Internet crime is on the rise, with reports of cybercrime increasing by 3.4 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2011 Internet Crime Report. Contrary to public perception, it’s not older, less computer savvy users or young people who are most-often the victims, but individuals between 40-59 and 20-30 years old.
The report revealed a total of 314,246 Internet crime complaints reported to IC3 in 2011, with more than 26,000 complaints per month, which resulted in a total loss of $485.3 million. IC3 is a partnership among the FBI’s Cyber Division, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the National White Collar Crime Center, which collects complaints of Internet crime from the public and shares information with law enforcement.
“Every day IC3 receives complaints from victims who clicked links in an email or paid up front for a product or service only to be conned out of their hard-earned money,” the report stated.
The top five states by number of complaints were California, Florida, Texas, New York, and Ohio. People aged 40 to 59 registered the most complaints (43 percent), while the next biggest group of victims were those aged 20 to 30, then those 60 and older and finally those under 20 years old.
The top five crime types were FBI-related scams in which criminals posed as the FBI, identity theft; advance fee fraud, where criminals attempted to convince victims to pay a fee for something that was never delivered to the victim; non-delivery of purchased merchandise; and overpayment.
The most commonly reported crimes included auto auction fraud, where people sold vehicles that never existed (4,066 complaints totaling $8.2 million in losses); romance scams where criminals sought money primarily from older, divorced and/or widowed individuals (5,663 complaints totaling $50.4 million); work-from-home scams where scammers attempted to recruit for false jobs that covered for theft (17,532 complaints totaling $20.1 million); and loan intimidation scams (9,968 complaints totaling $8.2 million).
IC3 also outlines tips people should follow to avoid the most common Internet scams at: www.ic3.gov/preventiontips.aspx
