scam

Sometimes online love is even more blind than the real thing.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a 48-year-old man from Naperville, Ill., had been in an online relationship with a woman for two-and-a-half years.

You might wonder why they had not consummated their relationship, by, say, meeting. But some feel the virtual world is, for them, enough.

Regardless, last Wednesday the man reportedly called police because he believed his online love was in serious trouble--he was convinced she'd been kidnapped in London.

Clearly, this seemed like a serious matter. The man reportedly provided the police with a copy of … Read more

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Groupon and FTD get caught allegedly selling flowers for twice the price in a Valentine's Day deal scam

Sony makes the PlayStation phone official. It's called the Sony Xperia Play

Sony also launches the Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro

LG unveils the Optimus 3D, a smartphone that can capture and play 3D content

Research In Motion announces plans for LTE and HSPA+ editions of the BlackBerry PlayBook

Pandora files for an initial public offering

Bank of America may have had a security breach over the weekend

Google launches a site to … Read more

If you tend to fall for Facebook posts like "Lose 18 pounds now!" or "WTF I can't believe this picture of you is online!" I can't help you. But if you'd like to secure your Facebook sessions from hackers and spies, you're in luck.

Facebook is now rolling out a new security feature that enables HTTPS encryption throughout your Facebook session. This long-awaited feature, which encrypts data transferred during Facebook sessions, is designed to prevent attackers from compromising users' accounts.

Here's how to enable it:

Until now, the only way to … Read more

Hard times seem to make people more vulnerable to ploys designed to separate them from their money and personal information. At least half of BBB Online's list of the Top 10 scams of 2010 occur in whole or in part over the Internet.

The best way to avoid being victimized by scammers is to be very careful about who you trust. Here are five ways to protect yourself from attacks on your bank accounts and private data.

Don't pay upfront One thing several recent scams have in common is a request by the scammer for you to pay … Read more

commentary During one of the busiest online shopping periods of the year, legislation that protects online shoppers from being preyed upon by unscrupulous marketers and Internet retailers could become law soon.

A bill called the "Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act" was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week and should soon hit the desk of President Barack Obama.

The legislation is designed to stop a practice made infamous by three marketing firms: Webloyalty, Vertrue, and Affinion. These companies presented ads for membership programs to consumers just as they were completing transactions at Web stores. The … Read more

The bad guys have created yet another online scam, this one involving fake Amazon receipts.

Targeting Amazon and its retail partners, cybercriminals are using a phony Amazon receipt generator to print bogus receipts, and then are asking for refunds from the retailer, claiming that the items they ordered were never received.

Reportedly discovered by security vendor GFI Software, this scam comes at an especially bad time, as online retailers are dealing with the onslaught of the holiday season.

"The free program available online allows scammers to create an HTML 'receipt' for phantom Amazon.com purchases," Christopher Boyd, senior … Read more

Legislation that makes it illegal for Web merchants and so-called post-transaction marketers to charge credit cards without the card owners' say-so came closer to becoming law this week.

A bill known as the "Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act" passed on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate. The law will make it illegal to use "misleading post-transaction advertisements" and require marketers to clearly disclose the terms of their offers. Merchants and marketers must now "obtain billing information, including full credit or debit card numbers," directly from card holders. The legislation was the government's answer … Read more

With a new survey finding that half of the people polled plan to shop online for the holidays, security company Webroot offers some tips and tricks for staying safe in cyberspace.

Among the more than 2,660 consumers surveyed in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia by Webroot, 55 percent said they do plan to buy at least half of their holiday gifts online, a rise from 38 percent last year. But some of those people also plan to use search engines and public Wi-Fi to purchase those presents, activities that Webroot says could put buyers at risk.… Read more

Persistent high levels of unemployment affect everyone, whether you've been jobless for months or are happily and securely employed but worry about the dwindling prospects for out-of-work friends and loved ones. Plenty of Web sites offer to help people find a new or better job. The challenge is distinguishing the legitimate online employment services from the many job scams cluttering the Web.

The preliminaries: Cover letters and resumes Job-search counselors highlight the importance of well-crafted resumes and cover letters. Jobweb offers plenty of resume advice geared mostly to recent college graduates but applicable for nearly every job seeker. It … Read more