Going, going, fraud! Charges made in online bidding
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For some, it turned out that fairness in online auctions was going, going, gone. Three cases of phony bidding by sellers to inflate the price of art, sports memorabilia, even
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For some, replying to Internet scams is a rewarding hobby. They call themselves scam-baiters, and they have started taking justice into their own hands.
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Financial fraud rife, say criminologists More than three million online crimes were carried out last year, according to estimates published today. These included more than 200,000 cases of financial fraud, twice the official number of real-world robberies carried out during the same period.â¦
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Amazon and Microsoft have filed lawsuits against companies that used their names to commit fraud on the Internet. One suit accuses Gold Disk Canada of &quot;spoofing,&quot; or sending e-mails that appear
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Canadian police charge a retailer with fraudulently claiming a C$5.7m lottery prize, which customers had won.
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Bid $5m on own auctions, attorney general claims A jewellery company which allegedly bid on its own eBay auctions to "illegally drive up prices by as much as 20 per cent" will pay $400,000 (Â£204,000) in "restitution and penalties", Reuters reports.â¦
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When 'free' isn't free An online advertiser that falsely claimed consumers had won free prizes has agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty to the Federal Trade Commission, which says the outfit failed to disclose that people had to spend money first.â¦Learn &amp; Contribute, Live &amp; Online - The Register Debates Green Computing
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Eight eBay sellers were ordered to pay nearly $90,000 in restitution and fines after admitting they bid up products online to inflate the prices.
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'But we'll bilk you in other ways' This morning, eBay's CEO-to-be told a roomful of obsessed internet auctioneers that he will soon charge them between 25 and 50 per cent less to list their items on the site's virtual marketplace.â¦
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Online auction house eBay confirms reports that some of its users have been hit by fake e-mails that could steal their account details.
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This category-killing concept is selling for half price!
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Would-be borrowers in the U.S. and Canada are being bilked out of thousands of dollars by unscrupulous online lenders.
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Got some money? Have I got a deal for you! And I'm not the only one. Hundreds of thousands of offers -- many way too good to be true -- are crawling through our mail slots and into our e-mail, cellphones and BlackBerrys. Last week's hearings by the Senate Special Committee on Aging and tomorrow's...
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Beware of any e-mail claiming to come from "frauddep@ftc.gov"--it carries a nasty payload.
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A new Web site helps consumers protect themselves from excessive fees that can drive up the price of a home.
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(InfoWorld) - Three U.S. agencies have initiated more than 100 law enforcement actions against bogus business-opportunity peddlers and work-at-home scams, including several Internet-based schemes. The Project FAL$E HOPE$ crackdown, announced Tuesday but in operation for most of the year, targeted scammers in 11 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Maryland. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Postal Inspection Service worked with law enforcement agencies in those states to take action against the alleged fraudsters. Project FAL$E HOPE$ includes new cases announced Tuesday, developments in existing cases, criminal convictions, and state actions. The project also announced new education material for advertising sales staff, aimed at helping screen ads for bogus business opportunities. Included in nine cases the FTC announced Tuesday: -- The Results Group: Working out of what the FTC called a boiler room in Phoenix, the operation charged between $99 and $599 to build and host Web sites "affiliated" with the sites of large retailers such as Amazon.comÂ and Overstock.com, the FTC said. Consumers could supposedly make money when those retailers paid commissions for sales made through the consumersâ Web sites. In fact, the large retailers were unaware of any such affiliation, and consumers made no money. The FTC accused the operation of falsely representing that purchasers would receive substantial income as well as substantial assistance from an expert staff, and using false and misleading statements to encourage consumers to buy the business opportunity. -- Money Making Secret: These defendants promised "Top 12 Programs to Make Big Money!" and charged consumers between $47 and $129 to access a "members only" Web site with "money-making secrets," the FTC said. The Internet-based programs that were offered varied, including online survey programs, free government grant money programs, mystery shopper programs, and online data-entry programs. However, these programs did not exist, or did not offer easy money with little time or effort, as promised, the FTC said. The FTC's complaint charges the defendants with making false and unsubstantiated earnings claims. The FTC also has new guidance for publishers, offering them help to screen out deceptive ads for business opportunities. The alert, "Ads for Business Opportunities: How to Detect Deception," suggests advertising sales staff to give an extra look at ads that make claims such as: "No risk! Guaranteed" "Quick and Easy!" "Earn $2,000 a month." The FTC alert warns that legitimate business ventures involve risks, and start-up businesses require a lot of work to get off the ground. The law requires earnings claims in ads be accompanied by the number and percentage of previous purchasers who achieved the income, the FTC said.
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Meg Whitman describes how eBay, Paypal are combating phony e-mails and Web sites that may ensnare unsuspecting users--and drive away customers.