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FBI - Online Fraud Complaints up 33%

A recent article on Yahoo! Tech disclosed that 2008 was the busiest year yet for perpetrators of online fraud, according to an annual Internet Crime Report by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI Crime Complaint Center recorded more than 275,000 Internet based complaints last year – that’s 33 percent higher than 2007 -- resulting in about US$265 million dollars worth of losses. Since 2005, complaints at the Center had been declining, but 2008 ended that trend and saw a spike in the median dollar loss per complaint as well, from $680 in 2007 to $931 last year.

Computer security experts explain that 2008 was a significant year for cyber criminals so the jump in complaints wasn't surprising. They saw them perfect techniques, build automated "SQL Injection" programs that quickly place malicious attack code on multiple, actually thousands of websites, and run massive networks of botnet computers, used to steal sensitive information and infect and recruit other computers.

Traditional complaints of online auction fraud and non-delivery of merchandise continue to account for more than half of the complaints, although auction-fraud complaints were down more than 10% from 2007 results.

Credit and debit card complaints were up in a year when two major payment card processors -- Heartland Payment Systems and RBS WorldPay were hacked. In 2007, credit and payment card fraud made up 6.3% of complaints while 2008 saw this kind of crime account for 9% of the total.

E-mail is the top resource used to reach victims, and spam designed to steal sensitive financial information was "one of the more significant scams" the complaint center saw last year. In a particular new scam, ironic for the FBI to be monitoring, fraud operators sent e-mail appearing to be sent by the FBI itself, asking for bank account information in order to help with a financial investigation. Some recipients are even told that if they do not comply with the “FBI” request for information they will be prosecuted.

Data coming into the FBI Complaint Center comes directly from the cyber crime victims. It is then shared with law enforcement and regulatory agencies that use it to get a track on crime trends and to prosecute criminals.

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