Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

An e-auction is an electronic reverse auction where the suppliers use internet-based software to bid against each other online. The process of an e-auction aims to find a fair price for the goods by identifying buyers who need them the most. The process of running an e-auction can be complicated and e-auction technology need to be sure that the e-auction process has been backed up with a well run procurement process. Examples of e-auction are http://www.lelong.com.my/ and http://www.ebay.com.my/.

 

An e-auction fraud includes fraud due to the misrepresentation of a product advertised for sale through an internet auction site, the non delivery or a non payment for goods purchased through an internet auction site.

 

To prevent e-auction fraud

 

1. The consumer must deal with companies or individuals they know by reputation or experience. When the consumers aren’t familiar with the company, the consumers need do research. Consumers are advised to find out the company’s address and phone number. Never conduct business with a company that doesn’t list a physical address or telephone number on its Web site.

 

2. The consumers should read the terms and conditions of the contract carefully to make sure they understand the delivery option, return policy and product or service warranty. The consumers must ask for information about the exchange rate and any applicable duties and taxes before having the international transactions.

 

3. The consumers should also look for a privacy policy. The consumers must be sure that they are comfortable with how the company collects, protects and uses their personal information before they submit any details.

 

4. The consumer must make sure the transactions are secure. The consumers must not enter any financial information when consumers see a broken-key or open padlock symbol on the Internet browser. This means that the transaction is not secure and could be intercepted by a third party. When the key is complete or the padlock is locked, your browser is indicating a secure transaction.

 

5. The consumer must check for endorsement by an association or a quality assurance program. There are several seal of approval for Web sites that the consumer must confirm the credibility of the company and the Web site.

 

The consumers need to avoid spam by being careful about disclosing their e-mail address both on and off-line. The consumers must check a company’s privacy policy to find out whether their e-mail address could be shared with other companies.

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies

Malaysian e-government initiative started in 1997 and focus on reinventing the government machinery and achieving the ultimate vision 2020; attracting foreign investments and developing multimedia industries, especially expertise and technologies. E-government is the use of information technology in general and to offer delivery of public services to citizens. Besides that, it will improve information flows and processes within government to progress the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

Current applications of e-government in Malaysia are Driving License Online, e-filling, KWSP’s i-Akaun, E-Perolehan and Renewing Road Tax. KWSP’s i-Akaun is an EPF account which available on the internet. Account’s status or history of transaction can be check by members by using KWSP’s i-Akaun. Members can also use it to calculate amount eligible for withdrawal and it is convenient to update correct and complete employees’ information. Therefore, employer can use it to submit form and make payment online.

E-perolehan is an online procurement system that permits suppliers to provide their products or services online to government. With that, they can get, manage and process purchase order and receive payment through the internet. Nowadays, we can renew road tax and motor insurance policy at http://www.myeg.com.my/. A list of about 100 insurances companies for citizen is also provided to let citizen choose for it. In addition, we can also renew driving licenses and pay or check traffic summonses online at http://www.jpj.gov.my/.

The implementation of e-government would bring advantages to the public administration and Malaysian society in several ways. First, efficiency can be improve by e-government since the use of information technology makes improvement in mass processing tasks and public administration operations. After that, services can be improved because the main element in restructuring government operations is to adopt a customer-focused approach. These applications will provide a seamless online service and thus traditional government services can be improved. Third, specific outcome would be achieved. The internet can aid stakeholders share ideas and information and contribute to particular policy outcomes.

Many citizens in Malaysia are still skeptical to trust electronic transactions such as paying bills online. Some of them are lack of computer knowledge and some of them face language problem when using it. Therefore, there are five ways to encourage more citizens to use the e-government application which include create incentives to move to the digital channel, making it mandatory, advertise, change the culture and form partnerships with the private sector. In addition, government can implement more languages in e-government to those consumers who are not so good in English and Malay.

As government executives focus on tailoring online services to meet the needs of specific customer segments, just as business do, e-government programs will be more successful and deliver greater returns on the investments.  

