shaw capital management:Internet sales scams lead list of complaints to IC3: Plain Dealing

There were some strange online scams in 2010.
Like this one: Consumers complained their cell and landline phones were bombarded with nuisance calls (dead air, recorded messages) to the point changed their phone number. The scam was tracked to con artists who accesessed victims’ financial and brokerage accounts and then used the calls to victims’ phones to block financial institutions from checking with victims to verify online requests to change phone numbers or addresses on the accounts.
That peek at emerging scams was included in the Internet Computer Crime Center’s latest report of internet crimes. IC3 collects consumer complaints about internet scams, analyzes them and alerts local, state and federal agencies.
The crimes that drained consumers’ wallets in 2010 often involved failure to pay for or deliver merchandise sold or bought online, identity theft, auction fraud and credit card fraud.
Consumers ran into fake rentals online. They got collection calls for payday loans taken out with their Social Security numbers – by someone else.
And, of course, there were plenty of fake check scams, online rental scams and phony pleas for help from friends allegedly trapped overseas.
Online fraud is an equal opportunity crime.
IC3 said victims of online scams are as likely to be men as they are women. And victims also are split fairly evenly across generations.
As for the country where scams against Americans are most likely to originate: the U.S.A is number one.