Protect Yourself From Internet Fraud

 

When conducting business online you should take precautions to help prevent being a victim of online fraud.

 I have gone over some internet scams in other blogs that readers should watch out for but there are additional business-ended steps you can take to further protect yourself.

Research a company or product before you invest in it. 

     1. If there are contracts involved you may want to have an attorney or accountant look them over. On  the other end, if you need to draw up a contract you can do so fairly cheaply online at places like Legal Zoom.

      2. If the company has a support center you should email them to see if the response is automated and how quickly it is answered. 

      3. Ask for proof of earnings. A profitable company will have no problems showing you their financial reports. 

      4. Make sure company policies clearly stated on their site. There should always be a privacy policy and return policy if the company is selling a product.

       5. Is the transaction taking place over a secure site? Is it being processed by a well known company such as paypal or clickbank or does it have a https:// instead of an http:// when you go to check out? note: the "s" means it is secure

Protecting Yourself from being a victim.

      1. Keep your passwords private

      2. Trust your gut feeling. If it seems like a scam, it probably is. 

      3. Ask your credit card company about "single use" credit cards. These allow you to use your card without putting your real account number online

      4. Keep records of your transactions in case you have to dispute them

      5. Know that you have a legal right to dispute charges for goods and services if you can prove that you either never ordered them or never received them.

If you think that you've been the victim of a fraud scheme that involved the Internet, you can file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.