12
March
2010
|
02:29 AM
America/Los_Angeles

I'm In The Wrong Job Dept.: - Internet Scams Doubled To $560m

It seems you can be ethical but poor when it comes to Internet business practices. The FBI estimated that Internet business scams doubled last year to reach $560 million.

In a delightful irony, the most popular scam used the FBI's name, reported the Associated Press:

The most frequently reported scams were those that falsely used the FBI's name, accounting for 16 percent of the more than 300,000 complaints received last year. Authorities say another scam involved messages with a voice similar to President Barack Obama's, urging people to visit a Web site to claim a share of government stimulus cash. Visitors are charged a fee, and no money is ever received.

There are a whole range of scams, including diet, work-at-home, dating and many others. Once the scammers get hold of peoples' credit cards, it is difficult to cancel monthly subscriptions. This is made even worse when scammers get hold of people's debit card numbers because it can lead to overdrafts and high bank charges.