Top 10 Internet Frauds

Online crime complaints increased substantially last year, with the number of fraud complaints jumping 22.3 percent and total losses linked to online fraud reaching almost $560 million. That’s according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, which released the 2009 Internet Crime Report.

From the 336,655 complaints to the center, the total loss linked to online fraud was $559.7 million up from $265 million in 2008.

Advanced fee scams that used the FBI’s name ranked number one. Non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment was the second most reported offense.

Other popular Internet scams in 2009 involved hit men, economic stimulus funds, astrological readings, work-from-home job sites and fake pop-up ads for antiviral software.

In one hit man scam, victims receive an e-mail from a member of an organization such as the “Ishmael Ghost Islamic Group” who claims he was hired to assassinate the victim but that for $800 the killing can be prevented.

Another popular scam has involved supposed government economic stimulus funds. Callers instruct victims to sign up on a Web site such as nevergiveitback.com or myfedmoney.com. After they complete an online application and pay a $28 fee, victims are assured they will receive large sums of government monies, but they never do.

Donald Brackman, director of the White Collar Crime Complaint Center, said the findings underscore the threat posed by cyber criminals. “The figures contained in this report indicate that criminals are continuing to take full advantage of the anonymity afforded them by the Internet. They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers,” he said.

Most perpetrators of Internet fraud remain anonymous, but in cases where victims were able to provide some identification, more than 76 percent of the perpetrators were male. The average complainant was also male, between 40 and 49.

Of those complaints reporting monetary loss, the mean dollar loss was $5,580 and the median was $575. More than 20 percent (21.7 percent) of complaints referred to law enforcement involved losses of less than $100, and 36.7 percent reported a loss between $100 and $1,000. Just over 28 percent (28.3 percent) of the complaints reported losses between $1,000 and $5,000.Investment fraud (median loss of $1,857) and advance fee fraud (median loss of $1,500) were also high dollar loss categories.

The Top 10 Most Common Internet Fraud Complaints

Topics Fraud Profit Loss