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November 10, 1997

 Digital Metro
By PAMELA MENDELS

Attorney General Fights Online Crime Online

 It's far from the flashiest graphic on the World Wide Web. A box with a plain black and white sketch of a magnifying glass and a note urging users to "Report Internet Fraud Here."

But that simple image, quietly inserted on the Web site of the New York State Attorney General's office about two months ago, could well be a first: an effort by a state's attorney general to gather from cyberspace complaints about possible wrong-doing in cyberspace.


"We wanted to be able to reach to the public and ask them to tell us what is bothering them about using the Internet," says Eric A. Wenger, chief of the New York State Attorney General's newly-created Internet and Computer Unit. He added later: "Every type of illegal behavior that has existed in the real world is beginning to take place on the Internet as well."

Since the icon went up in early September, Wenger's office has received about 100 responses. And traffic is picking up as word about the site gets out, says Wenger, who works in the lower Manhattan office of state Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco.

The complaints reflect the fact that con-artistry, get-rich-quick gimmickry and simple consumer misunderstanding is as likely to occur in cyberspace as anywhere else.

Irritation at spam — un-asked-for and unwelcome e-mail — is one motive driving users to fill out the "Internet Complaint Form" on the site. Offers to participate in pyramid schemes, solicitations to work at home and make a zillion bucks as well as come-ons to participate in dubious contests or promotions have all landed in people's electronic in-boxes — and sent users scurrying to the Attorney General's office, Wenger says.

Other users are shocked to find in their e-mail messages promotions they never received in their real mail boxes: offers for XXX material. Wenger says that because sending bulk e-mail is so much cheaper than sending paper envelopes, sellers of pornography have little to lose, and perhaps a few customers to pick up, by distributing mass electronic advertisements for their wares.

Other complaints revolve around sales themselves, with users reporting that they did not get what they paid for when they participated in online auctions or bought something through a newsgroup advertisement.

Many of the comments have revolved not around scams, but other issues. Privacy concerns loom large, with users worried about what data are being collected from them as they tour Web sites and in particular what kind of information publishers are gathering about children who surf the Internet.
“It's a new medium, but that doesn't mean it's the Wild West, that anything goes.”

Holly Ziemer,
spokesman for Minnesota state attorney general Hubert H. Humphrey III

And about half the complaints regard disputes with Internet or online service providers: billing problems, difficulty getting access to the Internet and the like.

Users send the complaints to the Attorney General's office by filling out a simple form and clicking on the "submit complaint" button. The form then lands in Wenger's e-mail box. Wenger, a lawyer, reviews all complaints, and then decides who should handle them.

Responses may range from the attorney general's office contacting the allegedly offending party to a polite letter describing pending legislation intended to deal with the type of offending behavior described by the user.

But a few of the comments so far have led to something meatier. Wenger said several consumer complaints have assisted in an investigation regarding Internet-related pyramid schemes. He said he could not discuss the investigation in detail, because it is not completed.

Wenger heads the eight-person "Internet and Computer Unit," set up in late August after Vacco received funding for it in the state budget. Wenger thinks Vacco's is the only attorney general's office to have a Web site with complaint forms targeted at Internet misdeeds.

Not all Vacco's attempts to regulate the Internet have been fruitful, however. Earlier this year, Vacco's office misfired when it attempted to defend a New York state law that was intended to shield minors from certain sexual material online. Library groups and a raft of others said the law was unconstitutional. A federal court judge agreed, and the law, much loathed by free speech advocates, is now history.

Nor is Vacco the only state attorney general — or, indeed, the only consumer watch-dog — to be closely scrutinizing the Internet. The Federal Trade Commission has tackled such issues as potentially deceptive medical advertising online. And Better Business Bureaus all over the country are coming up with Internet-related consumer alerts and other services.

In Arizona the state attorney general's office, meanwhile, hopes to use its future Web site — to be online in about a month — to track down possible victims around the world of an alleged online credit card scheme that operated from Arizona, according to Karie K. Dozer, press secretary for Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods.

And in Minnesota, state Attorney General Hubert H. Humphrey III, a man who daily reads newspapers online and corresponds with his staff using e-mail, has mounted a legal challenge to an out-of-state online gambling Web site, saying it violates the state's consumer protection and consumer fraud laws.

"It's a new medium, but that doesn't mean it's the Wild West, that anything goes," says Holly Ziemer, a spokesman for Humphrey.


Digital Metropolis is published weekly, on Mondays. Click here for a list of links to other columns in the series.

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Pamela Mendels at mendels@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.


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