Avoiding online fraud when buying and selling virtual goods
klancy kennedy
Education :: College and University
Landline: If the other party has a landline telephone, it will be listed in the telephone book along with their address. 411.com allows you to do a reverse search to get the matching name and address from any listed telephone number in the US or Canada. Call the phone number to verify that they are at that number. These steps prevent people from using disposable cellphones which can not be traced, and also provides you with a verified address. Anyone with fraudulent intentions will not avoid providing you with information to authenticate their true location or identity because that enables you to successfully prosecute them.
Mail: If they only have a cellphone, then send them a letter via postal service. Include a code in the letter for them to email back to you. Emailing you the code provides proof of address. It is a federal offense to obtain mail from a mailbox that belongs to another person. Even if they set up a forwarding address, the post office will have a record of who they are and where the mail was forwarded to. If doing a large transaction, it might be worth a few extra dollars to order certified mail, which requires a signature.
Photo ID: If they have a scanner or digital camera, they can send you a picture of their driver's license, which will be faster than US mail, and will provide you with a confirmed address. If they commit fraud, you can obtain their whereabouts via the Department of Motor Vehicles.
If authenticating by phone, ask for the name provided by the payment service which was used to send payment. Sometimes, children obtain a parent's credit card or password to their paypal account. However, children also will hand the phone directly to their parents when someone calls for their parent and does not provide any other information. If asked what the call is concerning, just state that it is important and confidential.
Identify that you are calling regarding their transaction, identify what it was and the amount. If they confirm that they authorized the transaction, then you should proceed to the next step. If they have no idea what you are talking about, they may have been hacked by either family, friends, or a complete stranger. Recommend that they begin locking their computer and also install virus protection. Let them know that someone is using their account and that they will need to update all of their passwords to stay safe.
The next part of this article deals with protecting yourself. A common fraudulent practice is to pay for goods or services via paypal, and then claim that they were never provided, or that the paypal account was used without authorization.
Exchange email with every customer. Chat sessions on AIM or other methods of communication do not create a record that can be traced back to their computer.
Email contains the IP address of their connection to the internet, and a timestamp. The IP address by itself can provide you with their geographical location.
Outlook Express instructions:
Select the message you want to investigate.
Right click.
Select Properties.
Select the Details tab at the top of the message window.
Now you are able to view the source code of the message.
Look for the last block of text that looks like
Received from [67.133.144.53]
That is their IP address. Save it for the next step.
It is necessary to keep the email because the timestamp can be used by their Internet Service Provider to determine their subscriber account and exact identity. This is useful for prosecution. If defrauded, copy/paste the information you're looking at and send it to the payment processor. It will help them know if it's the real user. If it is, then their claim to have money refunded will be denied.
To get their location from their IP address, use a free IP information test from dnsstuff.com or network-tools.com
If you run the IP address shown earlier, you get Mt Pleasant, Michigan. If the customer says they're in Utah, and their IP address says they are not, you know they are lying.
NOTE: Buyers will pay you more if they can buy in confidence. That requires THEM to verify YOU. If any buyer questions your legitimacy, have them verify you by using the same methods. Don't put contact information in your auction pages though... that can be used by gaming companies to identify and ban your account for trading.
A good security guide addresses what to do and what NOT to do. Here is what NOT to do when selling your world of warcraft account.
To verify ownership and quality, the most common practice is to request a character profile link or an ingame face to face meeting so that the buyer can run an inspection command to verify worn equipment. A lot of buyers and sellers will have a chat session over an instant messenger to develop a good feeling of trust between each other. This is also the favorite method of scammers to gain your trust. Do not trust someone because they had a chat session with you, and don't trust the profile link until you have verified ownership. (It may not even be their account.)
Many sellers are reluctant to provide links to profiles such as a wow armory profile because they fear reprisal from game companies. Ingame inspections are difficult to schedule because you and the other person may live in different timezones. The solution is to have them send you (or a friend of yours) a mail message in the game. Doing so verifies their server and name. Now you can go look them up in the public armory if your game has one! All the benefits of a face to face inspection with no scheduling conflicts.
It is highly beneficial to have a trusted third party involved in the transaction. The third party holds the money from the buyer until transfer of assets is confirmed. This protects both the buyer and the seller. There are few providers of 'middleman' services. The easiest way to find someone to perform this fuction is to look at account selling websites for people that are already reselling accounts. They will request a small fee.
PAYPAL
If a person has low trading feedback history or you can not verify them, do NOT accept paypal. Have them pay you safely with moneybookers.com, USPS money order, or Western Union. Paypal can be reversed quickly and easily, hackers and scammers love it! Be sure to verify them as well, nomatter what. The majority of paypal fraud is from 'paypal verified' accounts.
SAFE BUYING PRACTICES
Get an account to account transfer. This is the safest method of purchasing an account because you know you are getting full information and the characters or account can not be recalled safely. Both accounts will simply get banned if the situation is brought to the attention of the game company. Crime doesn't pay, so there's no reason to try it.
Paypal allows you to reverse payments for up to 20 days if you have a dispute with the seller that you paid. Paypal usually requires them to provide proof of delivery. Because of this, paypal is pretty safe. As a buyer, you want to avoid sending a moneyorder because you receive NO buyer protection.
For the greatest security, use your credit card to fund a paypal transaction. To do this, the seller must log into paypal and send you a "money request". Credit card companies can get your money returned up to a full year later if you have a problem or dispute. It's not as easy as filing a paypal dispute, but credit companies employ the best lawyers to deter fraud. Not only will you get your money back, the seller will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
After clicking on the link to begin payment, you will be taken to a paypal page. Scroll down. At the bottom of the page, you will see text that reads, "Don't have a Paypal account?" and you will see pictures of credit cards. Do not log into paypal, Just click on the continue button by the picture of the credit cards. Now you can pay with your credit card.
Do not make changes to account information. Game companies flag and review accounts that have information changed. Ask your seller to leave the registration information alone. Game companies may also review the accuracy of the information. Seymore Butts at 555-123-4567 is a bad idea. Many sellers will try to anonymize their information because they are afraid you will try to sue them if you have problems with the account after the sale. Advise them to leave the information alone. Change the password, change the email address, leave the rest. For warcraft accounts, the seller will receive an email with a link to click on when you request an email change. After the email is changed, it will not be too easy for them to recover the password after you have changed it. It is safest to pay for playtime on an account by using game cards. Using a credit card is not a good idea.
About Author:
Klancy Kennedy
professional reseller of virtual goods, 4 years experience.
buy
and sell world of warcraft accounts
Source: Arkilite.com Education