WASHINGTON -- (March 16, 2007) -- The FBI’s
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) today released its
annual Internet Fraud Crime Report. From January 1 through
December 31, 2006, the center received 207,492 complaint
submissions. These filings were composed of fraudulent and
non-fraudulent complaints primarily related to the Internet
and included many different fraud types to include auction
fraud, non-delivery, and credit/debit card fraud, as well
as non-fraudulent complaints, such as computer intrusions,
spam/unsolicited email, and child pornography.
“This report demonstrates how widespread and sophisticated
internet crime has become,” said Cyber Division
Assistant Director James E. Finch. “The FBI remains
committed to working with our partners in both law enforcement
and in the private business sector to help investigate
and combat these types of crimes.”
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.
During 2006, IC3 referred 86,279 complaints of crime to
federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around
the country for further consideration. The vast majority
of the cases were fraudulent in nature and involved a
financial loss on the part of the complainant. According
to the report, the total dollar loss from all referred
cases of fraud was $198.44 million with a median dollar
loss of $724 per complaint.
Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense,
comprising 44.9 percent of referred complaints. Electronic
e-mail and webpages were the two primary mechanisms by
which the fraudulent contact took place. Of those individuals
who reported a dollar loss, the highest median losses
were found among Nigerian letter fraud ($5,100), check
fraud ($3,744), and other investment fraud ($2,694).
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a joint
project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime
Center. To view the entire 2006 Internet Fraud Crime Report,
go to www.ic3.gov/media/annualreports.aspx.
SOURCE: FBI National Press Office
