US fails to prosecute Internet fraud cases

According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, federal and state law enforcement authorities are doing little to resolve what has become a multi-billion-dollar problem: online fraud and abuse. Rather, most investigations and prosecutions involving the Internet appear to be focused on sexual enticement of minors and child pornography. Such cases accounted for more than 60 percent of the cases highlighted in 2007 and 2006 by the National Association of Attorneys General in its bimonthly Cybercrime Newsletter, which lists Internet-related cases brought by state attorneys general. Among other cases highlighted, 8.9 percent involved data security, confidential records, or identity theft and 15.5 percent involved online sales and services, such as failure to deliver on a purchase or failure to provide a product or service that meets advertised quality. This type of crime has clear parallels to fraud conducted in the physical world—the Internet is merely the medium for the transaction. This is not the case, however, for spyware, adware, spam, and phishing, which represent completely new categories of fraud and abuse. Over 2007 and 2006, the Cybercrime Newsletter highlighted just 14 cases (8.3 percent of the total) brought by state attorneys general in these areas, 10 of which were brought by Washington or New York.