Internet Fraud Losses Doubled in 2009

Posted on Mar 13, 2010

Flickr / Don Hankins

$559.7 million was lost in Internet scams in 2009 alone.

From Nigerian “millionaire” plans to “FBI agent” schemes, millions of dollars have been lost to scams on the Internet. Last year saw reported losses from Internet fraud more than double, rising from $264.6 million in 2008 to $559.7 million in 2009. —JCL

Reuters:

Reported losses from Internet fraud more than doubled in 2009, with scams that falsely used the FBI’s name generating the most complaints, the law enforcement agency said on Friday.

The total dollar loss rose to $559.7 million last year from $264.6 million in 2008, based on amounts reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

The number of complaints received increased 22 percent to 336,655 from 275,284.

Schemes in which scammers pretended to be affiliated with the FBI to gain information from victims accounted for 16.6 percent of all complaints received.

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