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US Launches Largest Crackdown Against Internet Fraud
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has lodged criminal charges against 90 people allegedly involved in online swindles in its biggest ever campaign to crack down on Internet fraud rings, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.
In the past 10 days, the newspaper said, the federal and local authorities have joined hands in carrying out "Operation Cyber Loss," a nation-wide campaign aimed at checking a variety of get-rich-quick schemes fueled by the wide reach of the Internet.
In the sweep, FBI has conducted searches and issued arrest warrants, many of them on Tuesday and Wednesday, against fraud suspects "in connection with bogus auctions, pyramid schemes and other high-tech con games to rob consumers of millions of dollars. "
About 60 of the 90 suspects charged have been arrested, and more arrests are expected, local authorities said.
Many suspects allegedly took Internet auction and Web sites to market everything, but they never intended to deliver millions of the goods they had collected, the authorities said.
Others used the Web sites to publicize bogus investment plans, set up Ponzi schemes or promote "revolutionary technology" to push up their stock by 600 percent.
Some schemes involved using computer and telephone solicitations to offer phony partnerships in a variety of businesses, including Internet start-up companies and 900-number phone services.
Still other suspects were accused of stealing personal identifying information online to get credit cards under a false name. One Eastern European suspect, for instance, allegedly hacked into a computer-ordering system to mail out computer merchandise worth 1.5 million U.S. dollars.
Internet auction scams made up for 64 percent of all Internet fraud, authorities said.
The vast majority of e-commerce deals are considered legitimate, but "many criminals have sought to exploit the popularity of the World Wide Web and to turn it into a hotbed of fraud," Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson was quoted as saying.
To fend off online criminals, the federal authorities set up the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (www.ifccfbi.gov) last year, which has received up to 300 complaints a day. Tips provided by the center prompted Wednesday's sweep which resulted in more than a dozen of arrests, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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