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CNN Live At Daybreak

Government to Make Arrests Against Online Cons

Aired April 30, 2003 - 06:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little business buzz right now. Are you using eBay to sell your so-called treasures? Well, you may also be logging on to some trouble.
Susan Lisovicz live in New York with more on that.

Good morning -- Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

I guess the moral to this story is let the bidder be ware. You know nearly half of the complaints last year of the 48,000 complaints concerning Internet fraud were specifically about online auction fraud. Now federal and state officials are cracking down in that arena. "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that arrests will be made in several states today. The arrests target fake online escrow services as well as identity theft on action sites.

In the case of identity theft, the cons hijacked users' accounts from legitimate sites such as eBay and Yahoo! and start to run sales under the account owner's name. eBay is cooperating with authorities.

And I guess, Carol, you know where millions of dollars is being made legitimately, you'll always find scam artists who want in and that's -- and that is the case in this -- in this particular instance.

COSTELLO: And they're always so clever, aren't they?

LISOVICZ: They're so clever, but sometimes you have to wonder what are people thinking? Like if someone's saying mail cash to Western Union, you have to wonder why would somebody do that? But a lot of people have.

COSTELLO: Yes, well stop doing that people.

LISOVICZ: Exactly.

COSTELLO: A quick look at the futures -- Susan.

LISOVICZ: Flat to higher open. As you know, yesterday's stocks added to Monday's strong gains. One of the big catalysts was the surge in consumer confidence last month, biggest one-month gain since 1991. The Dow rose a third of a percent; the Nasdaq added two-thirds of a percent. Of course some encouraging corporate profit reports helped as well. Investors will probably be keeping an eye on Washington today because Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies on the economy before the House Financial Services Committee. And whatever Mr. Greenspan says is always...

COSTELLO: Yes.

LISOVICZ: ... of great interest to Wall Street.

COSTELLO: Well let's hope he says something good, something encouraging, at least.

LISOVICZ: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Susan Lisovicz, many thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 30, 2003 - 06:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little business buzz right now. Are you using eBay to sell your so-called treasures? Well, you may also be logging on to some trouble.
Susan Lisovicz live in New York with more on that.

Good morning -- Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

I guess the moral to this story is let the bidder be ware. You know nearly half of the complaints last year of the 48,000 complaints concerning Internet fraud were specifically about online auction fraud. Now federal and state officials are cracking down in that arena. "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that arrests will be made in several states today. The arrests target fake online escrow services as well as identity theft on action sites.

In the case of identity theft, the cons hijacked users' accounts from legitimate sites such as eBay and Yahoo! and start to run sales under the account owner's name. eBay is cooperating with authorities.

And I guess, Carol, you know where millions of dollars is being made legitimately, you'll always find scam artists who want in and that's -- and that is the case in this -- in this particular instance.

COSTELLO: And they're always so clever, aren't they?

LISOVICZ: They're so clever, but sometimes you have to wonder what are people thinking? Like if someone's saying mail cash to Western Union, you have to wonder why would somebody do that? But a lot of people have.

COSTELLO: Yes, well stop doing that people.

LISOVICZ: Exactly.

COSTELLO: A quick look at the futures -- Susan.

LISOVICZ: Flat to higher open. As you know, yesterday's stocks added to Monday's strong gains. One of the big catalysts was the surge in consumer confidence last month, biggest one-month gain since 1991. The Dow rose a third of a percent; the Nasdaq added two-thirds of a percent. Of course some encouraging corporate profit reports helped as well. Investors will probably be keeping an eye on Washington today because Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies on the economy before the House Financial Services Committee. And whatever Mr. Greenspan says is always...

COSTELLO: Yes.

LISOVICZ: ... of great interest to Wall Street.

COSTELLO: Well let's hope he says something good, something encouraging, at least.

LISOVICZ: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Susan Lisovicz, many thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com