NCJ Number
189110
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 49 Issue: 5 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 38-40
Date Published
June 2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article discusses scams on the Internet.
Abstract
Many Internet cons are simply revisions of the old standbys that have been worked on the street, in the mail, or over the phone. The difference is the victim doesn’t have a description and cannot pinpoint a location. All he has is an e-mail address, which was probably obtained from one of the many free services and is likely no longer in use. Because so much specialized training is necessary to make an arrest and prosecution, local departments tend to remain inactive in these cases. Some common scams that have adapted well to the Internet include counterfeiting, credit card fraud, and a scam known as the Nigerian letter. New techniques are necessary to collect such information when the crime scene is a world-wide collection of computers and fiber-optic wires. These techniques are taught at some law enforcement academies and provide education on how e-mail and other information travels, how it can be traced, how to go through a case and identify the offender, and even how to collect, store and display the evidence in court. Training is not the only answer. Law enforcement agencies must work together to apprehend criminals, who are in the same jurisdiction as the victim only on very rare occasions. Training classes have led to increased interaction and communication between different departments. Not only can officers use contacts in other States and agencies to help prosecute cases, they can use the Internet to contact each other and send evidence in encrypted format. In May 2000 the National White Collar Crime Center and the FBI set up the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) to help the flow of information between victims and different law enforcement agencies.