FBI Announces Release Of 2006 Annual Internet Fraud Crime Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) today released its annual Internet Fraud Crime Report. From January 1 through December 31, 2006, the center received 207,492 complaint submissions. These filings were composed of fraudulent and non-fraudulent complaints primarily related to the Internet and included many different fraud types to include auction fraud, non-delivery, and credit/debit card fraud, as well as non-fraudulent complaints, such as computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited email, and child pornography.

“This report demonstrates how widespread and sophisticated internet crime has become,” said Cyber Division Assistant Director James E. Finch. “The FBI remains committed to working with our partners in both law enforcement and in the private business sector to help investigate and combat these types of crimes.”

All complaints received by IC3 are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts. During 2006, IC3 referred 86,279 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of the cases were fraudulent in nature and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant. According to the report, the total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $198.44 million with a median dollar loss of $724 per complaint.

Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 44.9 percent of referred complaints. Electronic e-mail and webpages were the two primary mechanisms by which the fraudulent contact took place. Of those individuals who reported a dollar loss, the highest median losses were found among Nigerian letter fraud ($5,100), check fraud ($3,744), and other investment fraud ($2,694).

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. To view the entire 2006 Internet Fraud Crime Report, go to www.ic3.gov/media/annualreports.aspx.



####