Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has published a booklet entitled Internet Fraud: Think before you link. It includes tips about: Shopping online (Top 10 Internet scams), Auctions, Business opportunities, Guaranteed loans, credit, Investment opportunities, Identity theft, Unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam), and Other brochures. The booklet can be downloaded from: www.moago.org in pdf format or read online.

The number that got my attention was that online auctions accounted for 90% of Internet fraud reported in 2002 by the National Consumers League—however, no information is given for the actual number of complaints filed.

I'm not discouraging anyone from using online auctions, because my experience with eBAY has been very good. Only three times have I had cause for concern—about 6 years ago, I “won” an auction for MS Office Professional 2000 for $200 and it hadn't come in a couple of weeks so I emailed the seller telling him that my check had cleared the bank but I had no software. He responded saying he must have overlooked it and sent the software immediately. The cautions I learned from this were:

1. Keep track of the time between the purchase and receipt of merchandise, and
2. Pay by credit card through an escrow agent such as PayPal a credit card charge can be challenged and an escrow agent either holds the money until the merchandise is received or can withdraw money given.

Two times I haven't received exactly what I thought I was getting--once I ordered a DVD movie and didn't pay attention to where it was being shipped from. When the DVD came and we played it, it evidentally was a pirated copy and had several glitches—it came from outside the US so I learned to pay attention to where items are being shipped from.

The third time, the compression hose I ordered didn't have a brand name listed and when they came, they were support hose; but not the heavier compression I wanted and they were a much darker shade than I expected. I emailed the seller and she offered to either exchange them or give me a refund. I took the refund. Don't take anything for granted—use that link to Ask seller a question.

Mary Phillips, President