The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released it’s 2007 Internet Crime Report last week.
The IC3 is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Per their webpage:
IC3’s mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.
This is the official press release in regards to the annual report (LINK):
Contact: Cathy Milhoan
FBI National Press Office
(202)324-3691
[email protected]
www.fbi.govContact: Craig Butterworth
National White Collar Crime Center
(804)273-6932 ext. 355
[email protected]
www.nw3c.orgFor Immediate Release
April 3, 2008
Reported Dollar Loss From Internet Crime Reaches All Time HighWashington, D.C. – According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006. All complaints received by IC3 are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts.
“The Internet presents a wealth of opportunity for would be criminals to prey on unsuspecting victims, and this report shows how extensive these types of crime have become,” said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James E. Finch. “What this report does not show is how often this type of activity goes unreported. Filing a complaint through IC3 is the best way to alert law enforcement authorities of Internet crime.”
Although Internet auction fraud was the most widely reported complaint, others cited in the report include fraudulent activity such as non-delivery of purchases and credit/debit card fraud, and non-fraudulent activity such as computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited e-mail, and child pornography. In an effort to raise public awareness, the report also describes the characteristics of commonly reported scams such as those involving the purchase or sale of pets, check scams, e-mail spam, and online dating fraud.
IC3 is a joint operation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center to serve as a vehicle to receive cyber crime complaints from private citizens and industry, and to develop and refer complaints to law enforcement. The National White Collar Crime Center, a Bureau of Justice Assistance program, provides a nationwide support system for agencies involved in the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of economic and high-tech crimes, and supports and partners with other appropriate entities in addressing homeland security initiatives related to economic and high-tech crimes. More information about the National White Collar Crime Center is available at www.nw3c.org.
The 2007 Internet Crime Complaint Report is available at www.ic3.gov/media/annualreports.aspx. To receive the latest information about the FBI, visit www.fbi.gov to sign up for e-mail alerts.
As noted above, here is a link to the full report: 2007 Internet Crime Complaint Report
This is the Executive Summary from the report:
The 2007 Internet Crime Report is the seventh annual compilation of information on complaints received and referred by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to law enforcement or regulatory agencies for appropriate investigative action. From January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007, the IC3 website received 206,884 complaint submissions. This is a 0.3% decrease when compared to 2006 when 207,492 complaints were received. These filings were composed of fraudulent and non-fraudulent complaints primarily related to the Internet.
In 2007, IC3 processed more than 219,553 complaints that support Internet crime investigations by law enforcement and regulatory agencies nationwide. These complaints were composed of many different fraud types such as auction fraud, non-delivery, and credit/debit card fraud, as well as other illegal behavior, such as computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited e-mail, and child pornography. All of these complaints are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts.
From the submissions, IC3 referred 90,008 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of cases referred alleged fraud and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $239.09 million with a median dollar loss of $680.00 per complaint. This was an increase from $198.44 million in total reported losses in 2006. Other significant findings related to an analysis of referrals include:
- Perpetrators were predominantly male (75.8%) and half resided in one of the following states: California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The majority of reported perpetrators were from the United States. However, a significant number of perpetrators also were located in United Kingdom, Nigeria, Canada, Romania, and Italy.
- Among complainants, 57.6% were male, nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and one-third resided in one of the four most populated states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York. While most were from the United States, IC3 received a number of complaints from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Mexico.
- Males complainants lost more money than females (ratio of $1.67 to every $1.00 lost per female). This may be a function of both online purchasing differences by gender and the type of fraudulent schemes by which the individuals were victimized.
- Electronic mail (e-mail) (73.6%) and web pages (32.7%) were the two primary mechanisms by which the fraudulent contact took place.
- Recent high activity scams commonly reported to the IC3 in 2007 were those involving pets, checks, spam, and online dating sites, all of which have proven effective as criminal devices in the hands of fraudsters.
Jason De Bord