Internet fraud on rise
Failing to do basic background checks is resulting in more Internet users falling victim to online fraud this year, costing them up to as much in value as a small car. Internet fraud is up 20 per cent from last year, says the Internet Crime Complaint Centre, with 37.5 per cent of all complaints due to online auction fraud.
Barnaby Jack, a staff security researcher at Juniper Networks in the United States says that fraud involving online auctions continues to be the most prevalent.
“A lack of education about the latest tricks employed by scammers, a lack of education about technology and the internet in general increase a person’s vulnerability” he says.
The most common type of Internet fraud involves online auction sites such as TradeMe or ebay. Mostly its simple fraud whereby the buyer sends money for a product, and the product never materialises. It likely never existed and was a fake listing purely for the purpose of a scam.
Others involve potential buyers offering to pay for goods via cheque, asking the seller to refund the difference in cash. Once the bogus buyer has received the cash, the cheque bounces, and the seller never hears from them again.
Kris Bainbridge, systems administrator for Guidance Media says that simple background checking on online auction sites, such as checking the users feedback, can be a good indicator of their trustworthiness.
“Many people are simply too trusting, or may not be familiar with the various scam methods” he says.
Reproduced from an article published by ScienceAlert
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