A review on a post on Legal from my e-commerce blog

There is a lot of people using internet to download Mp3, Movie, Copyrighted Software and etc.They should be aware that downloading music, video, or software without paying is illegal. There are many services on the Internet which provide music and video at a reasonable cost. Some of the popular services are eMusic, Apple’s iTunes, Windows Media, Napster, and Rhapsody.

Nowadays a lot of Tv series or Movies is available in the internet after it have been air. Viewing or Downloading direct from internet is very common now because everything is free. The networks that produce the shows make the files available for free or for a small cost through one of the services mentioned above. However, the network still retains the copyright and if you distribute the file online in a form or in places not sanctioned by the network, they can sue you for infringement. In addition to most software applications and games have their own type of copy protection, generally in the form of a CD key or license key. This key is usually a series of seemingly random letters and numbers which is unique to each copy of the software.

Government also set up the new rules for those cyber cafe with a fixed daily business hours so that cyber cafe won't turning into social ills which will affect the peoples behaviour and the safety of society. Nowadays a lots iot of student skip their class due to having fun from gaming with friends in cyber cafe. This is very unhealthy and will cause a student not carry up their education as well and just keep staying at cyber cafe. With the new rules of fixed daily business hour and also cannot enter cybercafe with school uniform cybercafe won't be easily turn into a social ills places.

Here is some related Link..

Review a Local E-commerce Site

One of the Malaysia well known e-commerce websites is www.airasia.com which is set up by an airline company. This website provides the information need for travel and allows users to purchase their service through online. Usually, traveler can obtain cheaper price or even free of charge by booking the fare online without involving travel agent. One of this e-commerce site include a feature, that’s all the services can be enjoyed by e-payment with range of payment ways to suit traveler will.

 

Other than flight booking ticket, now the company provides service that link traveler to find hotel within the departure region and state through online. This site also offer traveler to rent car but is only available for some states such as Australia, Hang Zhou and Malaysia. Additionally, Air Asia provides destination guide for many areas around 14 countries. The most amazing is, this website provides the link to the medical too. Air Asia pride themselves on finding new and interesting ways of innovating, such as Web check-in, Express Boarding, E-gift Voucher, Booking via mobile phone, Official airline and Air Asia Extra Long. There are more service listed in the website which includes boarding express, further request, check and change fare, route map, and 

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies.

Mobile payments are defined as the use of a mobile device such as Cellular Phone, Smartphone and Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) to conduct a payment transaction in which money or funds are transferred from a payer to a receiver via an intermediary, or directly without an intermediary. So Mobile Money helps to reduce the bottlenecks that created by cash, check and credit cards.

There have two primary models for mobile payment, which is Premium SMS, and Mobile web payments (WAP).

Premium SMS is based transactional payments, means that the consumer sends a payment via an SMS text message to a short code and a premium charge is applied to their phone bill.

Mobile Web Payments , which is the consumer uses web pages displayed on their mobile phone to make the payment.

Adoption of mobile and electronic payments systems:

1. Compatibility: Compatibility captures the consistency between an innovation and the values, experiences, and needs of potential adopters.
   
   
2. Complexity: Complexity and problems with usability have contributed to the low adoption of a variety of payment systems, including smart cards and mobile banking.
   
   
3. Costs: There is a direct effect on consumer adoption if the cost of a payment transaction is on to customers. In order to gain a competitive advantage, a shopper in electronic channels should attentive to price the transaction costs of mobile payments to be low enough to make the total cost of purchase competitive with the physical world prices.

Electronic Currency

Electronic currency is also known as electronic cash, e-money, digital money, digital currency or digital cash which involves attempting to profit wherever one currency is traded for another. It is basically a system that allows people to pay for goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. Identified e-money contains information disclose the identity of the person who originally withdrew the money form the bank. Moreover, anonymous e-money that withdrawn from an account can be given away or spent without leaving a transaction tray. Since internet and E-commerce are becoming part of our life and famous nowadays, thus electronic payments are also becoming the central part to online business between customer and seller.

Benefits of Electronic Currency Payments Systems

One of the most attractive features of electronic currency is that, unlike real cash, it is anonymous. This means that there is no way to obtain information about the customer when an electronic currency amount is sent from a customer to a merchant. Thus, there is an adequate protection against the privacy rights of the customer by using electronic currency.

