The United States, for example, still seems to have companies in the 'learning stages'.  A recent study of the 100 largest companies there found that many of them aren't very good at managing any customer interactions at their websites.  From the study, 28 of the top 100 companies (including big names such as Morgan Stanley, Viacom and Merck) got a rating of "very poor" in their dealing with online inquiries.  Overall, 15 per cent of all online inquiries sent to these companies were ignored.

From my own personal experience, some Jamaican companies, but especially government agencies, would fail this test quite easily.  Why do so many of these websites have an email address link for you to contact them, yet it seems no one checks or bothers to respond to these emails?  Companies that are serious about business will respond to your email within one, or at most, two working days.

NIGERIAN 4-1-9 SCAMS

For many years now, the popular Nigerian 4-1-9 scam emails have floated around the Internet.  You've probably received several of these emails in the past, where, for example, 'the brother of a dead general' wants you to assist him in secretly moving millions of dollars (or gold bars even) out of his country, but using a bank account of yours to do this.  There are seemingly endless variations of these emails and methods, and they range from really creative to outright ridiculous.  Most people are smart enough to recognise the scam immediately, however many people still end up being tricked and some believe these scams are one of Nigeria's main source of foreign exchange earnings (after oil, natural gas and cocoa).

The big news about these 4-1-9 scams is that the courts in Nigeria recently sentenced a woman to 2 years in jail, after she pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a US$242 million fraud involving a Brazilian bank.

More about the Nigerian scams - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050727/business/business9.html