How to Avoid Online Piracy

Many Online Losses Are Self Inflected

"I'll make sure your site is shut down; permanently" Irene Callaway screamed into the phone before slamming it down.

Has Irene Callaway just become an Internet statistic? It is estimated that consumers lost over $125 million to online scams last year and complaints are up by 60% in the past two year. There are a lot of dot cons out there.

Irene Callaway is a very unlikely victim. She is college educated, very intelligent and a seasoned Executive with Citi-Bank. This is not the first time she has made an online purchase. It is the first time that she has attempted to return the merchandise she purchased.

The biggest drawback to shopping on the Internet is that it's physically impossible to examine items you are purchasing. Unless it's an item that has been purchased before, the buyer must rely on the descriptive abilities of the seller. If the seller omits an aspect that is very important to the buyer, the omission can only be found after a delivery has been accepted. At that point, it maybe too late.

The Problem Is Scanning Everything

In the case of Irene Callaway, she neglected to read the seller's return policy. She also, indicated that she agreed with everything in the Term Of Service (TOS) by checking the "I Agree" button on the order page. What she did, is what most of us do in the excitement after making the decision to purchase.

Nobody wants to spend 5-10 minutes reading legalized language before ordering. This, believe it or not, is the largest source of what is reported as "scams" on the Internet. In fact, many sellers realize that most buyers never read the TOS so they literally write the rulebook that binds the relationship.

What Can We Learn?

We can all learn from Irene's experience, first we should know that we never commit our credit card to a site before reading the Terms of Service. Scan the TOS, time spent at this point is miniscule compared to the time you may have to spend trying to cancel the order. Save yourself some time by NOT reading all the legal mumbo-jumbo and knowing the questions that you need answered.

· What is the Company's return policy?