Things to prevent e-auction fraud when consumer participating in e-auction activities

Have you ever made a purchase or sold anything on an online auction? Is it secure to transact in this way? Not quite, if you are not aware of some loopholes that a clever scammer has in store to cheat you. But if you are aware of how to prevent yourself from being cheated, you can enjoy online auctions, just as much. Let’s tell you how.

Here is what is in your power to prevent online auction fraud:

• Be aware of phishing. Verify that you are receiving emails from the correct source and that you are logging in at the correct website.
• When making payment, prefer using your credit card over online transfer. Using a credit card give you the opportunity of a charge back in case the transaction turns out a fraud. Use debit card, wire transfer, or money order only when you completely trust the seller.
• Use reputed escrow services. An escrow service mediates a buyer and a seller. They accept money from buyers and release them to a seller only when the buyer confirms that the product was received to his/her satisfaction. But be wary of sellers or buyers who themselves pose as an escrow service to cheat the other—a buyer posing as an escrow service gets a product released without making payment, or a seller poses as an escrow service to trick the buyer from making a payment.
• DO NOT entertain emails received from outside of the auction website mentioning that the highest bidder has withdrawn and you are now entitled for a product. They veer you off the auction website and you lose any protection that the website may provide.
• NEVER make a deal with a seller outside the auction. Although they sound lucrative, you are at a very high risk of being cheated.
• READ the auction website’s terms and conditions, buyer protection policy, refund policy before making a transaction. Here, they list in how many days the order will be fulfilled, what if the product you receive is not the same as what was advertised, and so on. Also check that the policies are fair on both buyers and sellers.
• Check if the product you are purchasing has appropriate warranty and documentation with it. If not, make sure that you intend to purchase it without that protection. Check if shipping and delivery is covered by the seller or if you have to bear those costs.
• Check that you are not purchasing a product that you are not allowed to possess lawfully.
• BE WARY of products that offer revolutionary results. In most cases, they are fraudulent claims.
• DO NOT respond to emails that ask for your personal information, such as your log in details or credit card details.
• READ the online auction website for feedback on the seller and a rating that they give to sellers and buyers. Most online auctions rate the sellers and buyers based on their transactions’ feedback.
• READ the product features and the model number that you intend to purchase. Verify these with what is being advertised by the seller.
• When giving your credit card details or your debit account details at a website, check that the Internet connection you are using is secure. Look for the lock at the bottom or https (an‘s’ appended to ‘http’) in the address field of your browser. These indicate that the connection is a secure one.
• Avoid making a transaction if anything in the auction seems suspicious to you.
• If you are cheated on any product purchase, be sure to post a note on the online auction website and let them know personally.

Review on Local E-Commerce Site - Flowers.com.my

Flowers.com.my is a local site where you can purchase wonderful flowers and gifts for any occasions and send them to your loved ones or even to your family and so on. This website is a fully owned subsidy of CARI Internet Sdn Bhd and began active operations in the year 1999.

To provide a convenient way for people to purchase flowers and gifts, the founder decided to start as an online florist instead of having a shop first. Since inception, flowers.com.my has experienced tremendous growth in the process, they have since successfully established a network of over 60 florists throughout Malaysia with the trustworthy relationship to ensure quality of their suppliers and delivery channels. Now, they have their first retail shop in Kelana Jaya and more to come.

With no doubt, the products available in this site are bouquets, flowers arrangements, hampers, gift baskets and many other specialties utilizing imported flowers to produce truly unique gifts. Flowers.com.my helps customers to convey their messages and thoughts to their loved ones, friends & associates to commemorate momentous occasions such as new-born, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations and business openings and even for condolences.

This website has a simple layout and yet warmth design. It has a good navigation which will bring customers to the respective pages when they click on the link or items they wish to get accessed. There is no search engine in this site but it provides a list of events with breakdowns for customers to select types of flowers and gifts they wish to order for different types of events.

Once they click on the particular event, images of products will be displayed in the page with the names and prices. If they wish to order certain product, they can click on the image or product name for descriptions and add it into the shopping cart.

Products can be ordered from this site and shipments will be done with different shipment charges according to the locations of recipients. Payments can be made using Mastercard and Visa credit card payments through flowers.com.my's partner payment gateway provider "Commerce Payment Sdn Bhd". Maybank, Mobile Money and Paypal are the alternatives for customers to make their payments.

It is a secure site to make orders because customers' information is not visible for third parties and it is highly protected. Before the products are being charged and sent, customers need to log in with their respective accounts and passwords in this site for verification of information. Once this is done, orders will be confirmed and shipments will be done in a few days time.

But, there are some disadvantages. I found out that the choices of products are not in great variety and thus customers may not be able to choose products which they really want. Futhermore, they can only look at the description but not the real image of the flowers or gifts. As compared to a brick-and mortal florist, customers can check whether the flowers are fresh, how do they smell, what colors they like, types of wrapping they prefer and so on.

Seasonal conditions may affect the supply of certain kind of flowers and specific colors may not always be available. But arrangements will be made by this online florist and will always fulfill customers' needs.

Anyway, it is a recommended site for those who wish to send their wishes and gifts to someone far from them with the help of this site. I'm sure that the one who receives these from their loved ones or someone else will feel extremely surprised and touched.

To visit this site, go to www.flowers.com.my

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals। Corporate blog has become a new marketing communication tool for companies. Corporate blog has divided into three types and there are internal blogs, external blogs, and CEO blogs. Thus, all current browseers which include Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 enable readers to read the recent posts easily without truly visit the blog through supporter of RSS technology.

One of the successful blogs is Amazon Web Services Blog by Amazon।com that about Amazon web services, products, tools and developer information। It helps to improve the communication and its customer services, attract more people to consume and discuss new products online।

A corporate blog can be:

• A tool that helps the organization achieve a business goal-Redeploying scare resource just to have a blog makes no sense if there is no business case for one।
• A useful extension of the company image in the marketplace। It is however no substitute for bad products or lack of commitment to customers.
• An opportunity to open a two-way channel between employees and customers।

Corporate blogs are not only interesting and useful, they are also helping the companies hat author them develop a totally new relationship with their customers। In some cases, the blogs have helped the company move the needle in reputation, cute and thus purchase consideration.

References:

http://specgirlz.blogspot.com/2009/02/corporate-blogging-new-marketing.html
http://www.internetviz-newsletters.com/bulldog/e_article000404957.cfm
http://ecommercesite.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/corporate-blogging-a-new-marketing-tool-for-companies/
http://38blog123.blogspot.com/2008/07/corporate-blogging-new-marketing.html
http://ecomspace.blogspot.com/2008/06/corporate-blogging-new-marketing.html