Executive Fraud Blog

The #1 online complaint is auction fraud
This fraud accounts for over half the complaints that are made to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. Other common complaints include credit card fraud, spam, and non delivery of goods. The most costly internet scheme right now is the Nigerian spam letter that has several different variations that all promise you free money for cashing "real" money orders that clear your bank account prior to them actually clearing the issuing bank which eventually declares the money order as fraudulent. The best protection from these attacks is to understand nothing every comes for free and no one legitimate will ever ask you for sensitive information via email (ie. credit card number)

In regards to eliminating auction fraud, consumers are best apt to doing this by using secured forms of payment such as paypal or feedback oriented auctions such as ebay/amazon. Most services guarantee the delivery of your goods and your payment up to certain amounts so make sure to check your protection limits against fraud.