Consumer Reports: 1 in 4 New Yorkers shopping online ripped off
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[October 01, 2008]

Consumer Reports: 1 in 4 New Yorkers shopping online ripped off

(amNewYork Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 1--If you've purchased an item online and never received it, you're not alone in being duped.

One in four New Yorkers who have ever used an on-line auction site report being scammed, a survey released Tuesday found.

"Con artists, rip-off specialists and sophisticated criminals can catch you at every step of the process, from bidding to payment to shipment," said Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Reports WebWatch, which released the findings.



About 27 percent of New York state residents who used sites such as eBay, Amazon.com and Overstock were victims of a scam or some sort of deceptive practice, making online auction fraud the Internet-related complaint most often lodged with state and federal officials, Consumer Reports found.

"eBay kind of takes a hit because they're the largest site," Brendler said.



The most common charge people make is never receiving the items they paid for, according to the survey. Other complaints include goods that arrived in worse condition than advertised or a seller sending an item of lesser value.

Collectibles are some of the easiest items to forge, making them one of the more popular scams on auction sites, Brendler said. Laptop, digital camera memory sticks and bootleg videos are other common counterfeit items being sold.

Once scammed, many survey participants said they tried to resolve the problem directly with the seller. Others filed a formal complaint with PayPal or left negative feedback for the seller, according to the study.

Few people contacted law enforcement, a lawyer or a government agency, a finding Brendler said was possibly due to the complexity of on-line auctioning

To see more of amNewYork, go to http://www.amny.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, amNewYork, New York
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Discussions:
I find it interesting that the size of the survey is not mentioned yet the clain of 1 in 4 is. since as this report states 'Few people contacted law enforcement' then this report must be based on a survey and since it is unlikely that the entire state of New York was surveyed successfully then I would have to doubt the acuaracy of this report.
 
By Jacob
10/2/2008 1:44:33 PM
Iternet fraud is out there but 1 in 4 sounds like a bit of an exageration.
http://www.rexxsales.com
 
10/2/2008 1:53:45 PM
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