By: Larry F. Waldman, PhD, ABPP Psychologist

You’re walking down the street and someone confronts you, demands your wallet or purse or face physical harm—or, as you are about to get into your car, you are carjacked. Both of these experiences are scary, frightening, traumatic and terribly inconvenient. On the other hand, your identity is stolen electronically and your bank account is drained. Again, you are scared, traumatized, may even feel some shame and are greatly inconvenienced.

In the first two above cases the experience was personal but in the last situation it was remote. Nevertheless, the victim in each case feels pretty much the same.

There is, though, another significant difference between the personal criminal event and the remote one. If the crime is personal the police are likely to get involved—or, at least, take some information. However, if the crime is of the remote variety, law enforcement isn’t interested.

It is clearly no surprise that internet/identity theft is proliferating. With advancing technology crooks are regularly finding new ways to rob. Why not? The likelihood of prosecution is negligible!

It is high time that law enforcement become as technically sophisticated as criminals. There should be specialized units developed to pursue and prosecute internet crime. Just like using the mail for illegal acts increases the penalty, so should using the Internet to harm people be prosecuted and additionally penalized.