Online fraud complaints jumped 23.3 percent in 2009 to 336,655 with a total loss of $559.7 million, more than doubling the $265 million in losses from 2008, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center’s annual report.
Advanced fee scams that fraudulently used the FBI’s name was the most reported Internet fraud at 16.6 percent, followed by “non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment” at 11.9 percent.
The center is a partnership between FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).
“Law enforcement relies on the corporate sector and citizens to report when they encounter on-line suspicious activity so these schemes can be investigated and criminals can be arrested,” said Peter Trahon, Section Chief of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Computer users are encouraged to have up-to-date security protection on their devices and evaluate email solicitations they receive with a healthy skepticism—if something seems too good to be true, it likely is.”
NW3C Director Donald Brackman said online fraudsters are coming up with increasingly sophisticated means of scamming consumers.
“Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn’t have imagined just five years ago,” Brackman said. “With the public’s continued support, law enforcement will be better able to track down these perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
With the dramatic growth of social media sites, phishing attacks are on the increase. Phishing is when online fraudsters send emails appearing personal, but are actually targeting your log-in information, credit card number or other vital pieces of identification. They phishing links often take you to bogus log-in pages disguised as legitimate websites.
Twitter this week was forced to set up security screenings to block phishing links after recent waves of email attacks through its direct messaging system to Twitter users.
To file a complaint, go to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
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