289,874 Cybercrime Complains in 2012, Received by IC3
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently launched its 2012 Internet crime Report, which claims that the IC3 got and executed 289,874 cyber crime complaints in 2012, a mean of more than twenty-four thousand or 24,000 complaints every month, reported securityplanet.com dated May 15, 2013.
Notably, the IC3 is an affiliation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the NW3C or the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
The report also claims that 114,908 among the complaints report a financial loss, with a total loss of $525,441,110, an increase of 8.3% in reported losses from 2011. Almost the loss for these reporting a loss was $4,573, and the mean loss overall per complaint was $1,813.
While there's no finishing point to the types of Internet scams, the new report highlights some frequent scams of 2012.
FBI impersonating email scam is one of the cyber scam in 2012. Names of several govt. agencies and govt. officials have been exploited in spam campaigns for specified time, and complaints associated to spam email supposedly sent by FBI continues to be the most reported scams. These scams that include aspects of Nigerian snail mails, integrate get wealthy inheritance ambience, phony lottery winning, and extortion threats.
Scareware/ransomware is another frequent scam that was reported 1,969 times, attributing $1.3 million in losses. The recent twist to ransomware: using the IC3's name in the attack; "the victim's computers were compromised, and a screen shows a notification of violation of federal laws. These victims are advised to pay a fine to unlock their system via prepaid money card services. If they do not pay within the specified period of time they could be subjected to prosecution.
Richard A. McFeely, Executive Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, commented: "Cyber-thieves are increasingly drifting towards the virtual world (Internet) from the physical world with their deceitful tricks. Internauts who presume or become sufferer's of Internet frauds -including, phishing websites, suspicious e-mails and online crimes must report their suffering to the IC3," as published by fedscoop.com on May 15, 2013.
ยป SPAMfighter News - 5/21/2013
