According to a recently released FBI report, 2008 was a record year for online fraud, with Internet fraud complaints rising an astonishing 33% over the previous year. ITWorld.com is reporting that the Federal Bureau of investigation processed over 275,000 new complaints in 2008. The dollar lost value associated with Internet fraud is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $265 million.
According to the FBI’s 2008 Internet Crime Report, complaints of Internet fraud steadily dropped from 2001 until 2005. But beginning in mid-2006, the fraudsters reared their heads again, and the number of fraud complaints began to skyrocket, culminating in 2008 being the biggest year ever for online swindlers.
Internet security experts also report that 2008 was the biggest year ever for online crime, as many of the cyber-swindling techniques were perfected, including the now infamous “SQL injection” virus that infected thousands off computers around the world in 2008. Swindlers also became more adapt at stealing sensitive information like banking passwords, etc. from infected computers, and according to some reports, organized crime became more heavily involved in cyber fraud last year, especially in developing nations and throughout the former Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, even though reports of Internet fraud are up, the FBI and local authorities have had very little success in tracking down the ringleaders and bringing online fraudsters to justice. For their part, the FBI is increasing its budget aimed at thwarting online criminals, and developing new techniques to discover and neutralize harmful viruses before they can become a serious threat. But many pundits feel that these techniques are but a drop in the bucket compared to the growing numbers of online fraud cases.
The biggest jump in complaints in 2008 involved compromise credit and debit card information, including card passwords and identity theft. Even large-scale national payment processors such as RBS WorldPay were hacked in 2008. Heartland Payment Systems was also the target of hackers, and overall, credit card fraud amounted to over 9% of all online fraud cases last year, a significant rise from 2007.
The majority of Internet fraud, however, is still being done the old-fashioned way: through e-mail. Scammers use fraudulent e-mails to contact consumers and coerce them into revealing sensitive information, or downloading an attachment containing a virus that allows remote access of the user’s computer. When these methods fail, hackers have been known to hack directly into the e-mail accounts of their marks, asking friends for cash to help them out of a “tough situation.”
As always, the best defense against this type of fraud is simple common sense, and double checking to ensure that e-mails are coming from the person you think they’re coming from.
Internet fraud has grown by 33% in 2008 and that is not good news.Authorities will have to be careful.
Comment by InternetFraud — April 20, 2009 @ 7:38 am