Ripped Off Online? 10 Steps That'll Get You Results
Let me preface this week's Bulletin by saying that most online businesses are honest and strive hard to provide the goods and or services that the electronic buying public requests and pays for. This self-regulation occurs for two reasons: a) most people/businesses are honest to begin with and b)word of mouth online occurs at lightning speed. Unfortunately, there is always someone out there with a scam and sooner or later, most people purchasing online will run into one of these shady businesses.
Our experience in investigating online fraud has led us to prepare the below checklist of 10 step to take if you are a victim of an online scam:
1. Gather as much information (name, address, phone numbers, domain names..) about the dishonest party as you can.
2. Put your complaint in writing. Be accurate and concise. Also, think of possible excuses the offending business may try to counter with and be prepared to argue these truth revisionisms.
3. Put the dishonest party on notice that you intend to take action against them if they do not resolve the problem fairly and to your satisfaction. It may take several rounds of talks before they come around to understanding that it might be better to simply solve the issue with you and avoid more intense scrutiny. If that fails, we go to the next very nasty steps.
4. File an online compliant with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): www.ic3.gov. and click on the "File a Complaint" link to fill out an online form. IC3 was formed, in partnership with the FBI, specifically to combat internet fraud.
5. File a complaint with the Internet Fraud Watch on their website www.fraud.org. The Internet Fraud Watch was created by the National Consumers League, the oldest nonprofit consumer organization in the United States.
6. File you next complaint with the Better Business Bureau OnLine website: www.bbbonline.org . BBBOnLine specifically deals with web commerce complaints. The BBB contacts the business involved in the dispute to determine if the dispute can be amicably resolved. A huge file of complaints with the BBB will cut into the business' profits.
7. Google the Attorney General's Office of the state in which the dishonest party operates. File a complaint. Criminal charges may be brought against the business if fraud is involved.
8. On the Allwhois website: www.allwhois.com and look up the dishonest party's domain name and web host. Inform the web host of your issue with the dishonest business and advise them that if they continue to provide hosting services to this party, they themselves can be named as an accomplice to criminal activity.
9. If the shady company has their own servers and do not use a web hosting service, contact the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) website: www.icann.org. ICANN is the organization that has responsibility for Internet address space allocation. Inquire as to how to remove the dishonest business from the web.
10. If the dishonest party is still operating, contact their advertisers. Advertisers are not given to spending their marketing budget to receive complaints from disgruntled, ripped-off customers. If the advertiser takes an aggressive posture against your complaint, advise them also that if they continue to do business with the scamming party, they too can be charged as accomplices in a criminal action.
(This week's sixty-second text video lists additional potentially helpful government fraud watch agencies.)
The above steps are tough measures, but they should get your internet fraud situation resolved and hopefully, it'll be a one-time occurrence.
BNI Investigators: Street smart: Web savvy.
Be safe,
Lina
Labels: address, allwhois, attorney general, better business bureau, complaint, fbi, ic3, icann, internet fraud
