August 3, 1998 Sex scam points out lack of safeguards in online business The Internet often seems like the Wild West -- a lawless land where anything goes and miscreants are rarely punished. One of the most bizarre illustrations of this state of affairs happened in July, when two supposed teenagers announced that they planned to lose their virginity online. The site was exposed as a hoax after a few days of frantic media coverage. As it turned out, the "teenagers" were actually underemployed twenty-something actors. In one of the story's most bizarre twists, the whistle was blown by a porn distributor who had originally agreed to help host the site. He was outraged to find out that the producers planned to charge $5 per person to view the Internet event -- and not deliver the goods. It just goes to show that even pornographers have their moral standards. Outlaws and charlatans But as comic as the whole event was, it does point to a fundamental problem of Internet commerce: How do you know that an online merchant, having charged your credit card account, isn't just going to take the money and run? Unscrupulous online business practices aren't limited to the purveyors of pornography and media hoaxes, after all. More common than intentional fraud, perhaps, are the cases in which an online merchant, thanks to lax server-security procedures, leaves your account information vulnerable to hacking and theft. Like the Wild West of yore, there are precious few sheriffs to enforce good faith and honest business practices on the Internet. But changes are on the way. And this time, it's not sheriffs, but accountants who aim to civilize the frontier. Hold it right there, pardner The WebTrust program, backed by the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), which can be reached at http://www.cpawebtrust.org, is the accountants' first shot at the bad guys. WebTrust is a program with which qualified accountants can certify Web sites as having sound online business practices -- after an extensive audit. The WebTrust seal identifies a site as a legitimate business, one where you can feel safe shopping. The audit includes checking a site's security measures, privacy practices, and transaction-processing systems. Depending on the complexity of your business and your site, the cost varies greatly. It's available from any WebTrust-licensed CPA or accounting company. Since the AICPA started licensing accountants in January, 1,500 CPAs and 75 accounting companies (including big names such as Deloitte & Touche) have qualified to perform WebTrust audits. But so far only three sites have successfully undergone the audit and posted the WebTrust seal on their site. Like other third-party certification programs, WebTrust depends for its success on being adopted by hundreds, if not thousands, of commerce sites. Without widespread adoption, it won't have the mind share it needs among consumers. For the AICPA's program to succeed, the WebTrust logo needs to become, first, a recognizable differentia for legitimate businesses. Later, it must be a virtual requirement for doing business online. With a WebTrust logo in the window of every legitimate online business, the Internet might start looking a lot less like the Wild West and a lot more like Main Street, U.S.A. Dylan Tweney (dylan@infoworld.com) has been covering the Internet since 1993. He edits InfoWorld's intranet and Internet-commerce product reviews. Previous columns by Dylan Tweney SkyMall aims high, shows Net results in order processing July 27, 1998 Retail dilemma: balancing security, ease of ordering July 20, 1998 Davy Crockett star finds second frontier out in cyberspace July 13, 1998 Every column since August, 1997