Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) announced that they are shutting down GeoCities, a service that provided people with a free web site, along with all the tools needed to build that site. Yahoo had acquired GeoCities, for more than $4 billion 10 years ago, during the 1999 gold rush of the dot com boom.

Selling stuff online always involves some level of risk. There are steps to take which can help minimize those risks, but individuals seeking to unfairly profit are constantly applying new methods to old techniques, in hopes of defrauding people out of their items and money. Having operated a popular chiropractic classified advertising web site for more than 10 years, we’ve seen our fair share of those attempting to defraud people when items are for sale. Fortunately, the user community has grown more knowledgeable, developing an increased level of awareness, for what is potentially fraudulent activity, or an online cyber scam. The cyber neighborhood watch group has done an impressive job in rooting out the worms and bad apples.