Ron Wyden: “online consumer purchases are poised to explode to more than $300 billion early in the next Century. But the goldrush in…”

“online consumer purchases are poised to explode to more than $300 billion early in the next Century. But the goldrush in cyberbuying is likely to carry along with it a boom in cyberfraud. Congress can help head-off this cybercrime by extending our current telemarketing laws to encompass fraud on the Net. In response to the staggering $40 billion consumers lose in telephone fraud each year, Congress earlier this summer passed the 1998 Telemarketing Fraud Prevention Act. I strongly supported that effort. The new law builds upon the four federal laws enacted since the early 1990s that deal directly with telemarketing fraud. The 1998 law stiffens penalties for telemarketing fraud by toughening the sentencing guidelines--especially for crimes against the elderly, requires criminal forfeiture to ensure the booty of telemarketing crime is not used to commit further fraud, mandates victim restitution to ensure victims are the first ones compensated, adds conspiracy language to the list of telemarketing fraud penalties so that prosecutors can find the masterminds behind the boiler rooms, and will help law enforcement zero in on quick-strike fraud operations by giving them the authority to move more quickly against suspected fraud. The 1998 law is a good step forward but it's not enough to deal with today's digital economy. As more Americans go online, cyberscams are bound to proliferate.”