Pew International Journalism Program

Internet Fraud: "Global Pool of Victims"

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2000 -- It is easy "for crooks to reach a global pool of victims" using the Internet for fraudulent schemes, a veteran fraud-fighter told the Pew Fellows in International Journalism today

Susan Grant, vice president for public policy at the National Consumers League, called the Internet "the newest frontier of fraud." The same medium that makes it easy for consumers to communicate with each other makes it easy to defraud consumers because "anyone can be a vendor in cyberspace."

Grant said the League launched its anti-fraud campaign into cyberspace in 1996 with the creation of the Internet Fraud Watch, which can be found at www.fraud.org. Grant told Fellows that reports of telemarketing fraud are down, while reports of Internet fraud are up.

"Internet fraud is old wine in new bottles," Grant said. The same "scams" that have traditionally been perpetrated through the mail and telephones are now happening online. The get-rich-quick schemes, peddling of fraudulent health products, fake offers of help with jobs, and bogus sweepstakes are all traditional scams that have made it into e-commerce, she said.

According to Grant, the "purchasing horizon" for consumers has expanded with the Internet, and therefore, so has the opportunity for crime. The Internet may not have geographical boundaries, but the law does, and those boundaries make it extremely difficult to prosecute across geographic borders. She cited several schemes by U.S. vendors that have operated with partners in Eastern Europe.