TYPES OF INTERNET SCAMS
There are many types of frauds that occur over the internet. The reason for the frauds is that more and more businesses are conducting their business over the Net. With companies such as Health Care, financial service firms, and motor vehicle dealerships doing business over the Net, makes some of the personal information available to crooks. Through these companies, criminals can obtain your social security number and credit card number.
Cyber criminals will be licking their chops at all of the online spending that is anticipated for the upcoming holiday seasons. "As the World Wide Web sites become easier to use, analysts predict online retailing will take off. Estimates go as high as $10 billion to $15 billion in sales by the 2002 holiday season" (Gamboa, Internet, Shopping Columnist Attack Online Shoppi n g Issue). This is a ton of money that will be exchanged over the Internet within the next three years. With all these purchases being made, criminals will be able to obtain personal information with ease. Once the cyber criminals obtain this personal info rmation, is when all different types of scams start to take place. The main scams that are run over the Internet are online auctions, service frauds, equipment frauds, and sweepstake frauds.
"Online auctions were the number one reported scam on the Internet in 1998" (Going Once, Going Twice\'85 Scammed, 1998). In an online auction, people will bid on a certain product that is being showcased by the computer. These products can range from a used car, to an old computer. The point of the auction is to get the cus tomer to pay the maximum amount possible for the product. Whoever wins the auction will be told to send a personal check to an address, and are told their product will come in the mail. The criminal takes the check and never supplies the product. The crook gets away with the crime leaving no trace of evidence.
Another type of scam is an equipment scam. Equipment scams are quite common over the Internet. They are very similar to the online auction. The equipment scam is when a product is ordered over the I nternet, and money is sent in for the product. The product that was bought will never come in the mail. If a product seems very cheap when advertised over the Net, it is probably an equipment fraud. My friend fell into an equipment scam. He was trying pur c hase a fake identification over the Internet. He filled out what state he wanted the ID from, and the fake information he wanted on the ID. He then sent in $75 dollars to the address given on the web page. He never received the ID that he ordered and lost seventy five dollars, and there was nothing he could do to try to obtain his money back.
Service scams and sweepstake frauds are not as common as the previous frauds. In a service scam, "the business will contact an online ad, which promotes the service which they need, make service arrangements, and pay a fee\'85 the business never hears from the person/company again" (Service Scams, 1999). In a sweepstake scam, the criminal will say that you can will $10 million dollars if you send $10 dollars to this addre ss. People usually do not fall into this fraud, but some do and criminals get away with thousands of dollars.
These are the main scams to look for when doing anything over the Internet. It is very important to not give personal information to anyone that you do not know or trust. It is imperative to take every precaution necessary or the criminals will keep getting away with their crimes.