January 17th, 2008
Today, every day people hear on the radio, TV and on the Internet about frauds. As far as the mass media is concerned people do believe these stories about people scammed and cheated by Internet fraudsters.
The thing is that these stories are only partly true. TV seldom covers the other side of the coin. It looks as if ALL the Internet sellers are cheaters etc. Thus due to such a narrow vision of the mass media, reliable and honest Internet entrepreneurs lose money. I can assure you that the number of trustworthy seller by far outweighs the number of fraudsters.
Still, another thing that you will never encounter in a magazine, newspaper or a TV show is CUSTOMERS cheating on sellers. But in reality, such incidents are not rare; nevertheless they are not paid much attention to, unfortunately.
Even though I say that honest sellers make the majority of the market, there are always exceptions. Even as a seller you remain a customer. How? Well, if you are an Internet seller, you have to find the source of products (it can be a single source of a few of them). But you have to remember one simple thing: either you find a direct contact with the manufacturer or establish relations with an authorized representative you need to be sure of the quality and legality of the provided services.
If you are somehow involved into the Internet business, you have to remember that you always remain a potential target of a fraud. In order to make sure you protection is at its best always use an AVS system when you charge your clients’ credit cards. Always confirm expensive orders before processing them. If a customer buys an expensive item from your Internet-store, contact him/her directly for the verification of the purchase. This was can help you avoid being paid by stolen credit cards. Another way to see a fraud is to look for multiple purchase of the same product by the same customer.
Remember, if you are paid with a stolen credit card, it is YOU who will have to refund the owner of the card and the criminals will get away with your products. Thus it turns out that you pay for them.
Never be afraid to contact the police or the bank that issued the card. As a rule, banks treat credit card frauds VERY seriously! Moreover, learn some things about protection applications like, for instance, EBay Safe Harbor etc.
One more thing that I would like to draw your attention to: It is YOUR money that the fraudsters aim at. Just try to do your best to prevent the money taken out of your pocket.