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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Carlton Samuels writes:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"> </DIV>I sympathize with Bill's comments
here. Oftentimes the restrictions to online commercial transactions are based
on the merchant's assessment of risk from a fraudulent transaction. I became
aware of this issue because I live in Jamaica and some merchants make Jamaica
a high-risk operational area, effectively locking me out of the transactional
relationship.
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>This is absolutely correct.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In the late nineties, I ran an online business
selling mobile telephones and mobile telephone accessories. The Web site
accepted credit cards, and our policy was to ship worldwide. After a while, it
became apparent that an alarmingly higher proportion of credit card fraud
emanated from specific countries. Thankfully some of these fraudulous attempts
were caught on time by our extended checking, but we needed to ask upon our
insurance for several shipments which disappeared and were never paid for.
Sadly, filing (remotely) with the local police (and I've got to tell you how
much time that took) never yielded any response.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I can therefore understand that for some
corporations, it might not make sense to do business with end users in some
countries. It is, from my experience, a business reason.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Warmest regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Olivier</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>-- <BR>Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD<BR><A
href="http://www.gih.com/ocl.html">http://www.gih.com/ocl.html</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>