Consumers beware: Online auctions fraught with fraud

Larry Klein was on the market for a new computer and after visiting several stores, he spotted a laptop on an online auction site. Like 14 others, he purchased from Sharon Hunt. But he would later discover the Massachusetts woman was under investigation by the state attorney general for Internet fraud.

Online auctions are the most common avenue for Internet fraud by a landslide, according to a report from the National Consumers League's Internet Fraud Watch. Eighty-seven percent of Internet fraud occurred through online auction sales in 1999.

On the Internet some "free" services can be mighty expensive. That's because cyber scam artists are looking to nail consumers in a tangled Web of deception. Government investigators say they have recently filed charges or obtained judgments against Web site operators who were illegally billing consumers for services that were advertised as free.