EFFECTS OF E-MAIL SCAMS ON E-BUSINESS GROWTH; A STUDY OF GLOBACOM LIMITED IN SOUTH EAST OF NIGERIA.

The paper is on the effects of e-mail scams on e-business growth in particular interest to Globalcom limited in south east region of Nigeria. It has been observed that there are different forms of e-mail scams which are very dangerous for users of e-business in Globalcom. Among which are; hijacked profile scam, online credit scam and survey scam. Hijacked profile scam has to do with cyber criminals hijacking the profile of someone related to the victim and then send e-mails to the victim. The objectives were to determine whether there is a relationship between Hijacked profile scam and visitation frequency of Globacom E-business users; to ascertain whether there is a relationship between online credit card scam and subscriber growth of Globacom E-business; And,o determine whether there is a relationship between survey scam and total time spent by users on Globacom E-business. The study adopted a survey research design and the population of the study is four hundred and ten staff of operation and sales of Globalcom in south eastern Nigeria. A sample size of eighty was obtained using Taro Yarmani. Using a simple random sampling method in distributing the questionnaires sixty were returned. Z-test statistic were used to test the three hypotheses stated for this study. The study found that E-mail scams are serious attenuators to E-business growth in Globacom limited E-business is a phenomenon growing in prominence and it is important to reduce the risks associated with it, especially the problem of E-mail scams. A serious measure need to be applied to halt and reverse the growing trend of e-mail scams. Doing nothing serious to curb this menace may mean that not only will E-business be hindered in an organisation, but we could also be shutting ourselves out of future international trade and businesses. Keywords: E-mail Scams; Haijacked profile scam; e-business; online credit card sca