Group Aims To Outflank Cybercrooks Consumers League Offers Pointers For Avoiding Scams

The National Consumers League, saying its Internet fraud reports tripled in the last year, unveiled new Web pages to arm consumers against cybercrooks and warned them of the 10 most-used scams.

Susan Grant, the league’s Internet Fraud Watch director, said Wednesday that nearly 100 scam complaints a month have been received so far this year, compared to 389 for all of 1996. They range in size from $10 to $10,000.

“Cybercrooks are in your pocketbooks with a click of the mouse,” league President Linda Golodny told reporters during a conference call.

“It’s like a giant yard sale in cyberspace,” Grant said. “Consumers purchase a variety of items that are advertised online, but they don’t always get what they bargained for.”

The league officials said the most common signs of fraud are extravagant promises of profits, guarantees of credit regardless of bad credit history, suspiciously low prices or prizes that require up-front payments.

The fraud reports are turned over to more than 150 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, including the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI, state attorneys general and police departments.

“It’s one more tool in our kit” to enforce the law, said Hugh Stevenson, assistant director of the FTC Division of Marketing Practices.

The league said Internet use is projected to grow 60 percent this year.

The 10 most frequent fraud reports involve: undelivered Internet and online services; damaged, defective, misrepresented or undelivered merchandise; auction sales; pyramids and multilevel marketing; misrepresented cyberspace business opportunities and franchises; work-at-home schemes; prizes and sweepstakes; credit card offers; books and other self-help guides; and magazine subscriptions.

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