CYBER SWINDLERS FACE JAIL IN BID TO MAKE NET SHOPPING SAFER....... Some Info you need to know.....

Rogue Internet traders face prison sentences as the Government plans to make Britain the worlds' safest place for on-line home shopping.

Companies or individuals will be struck off the web if found repeatedly guilty of ripping off the UK's growing numbers of internet shoppers. The measures, in a forthcoming White Paper, include the use of injunctions against dishonest operators and a blacklist of banned sites. Individuals also risk two years in jail.

The move is announced as a Consumers' Association survey reveals that 60% of British shoppers are scared of using the Internet because they think their personal details will be exploited by crooked on-line traders.  Consumer Affairs Minister Doctor Kim Howells is determined to stem the tide of cyberspace crime in the UK, which has rocketed by almost 600 per cent in the last year. He said: "Internet scams have no place in modern Britain. It is important that legitimate businesses are not burdened, but equally crucial that we remove the rogues who provide unfair competition."

The £450million home shopping market is expanding rapidly as Internet traders seek to entice the 80,000 new users who come on-line every day.  The Government crackdown is being developed in conjunction with a European directive on website commerce. This will allow British shoppers to obtain compensation of up to £5,000 after buying shoddy goods from companies operating outside the UK. At the moment shoppers can only win redress from on-line companies who operate solely in Britain.

Popular scams include credit card fraud, the sale of goods that are inferior to those advertised and, in some cases, the failure of the product to arrive after it has been paid for.

Until now, prosecution of on-line offenders has been difficult because criminals can abandon an illegal website in just 10 seconds. This has made it almost impossible for them to be tracked down.... but by alerting the website providers and drawing up a blacklist of codes used by offenders, ministers hope this will prevent them from operating within Europe again. The Consumers' Association said the best way Internet shoppers can protect themselves from unscrupulous traders is to buy ONLY from official sites or those belonging to high street brands. The Bank Of England and the Financial Services Authority have set up teams of investigators who browse cyberspace looking for unlicensed deposit takers and fraudsters. Yet no prosecutions have been recorded in Britain, despite the existence of 100,000 commercial websites. Baroness Wilcox, chairwoman of the all-party select committee on consumer affairs, said: "The Internet is in a terrible state. It's so new that as yet we have no way to control it; this regulation is desperately needed."

Cyberspace rogues use a number of tricks to avoid detection. The most common is where crooks take advantage of free Internet access packages and within minutes set up a website offering fictitious bargains.

A Department of Trade and Industry spokeman said: "The laws need to be as tight as if someone was shopping at a supermarket. We want to make home shopping safer."

COMMENT: Good news for on-line shoppers.... It would be good to see similar steps taken against the lowlifes that trash our Internet with pornography.... hopefully it is just a matter of time.

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24/03/01