Internet Theft Of Online Auction Fraud Essay

Identity theft is a major concern today in our country, millions of a person’s identity have been compromised for many of years. Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person’s personal information such as name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or other identifying information to take on that person’s identity in order to commit fraud or other crimes. Stealing an identity is, unfortunately, surprisingly easy to do and happens when you least expect it. Just by opening your mail, something that has personal information on it, throwing it in the trash. Therefore, a person can go through your trash and take all that information and use it against you to take on a new identity.

Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.

As with most things related to making money online, Mystery Shopping has its share of scams.

In this case since the fraudulent transactions were reported immediately the customer will only be responsible for $50.

In 2009, Auction World had 1,360 complaints on poor customer service, untrue advertisements and poor delivery service. The channel had its licence taken by Ofcom, with referral from the ASA.

However, if you have just been paying attention recently, then you will recognize that eBay has been in hot water according to Forbes, all due to the hacks that have occurred. An international hack was carried out, and in the process, almost 150 million customer accounts were accessed and possibly affected negatively. The biggest problem is that those accounts could include personal information such as shipping info, credit cards, PayPal accounts, and even more sensitive data.

The Australian Competition and Commission v Vassallo (2009) case depicts the affects of cyber crime on individuals involved. Advances in technology have enabled new ways to commit fraud online. Criminals are using new and complex techniques to commit fraud which often result in financial loss towards individuals. The two respondents in the case, Leanne Rita Vassallo and Aaron David Smith had sold medical eBooks through the internet. The eBooks claimed to provide medical cures and treatments for various health problems such as Lyme disease, asthma, herpes and prostate cancer. However, expert evidence concluded that the cures offered no therapeutic treatments. The two respondents had profited financially from the fraudulent eBooks and had sold the eBooks to more than 60, 000 customers worldwide. The online fraud was operated through several websites which were able to be accessed internationally. Despite rapid advancements in technology, legislation has proved to be effective in regulating cyber crime.

It is true that buyers must notify the seller of a breach within a reasonable amount of time for a remedy, under UCC 2-607 (3)(a). If the time from discovery to notification is deemed outside the limits of reasonability, then there may be no remedy derived or implied in the Uniform Commercial Code. To best assure remedy though, per the UCC, it is best that any nonconformance be immediately conveyed to the seller upon discovery. This allows a seller a reasonable attempt to resolve the problem or become aware of other potential problems. This protects not only the buyer, but also the seller.

At one point a vast majority of the products being solicited by vendors on eBay were fraudulent. Many companies like my own were unsure of what to do to combat this widespread fraud upon the public. We began using services like Collector’s Universe (owners of PSA/DNA Authentication Services), JSA (James Spence Authentication), developing relationships with the leaders of the industry Steiner Sports, Upper Deck, TriStar, and Mounted Memories to ensure that the products we sold and solicited to the general public were accompanied by recognized authentication services and leading purveyors of the sports memorabilia industry. Nevertheless, the industry continued to be influenced by less than savory individuals whose motivation and greed was reflective upon the prevalent supply of merchandise within the industry. Unfortunately for consumers of sports memorabilia the Latin phrase “caveat emptor” seems to be synonymous with every transaction they make. This paper will discuss how a widespread fraud upon consumers has caused them to acquire merchandise that is

Ever since the summer of last year, I have been selling virtual items on an online game for profit. I ran all of my transactions through Paypal. This allowed secure and instant transactions both for me and the customer. However, if they buyer feels they were scammed, they can initiate something called a "Charge-back". This is where they can open a claim with Paypal and have them look into the transaction for any malicious activity. On the 31st of August, I received about 8 charge-backs on Paypal.

eBay needs to focus on several issues to become more competitive. One issue is the fact that their competitors, like Amazon, make website purchases less difficult. On Amazon a customer can make a quick buy instead of having to bid on an item, wait for the auction to end, and then see if they won the auction. Another issue for eBay is the customer’s perception that scams are more likely on their site since purchases involve individuals and not companies. Even though eBay has the buyer protection plan to counter this idea, some customers might still shy away because they do not want to take a chance of having to go through the dispute resolution process in case it is a scam. When looking at Amazon’s return policy, they back their buyers 100%. If the buyer is not satisfied with the product or it doesn’t match the description that was on the website, Amazon will give the buyer a full refund. Looking at this from a buyer’s perspective, it makes purchasing more convenient to return a product as opposed to having to track down the buyer and trying to work out a resolution. I think that if eBay changes the protection policy and would

On March 15, 2005 former CEO of WorldCom, Bernard Ebbers sat in a federal courtroom waiting for the verdict. As the former CEO of WorldCom, Ebbers was accused of being personally responsible for the financial destruction of the communications giant. An internal investigation had uncovered $11 billion dollars in fraudulent accounting practices. Later a second report in 2003 found that during Ebber’s 2001 tenure as CEO, the company had over-reported earnings and understated expenses by an astonishing $74.5 billion dollars (Martin, 2005, para 3). This report included the mismanagement of funds, unethical lending practices among its top executives, and false bookkeeping which led to loss of tens of thousands of its employees.

One story, about a mother purchasing Nike shoes for her son, the shoes costed $135.00. She specified that it took longer than stated to receive the item, and they were being shipped from China. She rechecked the ad and the description, it clearly stated made in America, this came as a surprise. When they finally received the merchandise it did not exceed expectations. So she took the shoes to a local retailer and they verified they were fake, not even worth $35.00. She then began to reach out to Etsy about the matter, and they were never acknowledged, in return, she was sent an email with a link for seller they didn’t not work. Team

Cyber Crime is described as criminal activity committed via use of electronic communications with respect to cyber fraud or identity theft through phishing and spoofing. There are many other forms of cyber-crime also such as harassment, pornography etc. via use of information technology.

The company eBay Inc. is an American multinational Internet consumer-to-consumer corporation. Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar in San Jose, California, it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries including China and India. It’s main enterprise is eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website that allows people and businesses to buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services internationally. Millions of collectibles, décor, appliances, computers, furnishings, equipment, domain names, vehicles, services, intangibles and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on eBay. Anything can be auctioned on the site as long as it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay’s Prohibited and Restricted Items policy.