Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON -- State and federal officials are cracking down on online-auction fraud, with arrests to be announced in several states Wednesday and lawsuits against alleged con artists preying on eBay and other sites.</p> <p>The effort by the Federal Trade Commission and more than two dozen state attorneys general is intended to fight what officials say is a rising tide of Internet fraud. Law-enforcement officials say that more than 48,000 online-fraud referrals were made to state and federal agencies last year, triple the number in 2001. Nearly half of them involved online-auction fraud, according to a study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.</p>

eBay Auction Fraud Spawns Vigilantism Trend By Ina Steiner October 12, 2002Vigilante: One who takes or advocates the taking of law enforcement into one's own hands A new trend has emerged in online auctions: vigilantism. People are banding together to report auction fraud and are coordinating their efforts in contacting law enforcement officials. Our story begins with Mark, the high bidder on an auction for a Toshiba Protege 2000 laptop computer on eBay. On August 10, 2002, Mark says he sent a cashier's check for $1,485 to eBay seller Tech-Surplus. By September 1, after corresponding with the seller several times,...