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Spam, phishing, identity theft, and online job scams are just some of the fastest growing types of crime today. Cybercrime is a growing business, netting millions for spammers, hackers, and malware authors, and a new study by the Center for American Progress says the US isn’t doing a thing about it. CAP, a think tank, surveyed all 50 states and discovered that 24 of them had online fraud among their top consumer complaints.

Malware, spyware, and phishing cost US consumers over $7 billion dollars last year. Yes, you read that right, $7 billion! Much of that comes from lost productivity, identity theft, and fraud such as the 419 or Nigeria scams. Despite this, the study didn’t find many prosecutions of online criminals.

“It’s clear ... that state attorneys general are not doing a whole lot about Internet consumer protection,” Reece Rushing, CAP’s director of regulatory and information policy, said at a news conference. “They haven’t made it a priority. In the states that have made it a priority they’ve been able to win settlements.”

The National Association of Attorneys General seems to confirm that. Their bimonthly Cybecrime Newsletter reported just 55 prosecutions in 2006 and 2007 combined. The reasons for such a poor record are unclear. Is it because they aren’t technologically savvy enough? Possibly-but to be fair, cybercriminals aren’t always easy to track down. They are experts at using forged headers and other tricks to hide their tracks, and many operate from foreign countries who aren’t exactly eager to cooperate with U.S authorities. One thing is clear however. Online fraud isn’t going away and needs to be taken very seriously or the entire online retail industry will suffer.

Read [PC World]