After that, it allows us to do business and earn with only a few dollars of investment. Electronic currency trading is really up to you if you want to increase your investment or not and it does not demand much. Some electronic currency trading experts even suggest that beginners should begin with only a few dollars so that they can first discover the ropes about electronic currency. Therefore, you are given a lot of opportunities to profit without spending too much on investment through electronic currency trading.

The third benefit about electronic currency trading is that it is flexibility and convenience to the persons involved. You are given freedom on how to schedule your day since you do business online. Electronic currency trading business can conduct business anywhere and anytime in the world no matter is night or day. You can do business online whether you are at home, in the work place, at the coffee shop or virtually anywhere as long as there is an internet connection.

Low transaction cost is also one of the benefits of electronic currency trading because it unlike other businesses that eats up your profit with expensive fees. Electronic currency trading allows you to do business just with minimal fees and giving you more profit.

Examples of electronic currency are Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit. The computer-based systems used to perform financial transactions electronically are EFT while direct deposit refers to a banking term used to pass on to certain systems used to transfer money. Some examples of electronic currency payment systems and organizations are Free Digital Money and ePoint. Free Digital Money is a free open source project aimed at promoting ideas and stimulating further innovation in the field of digital bearer money. It is like cash and can be transferred person-to-person without going through a bank or PayPal account. Then, ePoint refers to a system designed for anonymous electronic transactions, including micropayments.

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card allows consumers to purchase items and services without using cash. When the consumers use their credit card, their credit card issuer will pay the merchant on their behalf and bill to consumers later in the form of a monthly statement.

 Credit card debt is the example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards. The debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money that they have spent. When consumer does not pay the debt on time, the company will charge a late payment penalty and report the late payment to credit rating agencies. The late payment sometimes referred to as being in default.

Causes of Credit Card Debts

Less Income and More Expenses.

It happens that the main bread-winner of the household loses their job but at the same time they do not cut down their monthly expenses with the reduction in income. So, the family is forced to use their credit cards for general household goods.

Poor Money Management.

The poor money management is the best reasons why so many families accumulate lots of debt. The consumers do not have a monthly spending plan and they are not keeping track of their monthly bills. This makes consumers unaware of where their money goes. While consumer’s money goes towards items that are useless, they might be charged on their necessary purchases on their credit card, this indirectly force consumers to pay interest on these purchases every month.

Hoping to win in the lottery

Most of the people hope to win lottery but the chances of that happening are 0%.

Consumers are advised not to spend tomorrows saved money today just because consumers expect a promotion in their job or expecting heritage from a decreased grandfather.

Big medical expenses

The cost of obtaining cures and medicine is increasing every year. Most of the doctors accept credit cards because when the consumers need treatment now, consumers usually do not have the cash. Consumers use their credit cards because they do not have enough savings in the bank.

 

Underemployment

When consumers are underemployed, its means that consumers are not getting enough working hours at their job, consumers should cut down their lifestyle to match their current income.

Prevention of Credit Card Debts

Eating out

It is not necessary that the consumers have to go out to have their dinner. It’s much cheaper if the consumers cook at home. Besides that, the consumers can also get some recipes from books or newspaper and try to cook it at home. 

Recreational shopping

For many people, shopping is not just about buying things. It’s a social activity and is a form of entertainment. If the consumers wanted to get out of the debts, the consumers must change their attitude towards shopping. The consumers are advised to go shopping less unless they plan to buy something specific.

Smoking

Smoking is even worse for consumers than junk food. Smoking is more expensive. The consumers have to use their new thrifty lifestyle as a reason to kick the habit.

Designer clothes

When the consumers have credit card debt, the consumers will have to learn how to live without those expensive labels. Designer clothes are by their very definition items of luxury. When the consumers are in debt, they cannot afford luxury.

Late fees

The best way to avoid late fees is try to remember to pay the bills on time. There are 2 ways to help the consumers to avoid the extortionate penalties and at the same time the consumers can improve their credit score. When consumers have better credit score, the consumers can borrow money at a lower interest rate.