Cyberspace is also a borderless phenomena. It will be very difficult for governments to regulate commerce in cyberspace. If consumers are informed, or if repeat sales are important, market forces may tend to correct problems for consumers. However, consumer dealings with anonymous cyberspace merchants may not fit Posner's prescription for laissez-faire. Sources of Major Consumer Problems in Cyberspace Rather than considering all possible consumer protection issues in cyberspace, it may be useful to consider fundamental sources of consumer protection problems.
Ignorance is an obvious candidate for a source of consumer protection problems.
However, if a consumer is ignorant but skeptical, damage may be limited. Various human weaknesses, when combined with ignorance, may lead to many types of consumer protection problems. One problem with investing fraud is that it might take a long time for an investor to discover that there is a problem. For investors in the United States, all of the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission should apply, but there is obviously a difference between trying to recover funds from your local stock broker and some cyberspace boiler room operator. The general problem predates cyberspace by many years, perhaps dating back to when long distance telephone calls became relatively cheap.