“Consumers’ overconfidence that they’ll get what they paid for
is one big reason why they easily fall victim to scams,” said Susan
Grant, director of NCL’s Internet Fraud Watch, “Many don’t know
about the safe ways to pay in on-line auctions.”
Additionally, NCL’s annual Internet Fraud Watch top ten list for
2000, released this week, shows that on-line auctions remain the
top fraud and consumers that have been victims are more likely to
have paid with a check or money order.
According to NCL’s Internet Fraud Watch, the following are the
statistics for the top 10 sources of internet frauds last year:
1. On-line auctions, 78%
2. General merchandise sales, 10%
3. Internet access services, 3%
4. Work-at-home offers, 3%
5. Advance fee loans, 2%
6, Computer equipment/software, 1%
7. Nigerian money offers, 1%
8. Information adult services, 1%
9. Credit card offers, 0.5%
10. Travel/vacations, 0.5%
The figure for auction fraud is 9% less than that found in a
similar survey conducted over 2000 by eMarketer, a New York-based
provider of internet statistics.
