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Internet Crime in 2007 Worst On Record

by Tim Stevens on April 4, 2008 at 05:19 PM

Internet Crime in 2007 Worst On Record

2007 was a banner year for technology and technology lovers. Unfortunately, though, it was also a banner year for those who prey on those technology lovers. Computer crime was up, way up, and it shows no signs of slowing down. According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, produced annually by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (or IC3), 206,884 complaints were received in that year. The total reported losses amounted to $240 million, a jump of $40 million over the year previous, or nearly 25% in one year.

The IC3 is run by the FBI and is the central place for making complaints about Internet crime in the U.S. However, as its own report points out, not every Internet crime is reported to the IC3, meaning these numbers probably represent just a small fraction of the real offenses committed last year. The most common crime reported was fraud related to online auctions, but identity theft and and other miscellaneous scams certainly took their toll too.

So, as always, be careful when navigating the cyberseas with credit card in hand, don't give out your personal infos to anyone online. And should you find yourself a victim, make sure you report it!

From the Internet Crime Complaint Center

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Tags: crime, fraud, Internet

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