Friday, June 29, 2007

Beware of Online Shysters

By Paul Korzeniowski
E-Commerce Times


The illegal downloading and selling of items, such as music and videos, has been widely reported and continues to be a hot potato. "Some counterfeiters are so bold that they advertise movies that have not yet been released," said Andrew Horton, product management director at MarkMonitor.

The Internet has emerged as a great place to shop for someone looking for a good deal. Price comparison sites ensure that consumers pay as little as possible, so they often end up with tremendous bargains.

However, the adage "If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is" applies to some of these transactions. Shysters have established bogus Web sites advertising Email Marketing Software - Free Demo name brands for a fraction of their typical costs. These businesses are booming: Online protection company MarkMonitor expects online sales of knockoff goods in 2007 to reach US$119 billion, up from $84 billion last year.

complete article

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Romania a global hotspot for eBay fraud

eBay has taken the extraordinary step of calling a press conference in Australia to discuss the problem posed by Romanian fraudsters.

eBay said it was shocked to discover that many Romanian police stations, prosecutors and magistrates had never used a computer. This lack of access to cyber crime fighting tools was allowing internet crime to go unchecked.

The company found law enforcement agencies had been trying to investigate online fraud at the same internet cafes being used by the fraudsters, "which was a huge concern to us", said Mat Henley, of the eBay global fraud investigation team.

article here

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Beware: False Paypal/Skype credit card charges

By now, you've learned to ignore unsolicited e-mail seemingly from PayPal, eBay or other financial site telling you your account needs to be updated. PLEASE tell me you ignore these phishing messages!

There's something much more sinister to be wary of: My theory is a hacker got into a major credit card database and is charging small amounts to user cards under the guise that it's a PayPal Skype charge.

I discovered this charge on my own credit card in early May. My credit-card company spotted it first and stopped all transactions. I canceled my card to be safe and didn't think too much more about it.

link to article

Two plead to selling counterfeit software on eBay

As the Department of Justice cracks down on software counterfeiters, two more defendants have pleaded guilty to selling bootlegged factory software on eBay

Two more defendants have pleaded guilty to charges of criminal copyright infringement for selling counterfeit software with a retail value of nearly $6 million on eBay Inc., the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Robert Koster of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Yutaka Yamamoto of Pico Rivera, California, both pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the DOJ said in a news release. The two pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit software from Rockwell Automation.

complete article

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Jewelry merchant on eBay fined $400,000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A jewelry company on eBay Inc. that allegedly bid on its own auctions to illegally drive up prices by as much as 20 percent agreed to pay $400,000 in restitution and penalties, the New York state attorney general's office said on Saturday.

Ezra Dweck and employees of his company, EMH Group, placed more than 232,000 such bids worth some $5 million over about a one-year period, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office said.

Dweck and EMH Group have also been banned from the online auction industry for four years under the terms of the settlement agreed to by the parties, Cuomo's office said.

complete article