Remember the first time you bought something over the Internet? Making an online purchase can be nerve-wracking when it?s an unfamiliar experience.

However, your initial confusion can quickly be overcome. Buying online soon becomes very easy ? maybe too easy! With the click of your mouse, you can become the owner of just about anything ? and nine times out of ten, the company gets your money before you get the product.

How do you know that you are entrusting your credit card details to a reputable merchant? You may be eager to buy the product, but what if it turns out to be of poor quality ? or worse yet, a scam?

Even when dealing with well-established businesses ? what happens if there?s a problem with the merchandise? What is the company?s track record for customer service or guarantees?

I market information products online and I often get questions from would-be purchasers, wondering if a website is a scam. A website may have been online for years, but when it?s that customer?s first time to see it, he doesn?t know if it?s a legitimate company, or some fly-by-night rip-off.

Not long ago, I received this email (which I have paraphrased here):

?Dear Pauline:

Hi! I enjoyed your site. I have a question: Do you know anyone who has actually bought (product X)? I am afraid it will be an internet fraud....?

The writer expressed a feeling many share about doing business online. Over the years, a handful of groups have been formed to address these concerns.

One such organization was founded in 1998 by Jerry Martin, a business man from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

?At the time, Jerry was researching business opportunities on the Internet, and noticed that is was difficult to tell which ones were legitimate and which ones were not,? said Mayleen Martin, Jerry?s wife.

The inspiration came when a friend of Jerry?s casually commented that there needed to be an organization which monitored Internet sites, similar to the way the BBB* monitored local businesses. Jerry agreed. He decided to create exactly that ? a consumer?s watch group especially for the online community.

First, Jerry contacted his local Better Business Bureau* and asked if members could place the BBB seal on their websites. At the time, the BBB was working on an Internet approval system, but it was expensive and only available to local businesses that had been BBB members for two years or more.

Jerry looked into this further, and found that the BBB only operated in Canada and the USA, which meant that Internet marketers in other countries had no chance to obtain validation with the BBB.

Jerry decided he would create a system that enabled businesses worldwide to gain the same kind of credibility for their online operations. It was the late 1990?s and the Internet was fast becoming the preferred method of communication. Internet businesses were flourishing.

Jerry gathered together a group of local friends and business associates and they registered a British Columbia non-profit society known as Better Internet Bureau Association. To protect the name, Jerry registered it with the Canadian registrar of trademarks.

His next step was to build a website that outlined the Better Internet Bureau principles and encouraged webmasters worldwide to voluntarily register their websites and help police the internet by reporting any fraudulent or unethical websites.

Several weeks after starting the project, an interesting situation developed when an attorney, representing the Better Business Bureau in Toronto, sent Jerry a ?cease and desist? order and demanded that he take down the BIB website, and surrender the BIB name.

Jerry took the letter to his own lawyer and was assured the BBB had no legal grounds for their demands. Jerry`s lawyer sent a reply to the BBB pointing out that the government of British Columbia had authorized use of the corporate name, and the BIB domain names were protected under "first use" laws.

That was the end of the matter and Jerry never heard from the BBB* or their attorney, again.

The Better Internet Bureau?s mission is to monitor Internet sites for content that may be harmful or misleading. The guidelines include suitability for viewing by all ages, and no racial or religious prejudice. All merchants must honor a minimum 30-day refund guarantee for most products, and spam is not tolerated.

?We don?t exclude members who do not own an offline business, and also do not require members to have been in business for two years, as the BBB* does,? said Jerry.

To make it easy for people to report unethical activity on the Internet, the BIB set up a public forum on its website.

Jerry said, ?Since most Internet marketers work at home, and many of them operate in developing countries, the Better Internet Bureau has kept the price of registration affordable.? The membership fee has not changed since the organization?s founding in 1998.

Jerry?s wife Mayleen currently oversees the day-to-day operations of the BIB, which can often be challenging. ?Most people who contact BIB are upset or angry over some injustice that has been done to them. We have to step into that negative environment and try to offer some kind of assistance,? she said.

Over the years thousands of people have saved time, frustration, and money by visiting the BIB public forum before making a purchase on the Internet.

?It is always rewarding when we can prevent someone from becoming the victim of a fraudulent business,? Jerry said.

*****************

*DISCLAIMERS: The Better Internet Bureau is not affiliated with any local, national or international BBB®. The BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU® and the BBB® are registered trademarks of: The Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. Arlington, VA.

"The Better Internet Bureau is not affiliated with any government agency. It does cooperate with government agencies and law enforcement worldwide to report Internet websites that are breaking the law or may be harmful or dangerous to our members and the public at large."