Complaints of internet fraud received by a US watchdog last year rose by 33 percent from 2007, its latest report shows. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which includes the FBI, received 275,284 complaints in 2008, which amounted to losses of USD 265m. The most common complaint was non-delivery of goods followed by internet auction fraud and credit card fraud. The IC3 warned that figures would probably rise through 2009 as the global economic downturn deepens. Complaints in March alone rose by nearly 50 percent, said the report's author, John Kane. The IC3, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, said last year's losses compared with USD 239m in 2007 and dwarfed the USD 18m losses it reported in 2001. The average amount lost by individual victims in 2008 was USD 931, it said. Of those who complained to the IC3 in 2008, 66 percent reported internet crime originating in the US, followed by the UK in second place at 11 percent, Nigeria 7.5 percent, Canada 3 percent and China 1.6 percent. The IC3 report said 72,940 complaints were passed on to US law enforcement agencies for possible prosecution. Mr Kane, managing director of the National White Collar Crime Center, said the numbers could represent just the tip of an iceberg. 'Our own research suggests that as few as 15 percent of cases of cyber-fraud are being reported to crime control agencies,' he said
http://www.ejc.net/media_news/cyber_crime_rising_report_warns/
