can someone explain to me how a scam internet business can continue to operate without goverment intervention?
415331
Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.  Why not publicize the scam on Yahoo and a few other message boards.
434577
The government can seize money.  Western Union would usually hold the money upon the request of legal authorities.
664922
it's a scam.\n\nLook no further.
978141
They're not illegal, but they are a scam.\n\nBasically they make you sign up to buy a good or service from one of their sponsors, and get other people to do the same.  Those sponsors pay the company a portion of the money they get from you, and that is how you get the 'free' stuff.
773363
Read this:\n\nhttp://www.scamfraudalert.com/showthread.php?p=11954\n\n\nSame group of THUGS, CROOKS, CRIMINALS.....Scumbags Low Lifers. Make No Mistakes All, this is a widespread international CRIMINAL operation.
1141477
Your company has to set that up.  If they have a website where you can do that at they have to give you the permssions.  Or they can give you a VPN to do that.
598569
Basically, nowhere. Mostly, nobody's in charge of policing your experience.  \n\nIn most of the Western world, no one is in charge of making your Internet experience the way you imagined it would be, or would prefer it to be. In fact, nowhere of which I'm aware is that true. In some places the government or the local religious establishment will attempt to filter the entire Internet to keep out things that they don't like, but that might not be your choice. For instance, the Wikipedia is basically unavailable in mainland China (except through somewhat involved trickery involving proxies), and so someone there is trying to start something similar just for mainland China -- it's said to be very heavily censored by the Chinese government. \n\nAside from political or religious information some people might not want you to encounter, there are jerks and idiots (commercial and otherwise) on the 'Net and you will come across them or their works. Pretty much like real life, ritgh? \n\nMany of these are out to take your money (with or without supplying a product, any product, in return) and are little different any other grifter or con artist. They can just get at you more easily than they used to. The really dangerous stuff is probably the spoof sites which try to fool you into supplying user name, account number, password, PIN, and other such information by pretending to be, for instance your bank, or Yahoo administration, or AOL Adminstration, etc. It's called 'phishing'. It's one of the ways identity theft can happen, and only you can block it by never supplying such information until you are CERTAIN the site you're interacting with is the correct one. Call your bank and ask, look at the URL (in the address bar in your browser) to see if it looks suspicious, and if it is, go to the site yourself by typing in the address on the invoice (or something like that) rather than clicking on some link in a dodgy email or Web page. Never supply any such information routinely, without thought. Always ask yourself if all looks right. Always, no exceptions. Cynicism is good.\n\nClicking on 'unsubscribe' in junk email usually only has the effect of confirming that their email has reached a real person, and you will likely get even more spam as your email address is passed around. It's now more valuable than before since it's been shown to actually work. \n\nComplaining to your ISP moves the responsibility to someone who never agreed to handle your censorship for you. And is not equipped to do so. In the US, ISP's are legally protected from the consequences of, for instance, passing illegal images (eg, child porn) only if they are neutral with regard to the traffic they carry. \n\n========\nfilter programs\n\nIn any case, there are no good automatic programs which can do this correctly. Nor are there any laws which can do the same. Legislation, like programs which attempt such things, is too blunt an instrument, aside from the fact that much of this junk is produced elsewhere (regardless of where you are) and your legislature won't have jurisdiction. \n\nFor instance, let's say that sex stuff is the sort of thing you want blocked. The content of the stuff that heads your way might be inspected for trigger words (you can imagine what some of them might be) and those pages blocked. Unfortunately, you will likely not be able to see any Web sites having to do with breast cancer research because it will trip one of the triggers. Libraries, schools, and parents  have tried install such 'nanny' software with quite uneven results for just this reason. It's very hard -- acutally hard, not merely a nuisance -- to reliably screen out the unwanted stuff, while not also blocking wanted stuff. At least not automatically. \n\nAnother filtering approach is to block all traffic from particular sites (eg, anoyingpornRus.com) or from particular 'Net addresses for such things as emai
409723
I think it's a valid question.  There are a ton of sites out there that are simply templates and slapped up online by somebody trying to capture traffic, ad clicks or worse rip you off with a too good to be true scam.  \n\nI have been in online marketing for 8 years now and I can confidently say that this "business" is not one you would want to trust your money or contact info with.  It is a poorly put together "template" site with no real contact information.  Doing a lookup on the domain name itself often tells the best story, here's the public record for this particular site:\n\nQuilty, Brian  b1quilty@aol.com\n    PO BOX 7008\n    Stateline, NV 89449\n    US\n    4083933353    Fax: 000-000-0000\n\nif this was truly a legit business they should be using a domain based email address, not a personal AOL email, they should list a physical address and have a valid business number that can be confirmed with any standard yellow pages lookup (comes free with any business phone number).\n\nGo with your gut on this one!
595987
Absolutely not!!! It can be hacked or intercepted by the government without warrant. Treat the Internet as if it were a sidewalk and say just what you would say and do there.
867114
It's not so much inherently illegal as it may be fraudulent business practices as applied.\n\nYour state attorney general is one option. The Federal Trade Commission is another. Outside the US, seek similar authorities.
1098322
all scams; a true business requires risk to be taken; if there are opportunities out there to make money without risk, then everyone would be doing it. But they're not.\n\nSo why bother?\n\nMy Idea: think of a unique business initiative and check some books out from the library, study, and build your business from the ground. It's not always successful, but any opportunity that guarantees 100% success rate is a scam.
218098
If you getting a million dollar e-mail settlement it is a scam, and it is all over the Internet. You can put Benin Plane Crash in Google and it will come up automatically to the scam. So don't fall for it, and answer, they will rip you off big time.
20757
www.211.com is your best bet. There have been so many people that have scamming internet users out of money that they have become weary of helping strangers. Sad, yes, but very true. The only other thing you can is is go to www.geocities.com and make a personal website telling your situation and why you need money.
183049
Mail Order can be a legitimate business. I think it roughly works like this - you order goods from your wholesaler, place and ad in your local paper and see the orders rolling in. This is assuming you're doing it yourself.\n\nBeware of scammers though. If you want to start your own internet business http://www.getyourebook.com has got a simple step-by-step guide. And oh - while you're there read the article on Home based business SCAMS - v. important\n\nAlso http://www.getyourebook.com/sitesell for more ideas.\n\nEbay is free to join, don't forget.
816063
Contact scambusters.com to report internet fraud.\nNot sure what country you're in, but I would suggest contacting Scotland Yard in England. Try Google or another search engine for their contact information.
1115983
illegally on the internet somewhere
954863
I sincerely wish that I could tell you there is away to catch this guy.  It is impossible to catch these criminals who usually work out of Romania, Russia an change proxy on a daily basis.  If law enforcement was able to catch them, they would not be making millions of dollars per day on people who do not use good common sense.  \n\nBelow is an indepth data from my BBC NEWS, London, England I received last week.   You will see how how they operate and how to protect yourself in the future.\n\nhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6083818.stm\n\nHere is another link that I get from the Government of Australia, as they are an agency that advises new threats to platforms an indepth knowledge on how to protect yourself when using the WWW.   (You will find that the key is good common sense, to prevent criminals from playing you like you were born yesterday).\n\nFor more information on transacting securely online, check out http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au\n\nSorry about your loss, but consider it a lession learned the hard way.   \n\nClinical Psychiatrist, France