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State Prosecutors On Fraud Patrol
by Michael Martinez
State prosecutors this week marked National Consumer Protection Week by calling attention to their most recent efforts to curb consumer fraud.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday ranked complaints to his office during the past year. Internet-related complaints topped the list, accounting for 7,723 out of an estimated 51,000. It was the first time the Internet topped the annual list.
According to Spitzer, the most common Internet-related complaints involved secretly installed computer "spyware," unsolicited commercial e-mails, and the non-delivery of and overcharging for ordered goods.
"The Internet has become the new Main Street of our society," Spitzer, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said in a release. "It has brought great benefits but also new opportunities for the unscrupulous."
Problems related to credit cards and identity theft ranked second on Spitzer's list, with 6,164 complaints. Telecommunications-related complaints came in fourth, with 3,372.
Consumers in Michigan expressed similar concerns to the office of Attorney General Michael Cox last year. His list, released Tuesday, ranked ID theft and telecom complaints as the most common categories in 2005. Internet-related complaints ranked fifth.
On Monday, Cox also announced that his office recovered $9.2 million for consumers during the first three years of his administration -- almost $1 million more than his predecessor recovered during a four-year period.
"My office will continue to aggressively protect consumers from scam artists," Cox said in a release. "We will continue to take the lead in issuing consumer alerts, and we will investigate all types of consumer schemes -- whether it is Internet abuses, identity thieves who prey on Michigan citizens, or any other type of countless consumer rip-offs, including item pricing."
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon last week announced that consumers in his state now can file complaints to his office online. The system also features a separate electronic form for ID theft. Nixon said his office received more than 90,000 consumer complaints in 2005.
"In the last six months, we've received almost 300 complaints about identity theft," he said in a release. "I expect that number to also increase, as more consumers learn how to detect and report identity theft. Right now, many victims of identity theft don't report the problem to the authorities."
Keystone Laptops
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell on Wednesday pledged to invest $200 million in an initiative to put laptop computers in public schools throughout the Keystone State.
In his annual budget address to the state legislature, Rendell announced a goal to put laptops on every desk in schools that teach core subjects by 2009. His "Classrooms for the Future" program also mandates the installation of multimedia teacher resources and increased professional development for teachers so they can incorporate new technologies into their lesson plans.
Rendell told lawmakers that similar programs are working in states such as Massachusetts and South Dakota, and he urged them to Pennsylvania lawmakers to act quickly.
Last month, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney included an initiative to issue laptops to middle- and high-school students in a sweeping education plan. And in December, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds announced a proposal to spend $39 million over three years to equip every high-school student in the state with laptops.
"I would love to say that this idea is one that will put Pennsylvania in front of other states and that when we were developing this program, we thought we would be at the forefront of the nation," Rendell said. "But other states are already blazing the trail."
Rendell said the integration of new technologies into public schools will better prepare students to compete in the world economy. In order to keep more students with technological skills in Pennsylvania, his proposed budget calls for scholarships to engineering, math and science students who agree to work in the state after they graduate.
"No one can seriously dispute that our high schools need to be transformed to teach in ways that use technology," he said. "Our teachers stand before the 'technology generation' and rely on blackboards and at best two-year-old textbooks, while their students' brains and approach to the world are hard-wired to technology."
Kansas Launches Online Indecency Toolkit
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius this week announced the launch of a state-sponsored Web site that provides information for parents on how they can protect their children from indecent content on the Internet and in television programs, movies and videogames.
The site contains a toolkit parents can use to monitor materials. It also includes a catalogue of links to family groups following indecency issues, to free Internet-filtering software and to instructions to install parental controls on televisions.
"Videogames and music lyrics promote violence, while ever-looser standards for movies and TV shows bring inappropriate material right into our living rooms," Sebelius said on the site. "The Internet poses safety threats I never dreamed of when my boys were little."
Sebelius said that many parents need help to tackle the challenges that advances in technology have created and that they should have an outlet to report the problems they encounter.
"I don't believe moms and dads should be alone in their fight to raise children the right way, which is why I want to help Kansas parents by providing access to tools to protect their children from inappropriate materials," she said.
Kentucky Pushes Forward On Broadband
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher on Wednesday issued a report listing the growth of high-speed Internet access in his state as the fastest in the country.
The report found that home broadband usage in Kentucky has increased from 22 percent to 32 percent during the past two years, and that more than 240,000 homes currently have broadband. According to the study, more than 90 percent of the state's residents will have access to broadband by the end of the year.
Fletcher's goal is to have broadband available to all of Kentucky by the end of 2007. He made the declaration in October 2004 when he announced his "Prescription for Innovation." According to Fletcher, full-scale broadband deployment could bring more than $5 billion into the state and create as many as 14,000 jobs.
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