FBI States Online Auction Fraud Biggest Source of Complaints

dipfan writes "The FBI says internet auction fraud was the biggest source of complaints last year, according to the annual report by the Internet Fraud Complaint Centre. The Nigerian bank scam still remains popular, even after all these years. Quote: "During 2001, Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 42.8% of referred complaints .... Non-deliverable merchandise and payment comprise 20.3% of complaints, and credit and debit card fraud make up 9.4% of complaints." The report is a 27 page PDF file while the Washington Post wrote up an article about it." Just ask CowboyNeal about some of his fun with dealing with dealers in Hong Kong.

Comments

On line auctions are a haven for criminals

[asmithmd1]

Those on line auctions are just an enticement for criminals, they should shut down quickly before another person is ripped off. I am going to call senator Hollins, he has shown himself to be savy in these areas and is a leader that is not afriad to take action

Re:On line auctions are a haven for criminals

[KilljoyAZ]

Get him to shut down IRC too, while you're at it. I read on CNN that hackers use it.

Re:On line auctions are a haven for criminals

[Alsee]

I'd be laughing if it weren't for a creepy conversation I just had with my mother.

A while ago I mentioned to her that I planned to contact my congress critters about the CBDTPA and I explained some of the issues. She thought I was going off the deep end. Today I explained how the congressional committee got flooded with responses, 100% opposing it, and that the bill was dead. She said ok, I was right. But then she commented about the "bad porn" on the internet and we need to "regulate the internet". When I tried to compare that to blaming telephones or cars for crimes commited with them she just looked at me like I was evil or something. Her response was "the internet makes access to it easy". Well DUH, the internet makes access to *everything* easy. Kind of like telephones and cars make access to people and places easy.

Your post was a joke, the problem is that the offline-world doesn't get it. Pardon me while I bang my head against the wall - maybe the pain will go away.

-

Dealers in Hong Kong??

[JZ_Tonka]

"Just ask CowboyNeal about some of his fun with dealing with dealers in Hong Kong. "

I really don't need to explain how shady that sounds, but one would think CowboyNeal would have learned, by now, that all those Chinese mail-order-bride scams were bound to catch up with him.

Better than the previous year

[realgone]

In terms of percentages, this is actually a drop from the FBI's figures for prior year, when 64% of the complaints were related to auction fraud.

On the other hand, it's nice to see that "suckered into paying good money for Daikatana" rose to 8% on the FBI's compaint list this year.

In other news, some human beings suck.

[viper21]

Wow, can anybody believe this? I never would have guessed. My best bet would be that 22.4% of the auction complaints were legit, and 22.4% of the auction complaints were directly linked with Stuipd buyers.

Did I say Stuipd Buyers? Why Yes I Did.

Let me give you an example. Completely hypothetical, of course.

Say I were to sell something I no longer desire on Ebay. My goal is to get it out of my house, and recoup some of my investment. So I put it up for auction with a reasonable reserve. (This hypothetical item is a guitar that I haven't played in months)

Somebody new to good old EPay wins my auction. Horray. I now have in my possession my new ebay friend's guitar. I will release it in to his custody after I recieve my 177 plus 50 shipping, for a grand total of 227.00. (Shipping guitars is a joke)

A week goes by, the money order does not show up. My new ebay buddy informs me that he didn't budget his bills right, and can't afford the guitar now. He wants to back out of the auction, like I'm freaking Wal-Mart. He then understands that "Woah! I've entered in to a legally binding agreement, damn!". After informing my new ebay buddy of this fact, he agrees to send payment the next week.

Another week goes by. My Ebay buddy again emails me that he is fiscally irresponsible. He forgot to pay his car insurance for 3 months, and is about to get cut off. Go figure. I hope the insurance company cuts him off. He asks me if he can just cancel this whole transaction. I told him No, because I'm out my auction fees and I will have to file a complaint against him. He threatens, since he has my address (I'm in Iowa, he is in Hawaii), that he knows where he lives and what goes around comes around. After a polite email back to him, he agrees to send me a money order in 2 weeks and then add an additional $50 for my trouble.

