About time, I say, that our laws caught up with the 21st Century. For that matter, about time we staffed a law enforcement agency to fight the crimes particular to the 21st Century.
I'm talking Internet crime, here.
All those laws about not stealing, not taking each other's identities, not defrauding each other? They were written for another century, for another set of crimes. Oh, they still work well for those crimes.
But, they don't work for the Internet. We have a whole new world of crime -- and yet practically no laws and little law enforcement to stop it.
Here's a crime, a bunch rolled into one. Let me tell you what happened. then you tell me how the current set of laws protected me. I was reading along on Facebook one day, when a message rolled in from a friend from my college days. Now, Mark being a person I loved and trusted, I jumped at what he was saying. "Hey, John, I just received a free iPad. This company has an overstock and there are still some left. You might want to look into it. Here's the link." (Those are not the exact words, but that was the meaning). Well, I looked into it. I jumped at the opportunity to get a free iPad. I trusted Mark. I knew he wouldn't be sending me off on an offer that wasn't really there.
Turns out, though, it wasn't really Mark. His Facebook page posted it, but someone had hacked his account and pretended to be him. He was embarrassed when I told him what had happened, but it was too late to stop the damage.
I hit the link offered in the Facebook posting, and up came, first, a survey. It was followed by an invitation saying I must select two small offers, and I picked ones that would cost me about $10 or less, each, thinking, "Okay, for this little bit of money, I can get a free iPad."
About a week later, I received a voice mail from my bank, questioning a $78 credit card withdrawal from my account that had come through just the day before. Knowing I had not made such a transaction the day before, I knew I had been taken. I looked into it and found it was one of the same companies I had made the small purchase from in the Facebook scam.
Now, I am here to say all the laws we had on our books didn't help me. Theft? Scam? Fraud? Stealing my friend's identity? Where were the laws to protect me? It is now two months later and my account still has not had been refunded. If someone had forged my account at a store, the laws we have would have required my account to be restored.
If that is the case with the Internet . . . well, I have yet to see it.
This, despite the false posting being a matter of public record. This, despite we knowing who took my money.
Now, about a month ago, I read an article in the newspaper about Internet fraud. Striking me as curious was the fact that the article -- top to bottom -- never quoted a single law enforcement source. Now, wouldn't it be curious to write about how there has been a big jump in murder or arson or car thefts and not quote a law enforcement source as to how much murder or arson or car theft there was?
But, if the law enforcement is not even hardly involved with the crime -- woe that this should happen -- then law enforcement will not be quoted, because they aren't even the authorities on the matter. Again, woe that this should happen, but it has.
We have crimes that are particular to the 21st Century. But we are still running around with the laws of the 20th Century as the only tools we have to fight them. And, though the FBI does have an Internet crime unit, it is not funded nor staffed anywhere near the point of being able to deal with life in the 21st Century.
Catch up, America. You must if you are to protect the people of this new day and age.
No comments:
Post a Comment