With website hosting becoming more inexpensive and site creation tools becoming easier to use, scam artists are able to put up a web of professional looking sites. No longer can we look at a site and say, “Yeah, that’s a real company.”

These are serious crimes and need to be treated as such. A web site with vagaries about who will get email and who can or can’t investigate them is not enough.

1.Congress needs to make someone accountable. Whether it’s treasury department, FBI, or Homeland Security there has to be a manned number to call or email with fast response from people empowered to investigate. 2.Publicize a checklist of what to do, who to call and send this list to all law enforcement agencies. And not just for victims, for people who think they’ve been recruited to help in scam as well. In event of credit card fraud, card company will want a police report. Local police departments are front line and should be able to tell people what to do, have a procedure to follow. 3.Use free resources. Internet users want to protect their web. Communicate with them about what to watch for and many of these scams will get stopped early. 4.This is large scale. Check with a local employer to see what kind of response they get for an ad on Monster. A local posting for a job in Albany recently got over 300 resumes, imagine what a national ad for work-at-home jobs must get. Victims working together in a coordinated effort should make flushing out scam artists easier. 5.Speed is of essence. Scam artists hit and run. The closer to hit, better chances you’ll have of getting them.

It is time to take this seriously; lets investigate and stop these criminals.

Tall Networking provides computer consulting, network administration and setup, computer repair and upgrade. See my web page for more details at www.tallnetworking.com.

Tall Networking provides computer software consulting, network administration and setup, computer repair and upgrade. See my web page for more details at www.tallnetworking.com.

One of best aspects of IYP at this time is that it can be accessed in a relatively inexpensive way by many small businesses. So it’s feasible for even smallest business to check out various IYP options, and try them out for a while to see which works best. A business can buy into several programs, because IYP plans come in a variety of configurations, from national to very local.

At present time, much about phenomenon of “local search” is new, and relatively untested. But given that online browsing and shopping by consumers is growing, it is clear that some channels of local online promotion will turn out to be winners. Business owners seeking to stay abreast of developments in this fast-changing field should give adequate consideration to IYPs.

Neil Street is co-founder of Small Business Online, based in Wilton, CT., a website design, management, and promotion company dedicated to Internet needs of small business. His website is at http://www.smallbusinessonline.net Send email to neil@smallbusinessonline.net He can also be reached at (203)761-7992.