Overview
TechNotate is committed to high standards of ethics, conduct and fiduciary responsibility. As such, it is essential that TechNotate has an effective and consistent protocol for responding to allegations of fraud or irregularity. The response mechanism must be clear, appropriate, timely and effectively focused if it is to protect TechNotate, its customers and all visitors.
Purpose
To clearly state TechNotate's position regarding fraud and irregularities
To establish a protocol for reporting and responding to incidences of fraud and irregularities
To standardize the approach to investigations of fraud and irregularities and help ensure objectivity in decisions regarding each incidence
:: THE POLICY ::
TechNotate does not tolerate or support any type of fraud under any circumstances and strictly prohibits use of TechNotate services to perpetrate fraud. All attempts to use our service or system infrastructure for purposes of fraud and any violation of our fraud or SPAM policies or Terms of Service will result in aggressive legal action, including criminal charges and punishment to the full extent of the law.
If any of the provisions of this Policy are found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
Definitions
These terms and definitions apply to this policy with no implied or intended site-wide use.
Fraud; A deliberate and/or unlawful deception, misrepresentation or concealment of facts practiced to secure advantage, benefit or gain and/or to cause loss to another.
Irregularity; An activity or potential activity that deliberately disregards TechNotate's regulations or procedures.
How TechNotate fights fraud
TechNotate strongly believes we have an obligation to proactively protect and inform our users against fraud. We have instituted an extensive array of system-wide filtering and alert mechanisms supplemented by human detection and monitoring methods to recognize and stop abuse of our services for fraud. For example: TechNotate logs IP addresses of all new customers and times of signup, we use an "IP to country" database to confirm customer origin (country) and deny all signups from anonymous proxies. Our filters recognize and flag suspicious signups and orders, which our staff then manually reviews. All accounts reported for abuse are automatically deactivated from our system until we review the report and reported account. This usually takes about 24 hours. Tolerances for new users are lower than for long-term users, to make it difficult for fraudsters to hit and run.
When fraud emails/forms are captured by our filters or reported to us, TechNotate:
· Conducts internal investigations into the source of fraud forms and emails.
· Immediately disables perpetrators using TechNotate accounts to commit their crimes.
Although personally identifiable information is confidential (see our Privacy Policy), when deemed necessary, TechNotate will divulge information about the identity and actions of suspected perpetrators of fraud to interested parties and law enforcement authorities.
What to do if you find a fraud form or receive a fraud email
If you have found a form or received an email that you suspect involves fraud of any kind, please immediately inform TechNotate's fraud protection team by emailing us at submit@technotate.com.