US fails to halt online scams

THE CENTER (sic) for American Progress (CAP) reports that US law enforcement agencies have failed to stop the spread of spyware, viruses and phishing.

Such illicit online activity cost consumers a total of $7.1 billion in 2007.

Reece Rushing, CAP's director of regulatory and information policy, explained that state attorneys generals were “not doing a whole lot about Internet consumer protection.”

Indeed, the Attorney General's bimonthly Cybercrime Newsletter recorded a mere 55 prosecutions of Internet fraud during 2006-2007. 26 of the cases related to online sales, 15 involved identity theft and 14 dealt with spyware, spam or phishing. µ