Six Online Shopping Scams

Internet-related fraud accounted for 60% of all consumer complaints in 2006, according to the Federal Trade Commission's annual data roundup. (And that's up 5% from 2004.) In all, consumers lost a whopping $1.1 billion last year.

It's not that shoppers are more gullible, says Jorgen Wouters, a senior researcher for Consumer Reports. Rapidly advancing technology enables scammers to work more efficiently and creatively, simultaneously baiting hooks for thousands of deal-fishing consumers — and hitting harder those who bite. "If you're aiming to fool 100 people, and you fool just one, you've still succeeded," he says.

Here are six Internet shopping scams that even savvy consumers can fall prey to:

Protect Yourself: "Paying with a credit card is your best bet, because of the strong consumer federal protections," says Susan Grant, director of the National Consumer League's Fraud Center. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, you can dispute a charge for goods not received or items that are materially different — say, that are defective, or not what you believe you ordered. Most auction sellers aren't set up to accept plastic directly, so set up a free account through a payment service like PayPal or BidPay to send cash from your card. Your dispute rights still apply.

Protect Yourself: Approach free offers with a healthy dose of skepticism, says Salter. The bigger the prize, the greater the chance it's not a good deal. To avoid the spam generated by smaller freebies — say, coupons at CoolSavings.com — set up a secondary email address that you use solely when signing up for such offers.

Protect Yourself: Never accept a payment that's greater than the total you and the buyer agreed on. Also, fakes can be hard to spot, so wait until the check is cleared to mail out your item, says Farrell. Just don't rely on your account balance to figure that out — call to confirm that your bank has actually cleared the check, rather than just made funds available. (Click here for more tips.)

Protect Yourself: "Legalise is put out there with the expectation that no one is going to read it," says Wouters. So try a trick of your own to "read" it. Use your Internet browser (click on "edit," then "find" in Internet Explorer, for example) to search for the terms "personal information" or "credit card." It'll highlight each, enabling you to quickly find out, before signing up, how a company will use and share your data. Custom gift creator CafePress, for example, notes in the fine print its right to disclose your personal information to third-party service providers and online partners. "We cannot guarantee that such third parties will not disclose your Personal Information," it states.

Worse, you don't even need to enter your information on the scammers' fake site to become a victim. More phishers are embedding data-stealing spyware that downloads to your computer as soon as you click on one of the embedded links in the email.

Protect Yourself: Ignore the dire warnings of an account shutdown. "You have to realize that companies are not going to do business that way," says Givens. Don't even follow the link. Open a new Internet browser window and type in the company's real web address. From there, you can log into your account to check for alerts, or look for the toll-free customer service number to address the problem — if there even is one.

Protect Yourself: Do your research by hunting for prices and availability, advises Dworsky. A quick glance at the Cartier web site, for example, should be enough to indicate that Overstock.com isn't one of its authorized retailers. In other words, that $5,080 Cartier Santos Demoiselle men's watch (an 11% discount off the jeweler's $5,700 retail) is covered only by Overstock.com's three-year warranty — not Cartier's unlimited parts warranty. Likewise, a scan of Louis Vuitton handbag prices on eLuxury should serve as a warning on which eBay listings are far too low to be real. (For more tips on spotting fakes, click here.)