If you want to keep your personal details a secret, you should not share information on the internet. If you do not have a business at home there is no point on sharing your snail mail address to the public. If you have your own business at home you could perhaps think about using a P.O.. Box to protect your personal snail mail address.
Cyber crime has many forms. Phishing to get your personal details is one of them. Other forms are viruses or worms that try to rob your personal information. Internet fraud happens in fraudulent auctions but not just in auctions.
There are many sellers and websites that sell products. And you should investigate the seller before you buy something. The only time when I was swindled on the internet was for $35,-. I bought an update for a script on my website from someone who created the script on my website.
I thought it would be a good idea to make some changes to the script so I bought an upgrade for the script that was on my website, and the seller would place it on my website. But he never did. On the end I lost $35 and I had to rebuild my website myself the way I want it. I decided to rebuild the website in Joomla instead of using the script of a swindler.
Usually I do a background check, I search the website name, the name of the person and his e-mail address to find out if he committed fraud before. If I would have researched him before I bought the script, I would have found out he had committed crimes many times before. Unfortunately in our country (the Netherlands) you can go to the police, but they say its no case for the police. It’s a civil case so you need to sue your swindler (for $35.- no one will do that). Best of all the bank is protecting the person that committed fraud after you send him money, and after you tell them he committed a crime, you will not receive your money back.
Which means you should learn from what happened and do more background checks later to not ever get deceived again. It’s important to get yourself informed on the forms of internet fraud to be aware of them. A lot of thieves has changed their working area from robbing a bank to internet fraud.
Fraudulent Auctions
If you want to buy something in an auction site likes EBay, make sure you use your common sense. If something is to cheap it might be to good to be true. I also look around in local online stores to see if the product that is offered on EBay is not cheaper in a local store than it is on EBay. Many electronical stuff turn out to be cheaper in local stores than they are on EBay, and the shipping costs are lower if the products are shipped from nearby.
You should not only do proper research on the products but you should also do research on the seller, and you should look at his buying/selling score on EBay. If someone has never sold any item before I would not buy any product from him. If his buying / seller score is low idem ditto. If someone has (almost) 100% buying / selling score and at least 15 buyers/ sellers have done business with this person than I am more likely to do bid in the auction. I also look in the reviews. Usually I look at the negative reviews first to see if the negative feedback is about a product I want to buy myself. It doesn't only tell you something about the seller, but also about the quality of the product that is being offered. No one wants to spend money on a low quality product. The negative review can also tell something about the after sales or about the way the item is shipped and maybe if the item has arrived damaged. It’s good to know how the seller reacts after a sale on a possible complaint before you buy anything from the seller.
If I bid on a product I also Google the “product name” on Google to see if there are any reviews on the product itself. It has prevented me from buying items that are of bad quality, it’s good to spend our hard earned money on products that are actually worth it. I also search YouTube for the product to watch video reviews. In this way I can decide if a product can be used for what I intended it for. I also read the comments to the video reviews as extra review of the product. Usually those reviews are very valuable because users of a product can tell a lot about the quality of the product. And I also can see in the video when the product is being used if the product is of any good.
Sometimes there are certain auction sites that are fraudulent on itself, they offer cheap products, or they do not even send you the products you have paid for. There are already people that have offered on products of the same auction site before, so why should you be one of their victims as well? You should learn from the mistakes of others, without losing money yourself too.
Recognize phishing e-mails
Phishing is the most common fraud on the internet. I think we all received e-mails before from our bank which is saying our account is blocked and that they need our name and address o unblock our account. Those e-mails are the most obvious phishing e-mails. Because most often you also got e-mails like this of banks you are not even have an account with.
You should always remember your bank has your account number, they have your name and address, phone number, e-mail address and account number and password. They will never ask these details in an e-mail, and more over they will not ask it in an unprofessional looking e-mail which contains many spellings mistakes.
If someone you do not know offers you a large sum of money via a shady e-mail you can be certain it’s a Phishing e-mail. Usually they will ask you for your personal details because they say they want to send you money. But they only want your personal information to use that for fake ids or to use your details to buy something in your name. They receive the products and you receive the bill.
Conclusion
If you do not want to lose money on the internet it’s important that you do a proper background check the seller of a product. You should ask yourself the following questions:
Who is the person you buy the item from? You might be able to find a website with personal details of the person you buy from, if someone has a website you can research the website via Google to see if it’s considered a trustworthy website (if the seller also sells something via the website)
How many items has the seller sold before the sale you might want to make? If a seller has not sold a product before or has not bought anything on EBay with this account, this makes me suspicious, it might be an account which is created to get money from buyers without ever sending you a (good) product. If someone has sold 100 or 1000 times before with a high feedback score I am more likely to buy an item from him.
What is his feedback score? If you are a buyer or seller you might want to know the feedback score. If someone has a low feedback score the after sales might be bad, you might not receive the product at all. Or the product might be of bad quality. If you sell products to a buyer with a low or no feedback score this person might for example receive your (expensive) product and after that leave a complaint with EBay saying that he never received it and he will be claiming back the money, if you cannot proof you have send the product to the fraudulent buyer you are left with nothing. And it’s hard to proof that someone did receive your product - in a good condition – if he lives on the other side of the world.
What is the quality of the product he is offering? You should read reviews on Google and review sites to find out of the product itself is worth your money.