Many teenagers go through a phase where they lose whatever faith they had in their parents. Scott Greenleaf of Kapa`a has made that common rite of passage a little more difficult for his 16-year-old son Rhyan. Rhyan purchased some speakers
Many teenagers go through a phase where they lose whatever faith they had in their parents.
Scott Greenleaf of Kapa`a has made that common rite of passage a little more difficult for his 16-year-old son Rhyan.
Rhyan purchased some speakers on the Internet, via eBay, the Internet auction site, in April for $250. The problem was, the seller, a Georgia youth, was evidently scamming. He got Rhyan’s money, but the local youth never got the speakers.
According to Scott Greenleaf, it all started when his son went on the Internet seeking car speakers. Within days, Rhyan received an e-mail from someone in Columbus, Ga. claiming he had brand-new 12-inch kicker solobaric speakers for sale for $225 plus $25 shipping costs.
Rhyan wanted them.
Scott said he told his son to register his $250 payment check so the Greenleafs knew that the Georgia seller received the check.
But the car speakers never came.
What then ensued was a series of e-mails to Georgia.
Rhyan began the correspondence, politely seeking his new speakers, his father said. But when Rhyan received nothing but the e-mail run-around from the Deep South, Scott Greenleaf politely and then formally sought his son’s money back.
When replies from the Georgia youth grew more truculent, Greenleaf got first a local lawyer and then the Kaua`i Police involved.
On June 14, Scott Greenleaf informed the bogus Internet salesman that their correspondence was over.
“I reported you to eBay security and filed a complaint with the police department…This is my last e-mail. Any further communications will be through the proper authorities,” Greenleaf wrote.
He said that with the help of the Kaua`i Police, who contacted police in the seller’s jurisdiction, he finally received a check for $250.
Because of where the check came from – the Georgia courts – Scott assumed the seller with no wares had become enmeshed in the legal system.
“Bottom-line, my son should not have conducted the sale outside of eBay. Since they had nothing to do with the actual sale, they could do nothing about it, ” the elder Greenleaf stated.
But Grenleaf said he wanted to warn others.
And troubles similar to Rhyan’s can be easily avoided by remembering the old maxim: Let the buyer beware.
The Internet is awash with scams, and it isn’t regulated like local merchants.
The Gartner Group, an Internet research firm, has reported that “criminals in the U.S. can exploit the Internet with little fear of being caught, as law enforcement agencies receive little funding to address cyber crime.” Gartner’s research showed that almost all (97 percent) of law enforcement funding for computer-related crimes is spent on 300 federal officers.
Although cybercrime funding is expected to encompass less than 2 percent of the country’s total law enforcement budget for the next decade, fraud and other crime is predicted by experts to increase by 1,000 percent.
McConnell International has reported that 33 of 52 First World countries surveyed had no federal laws to deal with cybercrime.
Only one country, the Philippines, has extended its laws to deal with all types of cybercrime, including data theft, unauthorized access, computer-related fraud and virus dissemination.
The Philippines development of cybercrime legislation followed its inability to prosecute the student responsible for the Love Bug virus in 1999.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and [dwilken@pulitzer.net]
