The term "Internet fraud" generally refers to any type of fraud scheme that uses one or more online services - such as chat rooms, e-mail, message boards, or Web sites - to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme.

Internet fraud is committed in several ways. The FBI and police agencies worldwide have people assigned to combat this type of fraud; according to figures from the FBI, U.S. companies' losses due to Internet fraud in 2003 surpassed US$500 million. In some cases, fictitious merchants advertise goods for very low prices and never deliver. However, that type of fraud is minuscule compared to criminals using stolen credit card information to buy goods and services.

Whilst internet fraud is widespread, companies providing fraud detection services report higher than normal levels of fraudulent activity from countries such as Venezuela, Ukraine, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Israel. Countries with low reported levels of internet fraud include Austria, New Zealand, Taiwan, Norway, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, Hong Kong, the UK, France, and Australia.

Fraudsters seem to prefer small and valuable products, such as: watches, jewelry, laptops, ink cartridges, digital cameras, and camcorders. These items are usually commodities that are easily sellable and have a broad range of appeal. However, fraud in hosted marketplaces such as Ebay covers a broad range of products from cellular phones to desktop computers. The craft has continually evolved in sophistication. In some instances, a picture of the product is sent in place of the actual product. Other times, products are outright never sent after the bill is charged to credit card accounts. Victims are left to deal with credit card companies for chargebacks.

Most Internet fraud is done through the use of stolen credit card information which is obtained in many ways, the simplest being copying information from retailers, either online or offline. There have been many cases of crackers obtaining huge quantities of credit card information from companies' databases. There have been cases of employees of companies that deal with millions of customers in which they were selling the credit card information to criminals.

Despite the claims of the credit card industry and various merchants, using credit cards for online purchases can be insecure and carry a certain risk. Even so called "secure transactions" are not fully secure, since the information needs to be decrypted to plain text in order to process it. This is one of the points where credit card information is typically stolen.

Some fraudsters approach merchants asking them for large quotes. After they quickly accept the merchant's quote, they ask for wire transfer information to send payment. Immediately, they use online check issuing systems as Qchex that require nothing but a working email, to produce checks that they use to pay other merchants or simply send associates to cash them.

In the Nigerian version, the fraudsters have armies of people actively recruiting single women from western countries through chat & matchmaking sites. At some point, the criminal promises to marry the lady and come to their home country in the near future. Using some excuse the criminal asks permission of his "future wife" to ship some goods he is going to buy before he comes. As soon as the woman accepts the fraudster uses several credit cards to buy at different Internet sites simultaneously. In many cases the correct billing address of the cardholder is used, but the shipping address is the home of the unsuspecting "future wife". Around the time when the packages arrive, the criminal invents an excuse for not coming and tells his "bride" that he urgently needs to pick up most or all the packages. Since the woman has not spent any money, she sees nothing wrong and agrees. Soon after, she receives a package delivery company package with pre-printed labels that she has agreed to apply to the boxes that she already has at home. The next day, all boxes are picked up by the package delivery company and shipped to the criminal's real address (in Nigeria or elsewhere). After that day the unsuspecting victim stops receiving communications from the "future husband" because her usefulness is over. To make matters worse, in most cases the criminals were able to create accounts with the package deliverer, based on the woman's name and address. So, a week or two later, the woman receives a huge freight bill from the shipping company which she is supposed to pay because the goods were shipped from her home. Unwittingly, the woman became the criminal re-shipper and helped him with his criminal actions.

The Merchant Risk Council reported that the "call tag" scam re-emerged over the 2005 holidays and several large merchants suffered losses. Under the scheme, criminals use stolen credit card information to purchase goods online for shipment to the legitimate cardholder. When the item is shipped and the criminal receives tracking information via email, he/she calls the cardholder and falsely identifies himself as the merchant that shipped the goods, saying that the product was mistakenly shipped and asking permission to pick it up upon receipt. The criminal then arranges the pickup issuing a "call tag" with a shipping company different from the one the original merchant used. The cardholder normally doesn't notice that there is a second shipping company picking up the product, which in turn has no knowledge it is participating in a fraud scheme. The cardholder then notices a charge in his card and generates a chargeback to the unsuspecting merchant.

