The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) are
reporting a 33 percent increase in the number of Internet crimes reported to the IC3 in 2008 over 2007. The number of reported Internet crimes actually declined between 2006 and 2007. Despite that decline, the value of reported crimes grew more in 2007 than in 2008. According to the report, the total dollar amount of reported Internet fraud increased by 40 percent from 2006 to 2007, while total reported losses grew by less than 11 percent between 2007 and 2008. Between 2005 and 2006 the total number of complaints received by IC3 actually declined by 24,000, while the total monetary value of the loss grew by less than 8 percent, the slowest growth since 2004.
E-mail is the most common method scammers use to contact victims while contact made through Web pages is second, according to the report. The majority of reported fraud concerned non-delivery of goods and auction fraud. Credit/debit card fraud constituted 9 percent of reports while 2 percent of complaints concerned identity theft.
Geographic analysis of where scams originated and their victims showed two-thirds of attacks originated and affected victims in the United States with California, New York, Florida and Texas being the top four states for the incidence of both attackers and victims.
