Comments on: Woman Loses $4K to Scammer Posing as Friend on Facebook http://veritascanada.com/testblog/2009/09/woman-loses-4k-to-scammer-posing-as-friend-on-facebook/ social media strategy and execution Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:42:41 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Lynn Eastep http://veritascanada.com/testblog/2009/09/woman-loses-4k-to-scammer-posing-as-friend-on-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-84 Lynn Eastep Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:41:01 +0000 http://veritascanada.com/testblog/2009/09/woman-loses-4k-to-scammer-posing-as-friend-on-facebook/#comment-84 Thanks, Steve! I absolutely agree that education is important.<br /><br />While I agree that there's an element of caveat emptor when dealing with unknown individuals online, not all Internet scams are as obvious as individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. <br /><br />The most common form of online fraud is actually committed through online auction sites. According to the U.S. National White Collar Crime Center, Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 44.9% of referred complaints. Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment accounted for 19.0% of complaints. Check fraud made up 4.9% of complaints. Credit/debit card fraud, computer fraud, confidence fraud, and financial institutions fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.<br /><br />Hopefully, safeguards will be put in place to protect consumers. Thanks, Steve! I absolutely agree that education is important.

While I agree that there's an element of caveat emptor when dealing with unknown individuals online, not all Internet scams are as obvious as individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.

The most common form of online fraud is actually committed through online auction sites. According to the U.S. National White Collar Crime Center, Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 44.9% of referred complaints. Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment accounted for 19.0% of complaints. Check fraud made up 4.9% of complaints. Credit/debit card fraud, computer fraud, confidence fraud, and financial institutions fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.

Hopefully, safeguards will be put in place to protect consumers.

]]> By: Steve Dodd http://veritascanada.com/testblog/2009/09/woman-loses-4k-to-scammer-posing-as-friend-on-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-81 Steve Dodd Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:52:27 +0000 http://veritascanada.com/testblog/2009/09/woman-loses-4k-to-scammer-posing-as-friend-on-facebook/#comment-81 Lynne, this is a great warning! Some would say, how dumb could this person be to fall for this scam. But, this is exactly the kind of thing the Cdn Privacy Commish was focused on correcting with Facebook and other Social Networks. Although the onus is on the user to "beware", the Social Network providers need to step up their attention to this rapidly escalating problem. If they don't, users will eventually stop using their services. <br /><br />Sometimes, we just need to be protected from ourselves! As an example, is Facebook trying to determine how this user account was hacked? If not, why not?<br /><br />Thanks for reporting this so that people can educate themselves on some of these perils. Lynne, this is a great warning! Some would say, how dumb could this person be to fall for this scam. But, this is exactly the kind of thing the Cdn Privacy Commish was focused on correcting with Facebook and other Social Networks. Although the onus is on the user to "beware", the Social Network providers need to step up their attention to this rapidly escalating problem. If they don't, users will eventually stop using their services.

Sometimes, we just need to be protected from ourselves! As an example, is Facebook trying to determine how this user account was hacked? If not, why not?

Thanks for reporting this so that people can educate themselves on some of these perils.

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