Business opportunity/"Work-at-Home" schemes

Fraudulent schemes often use the Internet to advertise purported business opportunities that will allow individuals to earn thousands of dollars a month in "work-at-home" ventures. These schemes typically require the individuals to pay anywhere from $35 to several hundred dollars or more, but fail to deliver the materials or information that would be needed to make the work-at-home opportunity a potentially viable business.

Often, after paying a registration fee, the applicant will be sent advice on how to place ads similar to the one that recruited him in order to recruit others, which is effectively a pyramid scheme.

Other types of work at home scams include home assembly kits. The applicant pays a fee for the kit, but after assembling and returning the item, it's rejected as substandard, meaning the applicant is out of pocket for the materials. Similar scams include home-working directories, medical billing, data entry (data entry scam) at home or reading books for money.

This type of Fraud consists of an employment offer to help transfer money to a foreign company, supposedly because it costs too much to do it through other methods (which is usually not the case). The prospective victim receives an email like this common example:

FROM OSSY AND LINDA WILLIAMS. Avenu 12 Reu 47 ABIDJAN DANANI REFUGEE CAMP, ABIDJAN REPUBLIC OF COTE-D'IVOIRE

Dearest One,

My name is OSSY WILLIAMS and my Sister's name LINDA we are the children of Late General BENSON WILLIAMS the former Director of military inteligence and special acting General Manager of Sieria Leone Diamond mining coperation( SLDMC ). I am contacting you to seek your good assistance to transfer and invest Five million seven hundred and twenty thousand united state dollars ($5,720,000.00) belonging to my late father which is deposited in a bank here in Abidjan. This money is revenues from solid minirals and dimonds sale which were under my fathers possession before the civil war broke out. Following the break out of the war, almost all government offices,coperations and parastatals were attacked and vandalized.

The SLDMC was loothed and burnt down to ashes, and diamonds worth millions of dollars was stolen by the rebel military forces who attacked my fathers office. Many top government officials and senior army officers were assasinated and my father was a key target because of his very sensitive military possition and appointment in the SLDMC.Regreatably, my father was captured and murdered along with half brother in cool blood during a mid-night rebel shoot-out when our official residence in freetown was armbushed by Fordey Sanko the notorious rebel leader. My mother sustainded very sever bullet injuries which resulted to her untimely and painful death in a private hospital here in Ivory Coast.

Now we are alone in a totally strange country without parents, relatives or any body to care for us at our tender ages. Before our mother died, she told us that our father deposited some money which he made from diamond sales and deposited it in a bank here in Ivory Coast and that we should pray and find a trust worthy foreign business partner who will help us to transfer and invest this money in profitable business venture overseas.

She told us to do this quickly so that we can leave Ivory Coast with our cousin brother-Arthur who is here in the camp with us and, then settle down abroad. She gave us the bank document to prove the deposit and then told us that my father used my name as the only son to deposit the money in the bank. She told us that this is the reason why we came to Ivory Coast. My mother died after wards. May her spirit rest in perfect peace.

I have gone to the bank to make inquires about this money and I spoke with the Manager of International remittance who assured me that everything is intact and promised to help me transfer this money to my foreign partners bank account as soon as I provide my partners foreign bank account for them. However, the manager is very concerned because of my age. I am 19 years old and as such advised that I should look for a matured person that will represent me at the bank.

If you are willing to assist us, please let us know immediately so that you will arrange the transfer of the money to your account with the bank.Please note that we will offer you 20% of the total money as compensation for your noble assistance in accodiance with my mothers advise. We are interested in any profitable commercial venture which you consider very good in your country and you would also get a school for me and my little sister and cousin so that we can finish our college education in your country.

Please there is urgent need for the money to be transferred to your account and I am hoping to hear your urgent response so that I can not look for another foreign partner.

Thank you and may God bless you and your dear family.

Yours sincerely

OSSY / LINDA WILLIAMS.

The fraudsters will then send fake checks or postal money orders, in the hopes of getting the victims to cash those fake money instruments and then getting real money from the victims.

These scams are also use as phishing tools, because many times the fraudsters are able to get the victims full name, address, social security, bank account number, etc, etc, which in ends up being identity fraud.

