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Article: Local, Federal Officials Usually Unsuccessful at Combating Internet Crime.
- Article from:
- Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA)
- Article date:
- May 26, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Orange County Register. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Chris Farnsworth and Chris Knap
May 26--As you read this, hundreds of crooks are trolling the Internet for victims. Their get-rich-quick schemes clog e-mail inboxes and online bulletin boards.
Odds are they won't get caught.
An FBI-led Internet fraud task force received 49,711 complaints last year. Of those, only 93 ended in an arrest.
Local police see most Internet fraud as outside their jurisdiction; federal authorities see most of it as too small to pursue. In the wide-open world between, online scammers are making fortunes -- and victims are losing more than $500 million a year.
Why can't cops catch Internet ...