NCL Releases the Top Ten Internet Scams of 2005

The National Consumers League has released their 2005 Fraud Trends: Consumers Being Hounded by Internet and Telemarketing Scams.

The "Top Ten" internet scams were:

Auction items never delivered or misrepresented, the average loss was $1,155 and this category accounted for 42 percent of all the complaints.

General merchandise never delivered or misrepresented, the average loss was $2,258 and this category accounted for 30 percent of the complaints.

Nigerian money offers. False promises of riches if consumers pay to transfer money to their bank accounts, the average loss was $6,937 and this category accounted for 8 percent of the complaints.

Fake checks sent for goods or services and victim is told to wire back money, the average loss was $4,361 and this category accounted for 6 percent of the complaints.

Lotteries/lottery clubs. Requests for payment to claim lottery winnings or get help to win, often foreign lotteries the average loss was $2,919 and this accounted for 4 percent of the complaints.

Phishing, fraudulent e-mails asking for personal information, the average loss was $612 and this accounted for 2 percent of the complaints.

Advance-fee loans, loans promised with upfront fee, the average loss was $1,426 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Internet Access Services, cost of internet access and other services misrepresented or never provided, the average loss was $1262 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Information/adult services. Cost and terms of services not disclosed or misrepresented, the average loss was $504 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Work-at-Home Plans. Kits sold on false promises of big profits from working at home, the average loss was $1,785 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Although, these statistics are based on complaints made to the National Consumer League, they doubled over the past year (scary).

Wire transfers through non-banking institutions, such as Western Union and MoneyGram were the favorite venue for the fraudsters to have their money sent to them.

Here is an interesting statistic from the survey about eBay. I'm starting to think they deserve an award for ignoring the massive problems fraud has created for their customers:

* In the fall of 2003, online giant eBay removed the link from its Web site to fraud.org. As a result, the number of auction complaints reported to NCL’s fraud center dropped to 1/6 its previous level. Based on statistics prior to eBay’s action, NCL estimates that there would have been 30,720 auction complaints in 2005, representing 71 percent of complaints.

If you are interested in more information regarding eBay, put in keyword "eBay" in the search box at the top of the page.

The National Consumer's League and it's sister site National Fraud Information Center provide a lot of great information on how to avoid being a fraud victim. There are also other relevant (social awareness) resources on the National Consumer League's site. I highly recommend both of them.

You can go directly to the site for the National Consumer League by clicking on the title of this post.