Tuesday, December 12, 2006

U.S. Busts $5 Million Dollar Fraud Ring

Twenty one people have been charged by the federal government of operating an internet fraud ring that bilked internet auction users over $5 million dollars . It is believed that at least some of those responsible are in Romania. The scams apparently worked through second chance offers made to unsuccessful bidders requesting they wire money to obtain the goods. Items were then, of course, never delivered.

CLink to story here

Monday, December 11, 2006

MoneyGram Scams Increasing

The San Jose, CA Police Dept. has reported an increase in the number of Ebay and Craigslist scams involving MoneyGrams. A MoneyGram is a method of transferring money person to person similar in many respects to Western Union. The scam usually involves a bogus "second chance" offer sent by email in which a MoneyGram is requested as payment. Subsequently, the goods are not delivered and there is no method of contacting the "seller". This method of payment is not endorsed by Ebay and there is little or no recourse for victims of the scam.

Read the compete story here.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Carnegie Mellon Develops Software to Uncover Auction Fraud

Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists have developed data mining techniques to help uncover the perpetrators of online auction fraud. Their method analyzes publicly available transaction histories and identifies suspicious behavior patterns and associations. The software, not yet available to the public, has been adapted to provide a trustworthiness score for individual users. Read entire story here.