2009-04-01
Abstract
Internet fraud complaints registered in 2008 rise by 33%.
Copyright © 2009 Virus Bulletin
An annual report released by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) – a non-profit fraud-monitoring organization run by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center – shows that the number of complaints of cybercrime it registered in 2008 reached a record 275,284 – a 33.1% increase over the previous year.
The total loss linked to online fraud in 2008 was $265 million – while just four years previously the total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud had been $68 million. Complaints registered during 2008 covered a range of fraud types, with the non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment accounting for the highest number of complaints (32.9%), followed by Internet auction fraud (25.5%) and credit/debit card fraud (9.0%). The report can be read at http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreports.aspx.