraud and Identity
Theft,?EexcludingIdentity theft, the top category of Fraud went to Internet
Auctions. The FTC information and report can be found here:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/01/top10.htm[1]
I also came across this article, that really supports my opinion that not
enough is being done or can be done to get those who commit Internet Fraud:
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0909onlinfraud.html[2].
As an example of this, one of my friend of mine who last year bought an item
from an e-bay seller in Florida. There was no negative feedback on this
seller and she didn't think she wouldn't get her item if she won the
auction.Well, she paid the seller and never recevied the package. She
contacted the seller and he said he had sent it. I'm not sure what the
dollaramount of the purchase was, but when she consulted with an attorney,
they said to the seller to small claims was about the onmly option available
and it might not be worth that. I'm not sure if she reported this seller to
the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) or even knew she could, but I do
know she never got her money back or the item she won.
There's plenty of good suggestions out there on protecting yourself from
internet fraud. I found this site that talks about what you can do to
protectyourself from internet auction fraud:
http://castlecops.com/article3585.html[3].
Bottom-line is that Internet Fraud is growing and we should all be careful
orat least well informed when we attempt to use such services as Internet
Acutions.
Matthias Bell
matthias2b@xxxxxxxxxxx[4]
'I don't want to believe, I want to know.' -Carl Sagan
--- Links ---
1 http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/01/top10.htm
2 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0909onlinfraud.html
3 http://castlecops.com/article3585.html
4 mailto:matthias2b@xxxxxxxxxxx
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