How To Avoid Internet Scams & Customer Security Issues

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Ebay is undoubtedly the nation’s favorite online auction site. Any ordinary individual can buy and trade goods and services as long as they meet Ebay’s User Agreement and Privacy Policy.

More and more people are using Ebay’s preferred payment system PayPal to send and receive money quickly and securely. Sellers should be experienceing more sales via PayPal as now the company have added the flexibility for buyers to pay with their credit card and DO NOT HAVE to open a PayPal account, as was the case since the company’s inception.

With all of the business revenue and high traffic Ebay enjoys you would believe that the site is virtually impenetrable.

However, even Ebay can fall victim to unscrupulous scam artists. Recent news regarding fraudulent traders who never send out goods and those who request money order payments, again no goods are shipped to the buyer.

Thankfully Ebay has stopped all Money Order transactions during December 2005. A very prudent decision as the payment CANNOT be reversed as with credit card transactions. The only way to claim back on fraud from sellers who keep your payment is to involve the police to make an official investigation.

Personally I am very surprised that Ebay EVER permitted the use of Money Orders given that they cannot be easily traced or reversed and only provides guarantee to the recipient.

Another area of concern for online security and scams are hackers. Yesterday’s Yahoo News reported that a 20 year old man was convicted of stealing thousands of dollars from private customer accounts and looks certain to face at least 5 years in jail.

Although reports of this nature are rare it does pose a real threat to online security. Many people are already apprehensive about providing sensitive credit card information on online order forms.

If you shop at Amazon you will know that once you are ready to go to checkout you will be asked to create an account for which your personal details for shipping goods and credit card information is stored online whether you want to or not. For some reason Amazon do not give customers the ‘option’ not to store their sensitive credit card details!

If some online grocery outlets such as Asda offer new and regular customers the option as to whether they would like to register their payment card or not why don’t superstores like Amazon offer the same courtesy to their customers?

I have personally used Ebay to get rid of lots of unwanted goods during several home moves and storage room clear outs. I also am an infrequent shopper at Amazon and even I have to admit I was not impressed with how they stored my credit card data without my express permission. At least Ebay provides you with all the questions required for registration at the out set so you can continue or discontinue with the sign up process at not feel that you were ‘held hostage’.

What are your personal thoughts on online data security and are you concerned with online shopping security?

Stay Safe with the Top 30 Online Scams

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