FBI Reported the Internet Crime Goes Up to 33 Percent in 2008

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the National White Collar Center(NW3C) and FBI, released the 2008 annual report about the Internet crime complaints received. As per the report the Internet Crime jump up to 33 percent. The IC3 said it received 275,000 complaints last year, up from about 207,000 the year before.

The chart below shows the number of complaints received and dollar loss totals for the past five years:
YEAR COMPLAINTS RECEIVED DOLLAR LOSS
2008 275,284 $265 million
2007 206,884 $239.09 million
2006 207,492 $198.44 million
2005 231,493 $183.12 million
2004 207,449 $68.14 million

Total dollar loss reported in 2008 was $265 million—up from $239 million in 2007. The average individual loss was $931. According to the report the most common complaint was for non-delivered merchandise and/or payment, making up 32.9 percent of the referred complaints.

The report details information related to the volume and scope of complaints, complainant and perpetrator characteristics, geographical data, most frequently reported scams, and results of IC3 referrals.

The report said that almost 80 percent of the known fraudsters were male, and of those, nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50. The median dollar loss in 2008 was $931 per complaint, compared to a median $3,000 lost due to check fraud and $2,000 lost resulting from investment scams.

In the U.S., the largest portion of online scams (16 percent) originated from California, followed by New York and Florida.