Nevertheless, officials acknowledged that the operation represents
only a fraction of the crimes being committed on the Internet.
Identity theft alone costs U.S. businesses more than $50 billion a
year, Ashcroft said.
Law enforcement officials in Romania, Nigeria and Cyprus helped
track down people involved in fraudulent auctions, trafficking in
stolen credit card numbers and other crimes, Ashcroft said.
In all, authorities have opened more than 160 investigations and
filed 117 criminal complaints, indictments and other court papers,
according to the Justice Department.
As a result of one investigation, for example, a grand jury on
Wednesday indicted the chief executive of a Massachusetts
communications company and five other people suspected of launching an
Internet attack against competing companies.
The indictment against Jay Echouafni accuses him of using computer
hackers in the United States and Britain to disable the Web sites of
three competitors.
The episode cost Echouafni's rivals more than $2 million in lost
revenue and extra costs, Ashcroft said.
In another case, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles filed charges
Aug. 20 against a man who they say stole almost $800,000 over the
Internet by conducting more than 5,000 fraudulent sales through the
online auction site eBay.
Ashcroft also said he was ordering prosecutors to put into effect
new, stiffer penalties against identity theft that were recently
enacted by Congress.
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