ADULT WEB TINIEST IN NET FRAUD: REPORT

Consumers may lose millions to Internet fraud, but only a tiny percentage of that can be laid at the adult Web's feet. According to Internet Fraud Watch (www.fraud.org), the adult Internet accounted for less than 1 percent of top ten 1999 cases of Internet fraud. What was the largest percentage among the top ten? Online auctions, according to IFW.

The adult Net came in at a sixth place tie among the top ten frauds of 1999 - but its percentage came in at .2 percent, according to the IFW chart. Online auctions, by contrast, came in tops with a whopping 87 percent of online frauds. That was a jump from 68 percent in 1998.

The National Consumers League, which sponsors the IFW, says consumers lost over $3.2 million to cyberfraud in 1999, based on incidents reported to the IFW. That's still a 38 percent hike over 1998, the IFW says. "Many consumers shop online and have good experiences," says IFW director Susan Grant, "but the increases we've seen in both the number of complaints and the amounts of money lost point to the need for more consumer protection and increased education."

By comparison, the second top online fraud, general merchandise, accounted for a mere 7 percent of 1999's cyberfraud. Internet access services placed third with 2 percent, computer equipment and software came in fourth at 1.3 percent, and work-at-home fraud was fifth at .9 percent. Advance fee loans, magazines, and adult services each held .2 percent, while travel and vacations and pyramid schemes or multilevel marketing came in at .1 percent each.

"Despite the fact that auction complaints are number one," Grant says, "we are seeing even higher losses per consumer to other Internet frauds such as general merchandise and computer hardware or software purchases."

Consumers lost an average of $580 per person to online purchases of computer equipment or software and $465 to general merchandise sales, IFW says, including anything from jewelry to T-shirts not bought by auction. The average online auction loss, by contrast, was about $293, IFW says.

IFW also says those who did lose paid overwhelmingly by check or money order, thus giving up rights they'd have had if they used credit cards - but credit cards accounted for only three percent of the online auction losses in question, IFW says. "(p)erhaps because many consumers are not able to pay with a credit card on online auctions."

Grant says credit cards are the safest way to shop online. "Federal law protects credit card users if they don't get what they were promised or if unauthorized charges are made on their accounts."