ONLINE GUY: Those aren't elves, they're crooks! Surf warily while hunting holiday gifts - Business

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Nov. 28, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ONLINE GUY: Those aren't elves, they're crooks! Surf warily while hunting holiday gifts

AL GIBES: The Online Guy
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I've included more online holiday shopping tips from Trend Midro in my TidBits blog. Stop by, take notes and leave a comments. We'll leave the lights on for ya.

There is no road map for the Internet, which makes it hard to tell the good guys from the bad, especially when all you're trying to do is save time and money by shopping online.

With some Internet watchdogs predicting up to 12 percent growth in online shopping this year, it's important to be extra vigilant when surfing for Santa's deals.

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"The problem with the Web is that it didn't come with any gestalt. (There is) nothing to let you know where you are on the Net," said David Perry, global director of education for Trend Micro, an Internet security software company with offices in Cupertino, Calif. "There is nothing to make you say 'Oh, I'm in a bad neighborhood.'"

Perry said people need to stay sharp while surfing the Net. "If you feel unsure about anything, go to another site. Stay away from unknown retailers and don't buy anything from anyone that approaches you with unsolicited e-mail, pop-ups or Web pages.

"Don't buy any wooden nickels. Most of these are all old scams, and most are really stupid. If someone tells you can buy a Rolex watch for $20, you can't. And if you bite, they may end up stealing all your money."

Perry has been following and trying to keep a step ahead of online scammers for more than 20 years, and he said the bad guys today are really bad. "The amount of criminal activity online has skyrocketed," Perry said. "Twenty years ago, there were three or four scams a month. That worked its way steadily upward to where there are 70,000 new pieces of malware every day.

The whole thing has been taken over by professional criminals. It's no longer a hacker in somebody's basement. Now it's the Russian mafia." He said a popular Web crime tool of today is a "key logger."

This is a piece of software planted on Web sites that capture a user's keystrokes, then relays personal information to the criminals. A recent example of this type of cybercrime is the "Italian Job" case.

"Bad guys in Russia broke into an Italian Web hosting agency and effected 10,000 Web sites," he said. "Over a weekend they grabbed information from 15,000 to 20,000 end users by planting key loggers."

Perry said he doesn't know of any notable scams for the holiday rush, but suspects smartphone shoppers may become targets. His safety tips for online holiday shoppers' safety includes:

• Use PayPal if shopping on eBay. "PayPal gives refunds if you don't get your goods, and it's safer than your credit card," Perry said.

• Don't be fooled by anything that promises something too good to be true.

• Look out for messages claiming you returned something and they are offering a refund. He said the bad guys may masquerade as the United Parcel Service, FedEx or even the Internal Revenue Service. "These people are bold. They will claim to be anyone."

• Get and use protection software. He's touting his company's TrendSecure (www.trendsecure.com), but there are others. This software checks for malware on your computer and rates the security of Web sites as you visit them.

Share your Internet story with me at agibes@reviewjournal.com.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Lori Ralin wrote on December 02, 2008 10:24 PM: Beware of giving out your email address in your auctions or anywhere online. Phishing is as common as spam. I did this and then I got a suspicious email that asked how much shipping was to New Jersey for a blouse. I thought- how odd- I said shipping was $4 for the whole US. As soon as I clicked to respond to the email, a page comes up that looks like the ebay signin page but the url doesn't even have the word "ebay" in it. Yikes! Someone totally copied the eBay messages yellow graphics and eBay graphics and it looked identical to eBay. Now I answer questions by going to "My eBay" directly on eBay.com. Hey don't buy any of this crazy stuff on eBay http://crazycraponebay.blogspot.com/ lol. Jen wrote on November 28, 2008 09:47 PM: Good for you Joe! Joe wrote on November 28, 2008 07:54 PM: "PayPal gives refunds if you don't get your goods, and it's safer than your credit card," Perry said. This is a total lie. This Perry guy is another "supposed expert" who doesn't have a clue and is just trying to act like a bigshot know-it-all. PayPal is worthless for refunding your money. They will even let someone become a member again if they have ripped you off. What does PayPal care if you don't get your goods as long as they get their cut? I had this happen to me. PayPal investigated and could do nothing. I had to do it myself. For free over the internet, I was able to track down the Ebay seller. I found her father's address and found out where she went to college. I sent the seller and here father a nice letter telling them of my intent to file a report with their local police as well take an ad out in the college newspaper describing he fraud. Five days later I had the money refunded to me. This was after two months of PayPal telling me they couldn't do anything. To make matters worse, Paypal then sent me an email saying the problem was solved. I told them that it was, but only becuase of me and that they were lazy. TimeRanger wrote on November 28, 2008 12:08 PM: Another thing to watch out for is the "work-from-home" scams, either as a "re-shipper" or envelope stuffer. Re-Shipping - you sign up with a "company" and agree to have goods shipped to your home, then consolidate several items into a single shipment to another location, usually overseas - the crooks email you a shipping label. The problems - 1) The goods that you are receiving have been purchased with stolen credit cards. 2) The shipping label is fraudulent. 3) The Export Invoice is incorrect, which can lead to a 5-year-Felony charge. 4) The crooks want to make their payments to you with a PayPal account...With a stolen credit card, and PayPal WILL come after you if you withdraw the money. Envelope stuffing - Sending checks or payments to individuals ... you receive a list of payees, and the checks to send to them - 1) The shipping account info that you are instructed to fill in on the shipping form is stolen or non-existant, and 2) The checks are Counterfeit.