Horray for me, but that doesn't begin to cover the time I've wasted on this transaction.

So I get the money on a Monday. The guitar gets packed and shipped out on a Tuesday, signature required. He gets the guitar this past Monday. On Tuesday I get a nice email threatening that because I did not put brand new strings on the guitar for him, that he is returning it. I informed him that I am not a Guitar Center and that he can't realistically expect to receive a like-new instrument for the price he paid on Ebay.

Nothing back from him yet, and I doubt that there will be. But I bet that you can add him to that 42.8% of complaints, if he can figure out how to dial a phone.

I give up on ebay. Dealing with idiots is not worth the $$$.

-S

Re:In other news, some human beings suck.

[dillon_rinker]

Dealing with idiots is not worth the $$$.
Hundreds of thousands of retailers nationwide disagree with you.

Re:In other news, some human beings suck.

[aussersterne]

I've had some problems like this. I sold a 9GB SCSI hard drive that way a couple of years ago. The auction listed it clearly as "9GB ST410800N full-height narrow SCSI hard drive" and stated "This hard drive requires a SCSI controller card and two drive bays; please know what you are buying!"

Some lady wins the auction, I get paid, send the drive immediately and packed well. Later that week she e-mails me asking for my phone number so we can discuss some "problems" she is having. Wanting to provide good customer service, I give it to her.

When she calls, I get an earful from some completely incompetent lady who wants her money back. Why? Because "Maybe you packed it well, but this thing looks like it was pulled out of some proprietary server 20 years ago! It's as big as a tank, no way it'll fit in my tower, and the connecter is wierd, it's like a centimeter too long and won't work in a PC!" I tell her that I clearly stated that it was a full-height SCSI hard drive and that it will work in any properly equipped PC. She responds with "I'm a licensed computer technician, bud, so don't try to scam me!"

Next week I get a chargeback and a fraud investigation by my bank. She didn't bother to return the drive to me after getting her money back. Nice lady.

Re:How can this be avoided?

[MadCow42]

There are online escrow services, like iEscrow and even BillPoint (I think) that's promoted directly by Ebay.

I've used iEscrow VERY happily for several high-dollar auctions ($2000+), and it's worked well. The drawbacks are there though... cost (they take a commission of course), processing time (it takes an extra week or two for the seller to get their money), and so on.

The problem is that people don't put the effort into using these services, or don't want to pay for them. They're there, if you don't use them and get screwed, it's your own damn fault.

MadCow.

(one of the salesmen at our company got hosed for $2500 on a digital camera because he didn't use escrow... I can't really feel sorry for him either!)

*Sigh*

[TheGreenLantern]

Why is this news? "Oh, gee, you mean this person I'm trying to buy something from, whom I've never met before, have no idea what his real address, phone number, or even his name may be, might be trying to rip me off?" You know, if people were conducting this transaction over the phone, or by snailmail, everyone would say, "Well Duh" and laugh at the person's stupidity. But it's on the Internet, so suddenly it's a major catastrophe and the FBI has to step in and save us.

It's like all common sense flies out the window whenever any issue deals with the Internet in any way.

Re:How can this be avoided?

[turg]

Merchandise that was ordered online but was never paid for or shipped accounted for 20 percent of complaints last year, the IFCC said.

Now if only we could just match up the people who don't pay with the people who don't ship, the problem would be solved

how to avoid credit card fraud

[ephraim]

Quite a few credit cards with online services now offer the ability to create a one-use-only credit card number. Some of these systems also let you choose a specific dollar amount and expiration date for the "card" you've created. The number is linked to your "real" credit card number so that all your charges show up on the same bill.

The beauty of this is that if your generated number gets "stolen" by an unscrupulous dealer, you don't need to worry about it because the number will be almost useless!

I'm honestly surprised that these services aren't advertised more widely, because they're probably one of the best ways to protect yourself against credit card fraud when dealing with unknown and far-away merchants. I know that American Express and MBNA cards have this capability, and I've heard rumors that Discover can do the same thing.

/EJS