FBI: Reported Loss From Internet Crime at All Time High

The FBI has released figures showing that reported dollar loss from internet crime is at an all time high.

The FBI, in partnership with the USA’s National White Collar Crime Centre has established a reporting centre for all ‘cyber’ related crime; The Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3).

Figures released by IC3 show that 2007 saw the highest financial loss recorded since it’s launch in 2000, putting the figure at 240 million dollars.

Internet auction fraud was the most commonly reported crime, followed closely by reports of credit and debit card fraud.

The report also highlights fraud as an international problem.
Worryingly, the UK fairs badly; and figures show that the UK is second only to the USA in hosting perpetrators of internet crime; accounting for over 15% of all reports made.

A downturn in reporting online crime?
However, despite having a central system to report online crime IC3 only recorded 206,884 reports and this figure covers all types of online crime from hacking, theft of trade secrets, online extortion and money laundering through to identity theft.

The figure reported for 2007 was also a 0.3% decrease in the number of reports filed in 2006. These figures may seem unrepresentative of a wider problem and as FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James E. Finch points out: “What this report does not show is how often this type of activity goes unreported.” The report goes on to suggest that only 1 in 7 internet crimes are ever reported.

Further Information
The full report is available via the IC3 website at: http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreports.aspx