Internet Fraud Largely Ignored By US Prosecutors, Report Reveals

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 13th 2008 at 3:15PM

Internet Fraud Largely Ignored by Prosecutors

According to a recent report by the Center for American Progress (CAP), it's estimated that Internet fraud, whether it be scams or phishing or just plain 'ol spam, cost American consumers a whopping $7.1 billion in 2007. Last year, 20 states tracked complaints from Internet users and, across all the states, 20,000 cases of Internet fraud were reported. Despite these reports, the total number of prosecutions for Internet fraud in 2006 and 2007 combined was a whopping 55, meaning the vast majority of online perps got off without even being investigated.

That's a pretty disappointing success rate, to be sure. Much of the problem stems from the fact that many of these scammers reside in foreign lands, complicating prosecution. But, as we saw recently in the arrest of Albert Gonzalez and his purported international cohorts who stole 41 million credit cards, sometimes international locations aren't enough to dodge the long arm of the law. [Source: Reuters]

Filed under: Computers

Tags: fraud, phishing, scam, spam

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Scott Harrell @ Aug 13th 2008 5:34PM

I am a private investigator who specializes, in part, in Internet fraud.

I agree wholeheartedly with the article; it is VERY difficult to find anyone willing to investigate or prosecute cases that involve small amounts and many jurisdictions.

I have been personally following one of the worst cases I have ever come across where a guy uses MySpace and Craigslist to defraud hundreds of people and oftentimes targets military families.

Learn more about the case at http://tonyoliver.blogspot.com/ or just google "Anthony Oliver."

Any help you might provide in helping with publicity in this matter would help a great deal.

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations

Neutral

Maryann @ Aug 14th 2008 12:34AM

I was scamed by a company that took $2000 through paypal for vanities and never delivered. They now operate under a different e-mail address. Can you direct us to someone who could help us?

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