FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

Every year the Internet Crime Complaint Center (ICCC) of the FBI prepares its Internet Fraud Crime Report. Keeping with the trend the Center released its 2007 Internet Fraud Crime Report on March 19 this year. The report said the center had received 207,492 complaints for 2006, reported Timesrecordnews.

The 2007 annual report contained fraudulent and non-fraudulent complaints associated with the Internet. The fraudulent complaints include various types like auction fraud, credit/debit card fraud and frauds due to non-delivery. The non-fruadulent complaints included computer intrusions, child pornography, and spam/unsolicited junk e-mails.

Internet auction fraud accounted for the most complaint submissions accounting for 44.9% of all complaints. The fruadulent contacts were primarily through electronic mail and web pages. Of the different cases of dollar loss the Nigerian letter fraud comprised an average loss of $5,100; check fraud - $3,744; and other investment fraud - $2,694. Of all these frauds, auction fraud declined considerably to 63% from 2005.

On the whole the ICCC received a 10% less of complaints compared to 2005 numbering to 231,493. However, the total money loss went up in 2006 to U.S. $168m as compared to $183m in 2005, Washingtonpost reported on March 19, 2007.

The report demonstrated the widespread and sophisticated nature of Internet crime, said James E. Finch, assistant director of the Cyber Division. Finch also said the FBI had decided to work jointly with both law enforcement agency and the private commercial sector with the objective to investigate and fight against such crimes. Timesrecordnews published Finch's statement on March 19, 2007.

The report also highlighted that most perpetrators were male individuals with 61% living in the U.S. Others spread in Canada, U.K., Romania, Italy and Nigeria, reported Newsblaze on March 19, 2007.

Complaints relating to non-delivery of merchandise accounted for 19% in 2006 against 16% in 2005. Macworld published these figures on March 19, 2007.

The ICCC has culminated from the joint efforts of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. It was founded in 2000 with the goal to clear all Internet crime complaints by tracking those frauds in the U.S. cyber space.

Related article: FBI’s ‘Operation Bot Roast’ Set to Bring Around Hackers

» SPAMfighter News - 3/30/2007