Would you like some fraud with that?

Quote:

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Fraud on the Internet rose sharply in 2002, with the FBI reporting more than 48,000 complaints referred to prosecutors -- triple the number of the year before.

The total dollar loss of Internet fraud reported to the center in 2002 was $54 million, compared with $17 million the year before. The 48,252 complaints referred for prosecution were far more than the 16,755 such complaints referred in 2001, but they still represent only a fraction of the crimes authorities believe are occurring.

One case involved $800,000 in losses by 300 people in a scheme to sell computers online and never deliver the merchandise. The perpetrator in this case, Teresa Smith of Worcester, Massechusetts, used several identities to prevent authorities from catching her.

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Full Story: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58409,00.html

This just goes to confirm everything we've heard and have been saying all along.
It is incredible to me the number of people who still have yet to learn about protecting themselves online: i.e. what is a safe purchase, who are safe sellers, etc.

I agree. I read about a similar case a few years ago, where a couple of people from AZ would buy and sell hundreds of DVD's on ebay until they had a really strong feedback rating, then they started auctioning computers and stereos and stuff, then split. They ended up getting a lot of money. The best thing to look at, if you are buying person to person, is a completed transaction with positive feedback on a similar item. If they just sold someone else a computer, and that person was happy, the monitor they are now trying to sell you probably does exist.

-just a few words from experience. I buy a lot of stuff on ebay, and have only been screwed by it once, and even then the company refunded me my cash.