"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
NOYB wrote:


Someone stole my wife's ID and credit card info recently.

Yikes! That sucks. Sorry to hear about it.


I did a little more probing around and found that (thanks to the Patriot
Act) it's actually the Secret Service's Electronic Crime Task Force that
handles investigations into internet crimes.
Having gone through all of this, I realized that without the Patriot
Act,
there'd be no agency with the authority, know-how, or interest to even
pursue a case like this. No wonder internet crime had become so
popular...and had become a preferred method of communication and revenue
generation by the terrorists.

I've seen the Patriot Act work in my favor...but have yet to see it work
against me or any other law-abiding citizen that I know.


But it wasn't the unPatriotic Act that provided help...it was the Secret
Service.


The Patriot Act gave to the USSS the authority and responsibility to
investigate internet crimes. Prior to that, nobody was sure *who* was
responsible and had jurisdiction.


We had a couple of really nasty crank calls some years ago, two serious
enough to contact the local police, who put us in direct contact with
the FBI. They took care of the perps in a satisfactory fashion. One of
the perps no longer posts here, at least not under the handle he had
used in rec.boats.

This was before the unPatriotic Act.

Apparently the local police up here are a little more "with it."

It wasn't the phone calls that the agent was most interested in. If it was
merely phone threats, I suspect that the FBI would have been the
organization to contact. However, it was the fact that the thief used the
internet to commit identity theft, credit card fraud, and the sale of stolen
merchandise...and was doing this on an international scale. I called the
local FBI office and they said an agent would call back, which he never did.
I never followed up with them because I spoke with the USSS agent
immediately after leaving a message at the FBI's office.