Tech Shout!

The internet is certainly the boon of the day. None can dispute or deny this. As many avenues it offers, perhaps it invites those many risks, problems and complaints too. And if you want proof and numbers for the same, then keep reading.

Sometime around last week, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) stated that it had received its 1 millionth complaint.

Though Donna Gregory, an FBI employee and the supervisory management program analyst with IC3 didn’t state what exactly the 1 millionth complaint was about, she did mention that auction fraud and online financial scams are still the top problems. In fact auction fraud accounted for nearly half of the complaints received by the IC3 in 2006.

Founded seven years back in 2000, IC3 was started as a clearing house for reports of online fraud. The organization is jointly run by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. Information received is then passed on to law enforcement agencies, while the groups keeps a watch on the different patterns in cybercrime.

Initially, fraud was main focus of IC3, however eventually the organization moved into various other spheres which includes a wide range of crimes, including intellectual property disputes, hacking and computer intrusions, economic espionage, online extortion, money laundering, and identity theft.

Until now, the cybercrime watchdogs have referred as many as half-million complaints representing almost $650 million in losses to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

However, in matter of seven years a lot is ought to change and so have the trends in crime.

Speaking about this,Gregory said, “Most of the complaints we saw at the beginning were your typical non-delivery auction fraud.” Adding, “Now we are seeing more complex schemes, involving identity theft and issues where people are using anonymizers and are being affected by keystroke loggers… everything is more sophisticated now.”

Though Gregory didn’t actually say what the 1 millionth complaint was about, she did note that auction fraud and online financial scams are still the top problems.