You’ve seen the scare headlines about Internet crime. Based on media hype, it seems like every minute online is equivalent to wearing a huge Please-Rob-Me sign on your back. It’s enough to panic an android. Is it safe to shop in CyberSpace?
I've been a regular online shopper for many years and I've never had a single bad experience. In fact, I've had better service and fewer hassles on the Internet than in many brick-and-mortar stores. Yes, there is a risk online but, if you're careful, it's no worse than shopping offline.
Scams are basically hit-and-run jobs. The crook offers you a deal, takes your money and then disappears. You know you’ve been robbed but there’s usually nothing you can do about it. Cons are more labor intensive. The crook gains your trust over a period of time (con comes from "confidence"). In a well-run con you may not even know that you’ve been robbed. Due to its impersonal nature, cons don’t work very well on the Internet. It's mostly scams that you have to watch out for.
The most important fact about Internet scams is that they are the same old tricks that have been around forever. There's nothing new going on, it’s just a shift to using email or online ads to hook a sucker. Crooks have worked their way up the technology food chain from door-to-door to mail order to telemarketing to fax solicitations and now to the Internet but they're still using scams that could fit in a W. C. Fields movie.
For example, two men were recently convicted for the classic, "make big money stuffing envelopes at home" scam. The original version of this was that the crook would take out an ad in a newspaper making the above offer. After victims mailed in their money, they’d receive a sheet of paper that instructed them to take out an ad in a newspaper saying that people could make big money stuffing envelopes at home. The instructions would continue with something like, "After you get a response, type a copy of these instructions, stuff it in an envelope and mail it to the person who sent you the money. You have now made money stuffing an envelope."
Using spam email, the two crooks got about 12,000 people to each send $35 for instructions about how to make big money stuffing envelopes at home. That comes to a bit over $400,000 coming from a scam that's been around for over 50 years, but the only modern touch was the use of spam email instead of newspaper ads.
Despite all the headlines about online credit card theft, the majority of official complaints concerning the Internet involve online auction sites like eBay. Sometimes victims pay for goods they never receive, sometimes they ship goods and never receive payment, but these are just variations of traditional want-ad scams. Most people who use auction sites are completely trustworthy, both buyers and sellers, and many sites offer a brokerage service for a fee that takes most of the risk out of auction deals. It may not be worth it for small amounts, but it’s a good idea if you have something expensive you want to sell.
What about using credit cards on the Internet? Online companies are more at risk than individuals are. Credit card fraud is a major problem for any Internet business that sells electronics, cameras, or other goods that can be easily disposed of by criminals. As far as individual credit card security, online transactions are no different than using your card over the telephone. It all depends on whether the business that gets the card number is legitimate. Internet transactions are normally encrypted and may even actually be safer than using a telephone to order goods. The biggest danger comes when a company's office files are stolen and sold to thieves who specialize in credit card fraud. Because most financial files are computerized these days, people who never shop by computer are no safer from credit card fraud and identity theft than those Netizens who buy most of their goods online.
How can you protect yourself from Internet scams? The same way you do against the dozens of mail, telephone, fax and TV scams we're all bombarded with daily. When in doubt, don't give them your money. Keep in mind the old saying, if sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Think like a professional gambler. What are the odds that the spam email offering you a perpetual motion machine, an ancient miracle super-drug, or a get-rich-quick investment is the real thing?
Delete is just a keystroke away.