Thursday, November 29, 2007

losing money online

When I ask people what they think of the concept of cyberspace it seems to me that to ten different people, it will mean ten different things to the first five people and as to the other five, they either couldn't care less or didn't have a clue.

The idea of "policing" cyberspace or the internet seems even more vague to most people and to be a matter worthy of even less interest.

However, I know some persons who would find the topic of policing cyberspace very interesting, these would be the victims of crimes committed "in cyberspace." In our lawschool, I know of two persons who sadly lost small fortunes online. They are interested.

Once a person is victim of so-called "cyber-crimes" like online credit card fraud or identity theft, we may again prefer our good old reality over the virtual. When one loses his own hard-earned money online, the idea of policing cyberspace probably won't sound so negligible anymore.

However, it doesn't sound so good if I imagine the MMDA or the PNP snooping around online. We may end up losing more money than we did without them around. Can you imagine online suhol? :p paypal, globecash or smartmoney...

Does our government have an agency tasked to crack down on online offenses?
Are we left to police things on our own?
Is there a regulatory framework that sets guidelines for entities conducting business online to Philippine consumers?

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