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Familiarity Breeds Trust Online
from the well,-okay,-i'll-give-up-all-my-info-now dept
Familiarity apparently breeds trust online. As people become used to the internet they're no longer afraid to use it for all sorts of activities, and include it as part of their everyday life. Thus, early online fears about how no one would ever use their credit cards online are pretty much forgotten - even though the risk of having your credit card number exposed has gone up. People now consider the internet to just be a part of how they live now, and don't think of it as new or different any more. That is, of course, good for internet businesses, but not so good for those concerned about online risks - which could explain the rise in identity theft. There are a lot more "easy" targets, it seems.
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it breeds dis-trust as well...
Here's an example:
I know someone who uses ebay on a regular basis. Out of ten successful transactions, this persons inevitably gets screwed at least once (sends his money and doesn't get the purchased item in the mail). When this happens, this person leaves negative feedback, but he also abandons his current ebay buying account, often times leaving successful bids unpaid (just depends on the timing and how much he got screwed for). This technique was developed after attempting to maintain a long standing buying account, only to find this his successful transaction rate fell as time went on (crooks communicating "suckers" between themselves?)
The only thing that keeps him comming back to ebay is the cost savings for transactions 1 through 9 usually make up for the 1 good rodgering he gets on transaction 10. Also, the fact that a non-paying bidder doesn't really have any repercussions if you're willing to abandon your buying account at a moment's notice.
This person has been through at least 10 buying accounts over the years.
Distrust that familiarity breeds is rapant on the Internet.
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