Albany

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers may have been among the hundreds of thousands of Americans who had their identities stolen in a "massive scheme" to corrupt the federal review of a change to how the internet works, according to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The attorney general also said Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission, which is poised to end a policy of so-called "net neutrality" to give internet companies more control over how and what customers can see, ignored warnings from his office since this summer.

"Hundreds of thousands of Americans likely were victimized during the FCC's public comment process on net neutrality. That's akin to identity theft, and it happened on a massive scale," Schneiderman wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "I encourage the FCC to reconsider its refusal to assist in my office's law enforcement investigation to identify and hold accountable those who illegally misused so many New Yorkers' identities to corrupt the public comment process."

Under the administration of Presidential Donald J. Trump, the FCC is poised to change two-decade old internet rules, so that companies that own the networks could speed up access to some sites, slow it down or halt it to others, or charge extra for faster internet speeds.

The FCC got nearly 22 million comments by its mid-August deadline. Issues with apparently fake comments surfaced publicly this spring, with fake pro- and con- net neutrality comments both being alleged.

Scheneiderman said Pai's office ignored requests to provide "logs and other records" made by state investigators nine times between June and November.

The FCC press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"In an era where foreign governments have indisputably tried to use the internet and social media to influence our elections, federal and state governments should be working together to ensure that malevolent actors cannot subvert our administrative agencies' decision-making processes," wrote Schneiderman.

Amy Spitanick, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman, said the investigation was not able to determine the potential sources of comments that used the identities of real New Yorkers. "The FCC is refusing to cooperate. We'd need certain materials in order to potentially answer that," she said.

Scheneiderman said his office's investigation found other "fake" comments submitted to the FCC on the issue came from people whose identities who may have been hijacked in California, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas "and possibly others."

Opponents of the rule changes warn it will allow broadband companies to block or slow access to the internet, or to certain sites that might be owned by competitors; or to charge extra for speedier service. Tech giants like Amazon, Google and Netflix opposed the changes.

Support for the changes comes from broadband companies including AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, which claim current rules discourage investment in their networks.