By William J. Kole
The Associated Press
BUCHAREST, Romania, Oct. 19, 2003 -

The classic scam: Offer high-end electronics or other goods for sale or auction, take the order, confirm the “shipment” — and simply vanish the moment the consumer has wired payment.The Internet Fraud Complaint Center said it gets hundreds of complaints daily from defrauded Americans. Many cases trace to Romania, where criminals use Internet cafes to elude capture and avoid leaving a digital trail to their home PCs.Some have developed Web pages that mimic legitimate sites such as eBay, diverting them into the cyberspace equivalent of a back alley. Buyers think they’re dealing with eBay, but their money ends up in criminal hands and the goods are never shipped.

Pointing up the criminals knack for staying one step ahead of the law, FBI documents note that because consumers are reluctant to do business with Romanians, some scammers have found accomplices in other countries. Others pass themselves off as coming from elsewhere.When police caught on that criminals were getting paid through Western Union transactions, they switched to direct bank-to-bank transfers, which are trickier to trace. Lately, they've set up bogus PayPal-style escrow accounts.