Whether they'll have any luck finding these crooks depends on how digitally savvy they were. If the bad guys used proxy services to mask their IP addresses -- and those services don't maintain user logs -- it's unlikely law enforcement will get very far.

Does that mean online anonymity is a bad thing? Not necessarily. These same , where saying the wrong thing online can land you in prison -- or worse.

Where do you stand on the Internet anonymity debate? Should all of our online activities be traceable? E-mail me direct: cringe@infoworld.com.