WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- State authorities are not doing enough to protect consumers from online fraud and other cybercrimes, despite skyrocketing numbers of complaints from the public, according to a new survey.
While identity theft and online rip-offs are getting some attention from state attorneys general, the purveyors of spy-ware, adware, and spam and phishing e-mails are rarely prosecuted, says the survey, conducted by Internet advocacy group the Center for Democracy and Technology and left-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress.
The authors asked all 50 states to provide information on consumer complaints. Of the 36 that responded, 24 ranked cybercrimes of one kind or another in the top 10 topics of complaints last year, and eight said it was among the top three.
The Federal Trade Commission -- which compiles data from all 50 states from a variety of sources, including law enforcement agencies and consumer complaint groups like the Better Business Bureau -- reported 221,226 Internet-related fraud complaints last year, up almost 16,000 from 2006 and more than 24,000 from 2005.
Lack of comprehensive data from the state level is indicative of the low priority most give the problem, and even the FTC numbers may understate the problem, Brock Meeks of the Center for Democracy and Technology told UPI.
"One of the things we had a problem with was working out who to call," he said. "There is no uniformity" in how data about cybercrime are collected or by whom. "There could be better numbers if there was better reporting."
Meeks also said states were not making the issue a priority. "The states are not adequately tracking or prosecuting these crimes," he said. "It doesn't seem to be a priority."
The survey says that, of the cybercrime cases brought by state authorities in 2006 and 2007 and reported by the National Association of Attorneys General, more than 60 percent related to the sexual enticement of minors or child pornography.
Fifteen and a half percent involved online rip-offs like failure to deliver purchased goods or failure to provide a product or service that meets advertised quality. But the survey notes that these are essentially conventional frauds, similar to those perpetrated in the physical world for generations by con men. "The Internet is merely the medium for the transaction," it notes.
For really novel cybercrimes, those unique to the online environment, like the propagation of spy- and ad-ware, or spam and phishing e-mails, only 14 cases had been brought in the last two years -- less than 10 percent of the total for cybercrime.
Of these, 10 cases were brought by just two states, Washington or New York.
A spokeswoman for the National Association of Attorneys General said she had not seen the report and could not comment.
The survey's authors said that, unless more was done to tackle the problem, the gains made by e-commerce could be at risk.
"Internet crime costs basically nothing to execute, can be highly lucrative, and involves little risk of being caught and punished," said Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "We need all 50 state attorneys general focused on this problem. Through committed action and vigorous enforcement, they can provide a powerful and much needed deterrent."
The survey says states should look at the legal framework they have for prosecuting cybercrimes. "It may be that certain (state) consumer laws are not written in a way that makes it easy to prosecute" such crimes, Meeks told UPI.
The survey also calls on states to develop better computer forensic capabilities, train their investigators and prosecutors to identify Internet fraud and abuse, and devote greater resources to enforcement efforts.
"This should be a higher priority," said Meeks.
"In New York and Washington, attorneys general have equipped themselves to take on Internet fraud and abuse," Schwartz said. "As a result, they have won a string of important cases. Other state attorneys general should follow their lead and provide online consumers the protection they deserve."