Online dating scams and fraud are almost as old as Internet dating itself. Often called a Sweetheart Swindle this is often a long, drawn out process in which the con artist develops a relationship, and eventually convinces the victim to send money. The scammer often meets the victim in chat rooms or via online dating sites. Their object is not to get into their hearts, but get into their wallets. They will try to earn someone's affections and trust so that they can persuade him/her to send money. The requests for money can either be a one time event or repeated over an extended period of time. The details of the scammers' stories will vary with each case. The scenario commonly revolves around a tragedy having befallen the scammer, and he/she desperately needs money. After spending time communicating and building a relationship with the victim, the scammer will ask for help in the form of money. Most online dating services have a hard time dealing with scammers, outside of issuing warnings to their users to be alert for anyone you've never met asking for money.

Some potential indicators you may be dealing with a dating scam:

* The online sweetie says, "I love you" almost immediately. * The person asks for money, to cash a check or money order. * The person claims to be a U.S. citizen who is abroad, or claims to be well off, or a person of importance. * The person claims to be a contractor, and needs help with a business deal. * The Person claims to need money for a parent's "operation in the hospital"

The latest scam to hit the headlines is the multi-million dollar Clickfraud which occurs when advertising network affiliates force paid views or clicks to ads on their own websites via spyware, the affiliate is then paid a commission on the cost-per-click that was artificially generated. Affiliate programs such as Google's Adsense capability pay high commissions that drive the generation of bogus clicks. With paid clicks costing as much as US$100[verification needed] and an online advertising industry worth more than US$10 billion, this form of Internet fraud is on the increase

Phishing" is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message (most often an email, or an instant message). It is a form of social engineering attack.

The term was coined in the mid 1990s by crackers attempting to steal AOL accounts. An attacker would pose as an AOL staff member and send an instant message to a potential victim. The message would ask the victim to reveal his or her password, for instance to "verify your account" or to "confirm billing information". Once the victim gave over the password, the attacker could access the victim's account and use it for criminal purposes, such as spamming.

Phishing has been widely used by fraudsters using spam messages masquerading as large banks (Citibank, Bank of America) or PayPal. These fraudsters can copy the code and graphics from legitimate websites and use them on their own sites to create legitimate-looking scam web pages. They can also link to the graphics on the legitimate sites to use on their own scam site. These pages are so well done that most people cannot tell that they have navigated to a scam site. Fraudsters will also put the text of a link to a legitimate site in an e-mail but use the source code to links to own fake site. This can be revealed by using the "view source" feature in the e-mail application to look at the destination of the link or putting the cursor over the link and looking at the code in the status bar of the browser. Although many people don't fall for it, the small percentage of people that do fall for it, multiplied by the sheer numbers of spam messages sent, presents the fraudster with a substantial incentive to keep doing it.

Anti-phishing technologies are now available.

Fraudsters launch auctions on eBay or TradeMe with very low prices and no reservations especially for high priced items like watches, computers or high value collectibles. They received payment but never deliver, or deliver an item that is less valuable than the one offered, such as counterfeit, refurbished or used. Some fraudsters also create complete webstores that appear to be legitimate, but they never deliver the goods. An example of such a fraudulent site is marselle.com,jeremimora.com. They take payment but never shipped the order. In some cases, some stores or auctioneers are legitimate but eventually they stopped shipping after cashing the customers' payments.

Sometimes fraudsters will combine phishing to hijacking legitimate member accounts on eBay, typically with very high numbers of positive feedback, and then set up a phony online store. They received payment usually via check, money-order, cash or wire transfer but never deliver the goods; then they leave the poor, unknowing eBay member to sort out the mess. In this case the fraudster collects the money while ruining the reputation of the conned eBay member and leaving a large number of people without the goods they thought they purchased.

I really hope my article provided useful information for my fellow HUBBERS. we spend so much time on the net and we are always at risk of falling for these internet conmen whose scams improvise almost on a daily basis. Remember no matter how smart we are these frauds are always finding new ways to trick us with extremely clever and innovative scams to make us part with our hard earned cash. if you find anything suspicious dont put your leg in it. better safe than sorry. i will be back with my sexy hubs soon. look forward for it see ya