Internet Rife With Fraud


NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/10/06 -- Seventy percent of the
visitors to Sherlock Investigations' web site
(www.sherlockinvestigations.com) use search terms that mention some
form of Internet fraud. The majority comes from people who have
purchased something on eBay and never received the item.


"Most of the high-end brand merchandise such as purses, watches, and
other jewelry sold on eBay is counterfeit," according to Skipp
Porteous, president of Sherlock Investigations in New York City. "We
get calls and email all the time from people who have lost $150 or
more on eBay auctions. All we can do is tell them that they're lucky
they didn't lose any more than that." Investigating anonymous sellers
takes a lot of time and effort, so a loss of only $150 is not worth
the fee Sherlock Investigations charges.


One of the popular ways eBay fraud is perpetuated is that a seller
might offer an item such as a Chanel watch, or a Louis Vuitton bag. No
matter how hard one tries, it's impossible to place a winning bid on
the item. That's because the seller is bidding against everyone else
using an automatic sniping program to get the bid up to astronomical
levels.


The next day, the seller contacts some of the losing bidders and
concocts a story, such as the winning bidder backed out, or that they
have an identical item available for sale. They'll even mention, "You
know what the item went for yesterday, so make me a reasonable offer
and I'll send it to you."


The rule here is never make a deal with the seller outside of eBay.
With eBay, a credit card, or PayPal, you have some amount of
protection. Another Porteous eBay rule is, "Never spend more than you
can afford to lose."


Then there are people who are taken in by a professional-looking web
site from some Wall Street investment firm. They usually know that
they're taking a chance, so they'll just invest a couple of thousand
dollars. In a month or two, the firm gives them back three thousand.
Now, they take the big leap and invest $100,000. Of course, when they
go to cash-in, the firm has disappeared.


Fortunately for their clients, Sherlock Investigations recovers
thousands of dollars for victims of Internet fraud. "Sometimes we even
bring in the FBI," Porteous says.