Internet Fraud Initiative Continues To Expand As A Global Medium

usdoj., Feb 10, 2005

The Internet continues to expand as a global medium for electronic commerce and communication. Increasingly, Internet fraud is the type of cybercrime most likely to cause significant harm to consumers and businesses here and abroad and to
undermine consumer confidence in the Internet.

Complaints increase each year, and the number of transborder Internet fraud schemes, which require a substantial coordination of effort between the United States and foreign law enforcement agencies, has increased significantly. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation  (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), opened on May 8, 2000. In 2001, the IFCC handled 16,775 fraud complaints, with the majority of those frauds committed over the Internet or other online service.

In 2001 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), through its Consumer Sentinel database, received more than 20,000 consumer complaints just on Internet auction fraud. In 2000 and 2001, the IFCC, the FTC,
and the National Consumers League reported online auction sales were the No. 1 source of Internet fraud.The Fraud Section leads the Department's Internet Fraud Initiative to define the scope of the problem, develop litigation expertise, coordinate the federal response, train prosecutors and investigators, develop investigative and analytical resources, and conduct public education and prevention programs.