E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Study: Auction Fraud Still Top Cybercrime
Posted by: ECT News 2001-05-13 15:37:37

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Internet auction fraud accounts for 87 percent of all incidents of online
crime, according to a new study released Tuesday by
eMarketer.

As part of its "ePrivacy & Security Report,"
eMarketer also found that more
than 34 percent of Internet users have been
targeted by a Web-based privacy
or security breach. Moreover, the study estimates that the average
fraudulent transaction costs roughly US$600, which outpaces most research
estimates of average online retail spending.

Re: Study: Auction Fraud Still Top Cybercrime
Posted by: terry seale 2001-08-13 00:25:37 In reply to: ECT News

The above statements are hard to analyse. In one sentence we are told the NUMBER of complaints increased from 100 to 10,000 from '97 to '99 and in the next we are told the PERCENTAGE of complaints about auction fraud went down in 2000 from 1999. The percentage of an exploding number is still an explosion.

As a victim of auction fraud, one can see the same phenomenon that obtains in other crime reporting statistics. The higher the incidence of actual crime, the less of it relatively is reported.

A woman may well report the first incidence of rape and a taxi driver may well report the first armed robbery. But after going through a lengthy and futile reporting rigmarole, no woman will bother reporting the second rape and no taxi driver will bother reporting the second, third and fourth stick-up.

The only crime that gets reported in high crime areas is insured crime, and that is because the insurance company requires a police report number in order to honor a claim. If there is no insurance, there is no crime report.

Crime statistics are based on crime reported, not the actual number of crimes. There is a great deal more crime of all kinds than is reflected in crime report figures. And every policeman knows it.

Re: Study: Auction Fraud Still Top Cybercrime
Posted by: Oliver 2001-11-07 20:24:20 In reply to: terry seale

Terry, I understand what you're saying but disagree a little bit with the examples you provide. I think that if a woman is raped even as much as 3 times, she WILL report it. Yes, the reporting process just may be worse than what she suffered, but I think that women would want to obtain some type of justice, so they would report it.

I think one of the main reasons why Internet auction fraud is not discussed much, studied much, or even given the same "news time" as other cybercrime such as denial of service attacks, etc. is because they target individuals, not major corporations. Another reason is because the victim was not physically harmed so they are not really a "victim." But this is consistent I think with other white-collar crimes (i.e. denial of service), if it does not affect a big-name corporation or millions of people at once, it gets no air time.

It comes down to how many people are affected and what is the damage ($$$). There are a lot of people affected annually, but each is an isolated incident only accounting for approx. $600 in loss each time. What law enforcement agency or news organization is going to jump on that? Not many. Sad but true.

New Auction Fraud Trick! Alert
Posted by: TH LIn 2001-05-13 15:51:48 In reply to: ECT News

I won an 1995 Yamaha scooter from internet auction. scooter receieved is year 1987 instead. The reatiled value for 1995 is $995, and $570 for 1987 for a fully working one. Scooter receieved is
non-working, and many problems were not mentioned in the auction description. The seller offered refund, but the refund is under impossible conditions. The scooter has to be returned back to him within 3 days, and the buyer has to pay the shipping cost (over $100).