Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Though small in relation to ecommerce turnover, Internet fraud is serious for the victims and for the reputation of the industry. According to NCL, US Internet fraud losses amounted to $6 million in 2001.

E-tailers are gradually adopting protective measures, though more reasonable charging by credit card processing companies would help. Some 70% of e-merchants adopt address verification systems, 54% follow up with their customers or adopt real-time authorizations, and 43% adopt after-the-fact fraud prevention measures.

Below are some E-auction fraud prevention:

(a) User identity verification—It is a voluntary program which encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification. It qualifies them for highest level of verification.

(b) Authentication service—It determines whether an item is genuine and described appropriately.

(c) Grading services—It is used to determine physical condition of an item.

(d) Feedback forum—It provides users with ability to comment on their experiences with other individuals.

(e) Insurance policy—eBay offers insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London at no cost to eBay users.

(f) Escrow services—Items valued at more than $200, eBay recommends escrow services which require for a fee.

(g) Non-payment punishment—First time nonpayment warning, fourth offense is cause for suspension from auction.

(h) Appraisal services—It use a variety of methods to appraise items such as assessment of authenticity and condition and review of what comparable items have sold for in recent months

(i) Item verification—It is a way of confirming the identity and evaluating the condition of an item.

A review on a post on Legal: New SMS scam

(http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-sms-scam.html)

First and foremost, SMS scam is a crime punishable under Malaysia law.

There are precedents of punitive actions taken against rogue SMS-delivered Content Providers evident from industry regulator MCMC's reprimand against fraudulent operators.

April 9, 2007, MCMC dispatched a letter to Sandip Das, Morten Lundal and Shazali Ramli -- the CEOs of Maxis (Malaysian Mobile Services Sdn Bhd), DiGi and Celcom, respectively -- in response to consumer complaints on fraudulent SMS Mobile Content Services, particularly on the issues of SMS Spoofing and Short Code Masking.

Below is a simple diagram to illustrate the modus operandi how multiple parties are involved in the SMS scam.

Maxis installed the Maxis Anti-Spam Platform. This works as a firewall that blocks out Spam/Hoax SMS based on keyword identification. This firewall stops unsolicited SMS from reaching our customer base.

Since the installation the Anti Spam Platform, an average of a million Spam/Hoax SMS per month have been blocked from reaching our customers. Offenders often look for ways to circumvent the system, and sometimes, some of these messages slip past our Anti-Spam blocking mechanism. Maxis investigate all complaints and add all new Hoax SMS cases to our Anti-Spam Platform’s database for future auto-blocking.

In the meantime, Maxis advice their customers do not respond to any unsolicited SMS that offer “too good to be true” prizes for contests or promotions from established Malaysian companies, especially if you did not sign up for such contests or promotions in the first place. Usually, these SMS feature a foreign phone number for the recipient to respond to, with a non-Malaysian telephone country code prefix. This is one indication that such an SMS could not have originated from Maxis/Hotlink. Customers are urged to not call these numbers.

Example of SMS Scam:

E-Government in Malaysia

Malaysia aims to become developed country in the year 2020. To achieve this vision, Malaysia has started to develop its E-Government policies.
Malaysian Government has its own official portal now: http://www.gov.my/

This website consists of four categories: Citizen, Non-citizen, business and government.

Citizen: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Citizen/
This website is linked to many other website. Public can get some information under this category, such as education, employment, security and safety, legal matters, health and etc. Public also can use the online service such as job application (http://www.elx.gov.my/) pay for summon (http://www.speed.com.my and http://www.myeg.com.my/) and etc.

Business: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Business/
This website is linked to Inland Revenue Board Malaysia, Companies or individuals can summit their income tax return by using e-filling provided here. Besides that, the website is also linked to SSM (application for business name approval), Advertising licenses and etc.

Government: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Government/
This website is more likely to provide services for public servant. For example, they can check the computation of Pension, Gratuity and Cash in lieu of Accumulated Leave for Compulsory Retirement, apply for the appointment of education service position, apply for evaluation competency level examination and etc.

Non-citizen: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/NonCitizen/
Non-citizen can visit this website to search for the information about Malaysia. They can fill the income tax form, apply for renewal of licenses, apply for immigration and etc.

Development of E-Government has given Malaysian citizen a great deal of convenience; it connects public to the government, especially for companies and individuals who need to summit income tax return, it saves lots of time!!

However, success of E-Government still have many barriers, for example, linkage of databases like My-card, public awareness of E-Government, Language barrier in the website (most of the websites are using Malay, including Non-citizen directory), speed’s issues of services and Internet connection area within Malaysia.

E-Government is one of the indicators to show the success of a country. To achieve our vision 2020, E-Government is playing an important role.