http://www.theadvocate.com/news/story.asp?StoryID=13394 By JOE GYAN JR. New Orleans bureau HARAHAN -- An FBI agent who leads a computer crimes squad in New Orleans said Thursday that, with the global Internet population currently at 245 million users and expected to hit 375 million by years end, the amount of "e-crime" will rise as well. "The problem with the Internet is only going to get worse," Special Agent Will Hatcher, who heads the FBIs National Infrastructure Protection/Computer Intrusion Squad, told law-enforcement officials from metro New Orleans. Hatcher, who said more than a third (135.7 million) of the World Wide Webs users are found in the United States, recounted a number of e-crime cases investigated by the FBI, including that of Carlos "Smak" Salgado Jr. of San Francisco. Before Salgado was arrested in May 1997, Hatcher said, he used the Internet to steal 80,000 credit-card numbers with roughly $1.36 billion worth of available credit. The projected fraud to four major credit-card companies was more than $150 million, he said. [More inflated damage figures. One person with 80,000 cards can NOT cause 150 million in fraud. Even distributing these numbers for free to criminals everywhere, it is highly unlikely that they could ring up that much damage before the cards were noticed and cancelled.] [snip..] Sabludowsky said neither the state nor the federal government has the resources to combat what he termed "cybercrime." Hatcher used the term "e-crime." [The ever present call for money. The driving force behind article like this. The FBI seems to be no different than large security companies. Both want your money.] [snip..] Sabludowsky said a recent report released to the California Senate found that more than $6.5 billion is lost annually in California to high-tech crime. [A damage figure that is very likely not explained well here. California has a high rate of non technical crime where people steal computer components. Because RAM and Hard Drives are involved, these crimes are often called 'high tech' when it involves old fashioned burglary or hijacking.]