IC3 Issues 2011 Annual Report

Today, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued its Annual Report for 2011.  Highlights of the Report include:
- For the third year in a row, the IC3 received more than 300,000 complaints. In fact, its 314,246 complaints for 2011 constituted the second-highest annual total since the IC3's creation in 2000.
- Of those who filed complaints in 2011, 51.76 percent were male and 48.24 percent were female. The age distribution of complaints was <20: 3.2 percent; 20-39: 40 percent; 40-59: 43 percent; and 60+: 14 percent.
- The top five reported crime types reported in 2011 were (1) FBI-related scams: 35,764 complaints; (2) identity theft: 28,915; (3) advance fee fraud: 27,892; (4) non-auction non-delivery of merchandise: 22,404; and (5) overpayment fraud (i.e., schemes in which the criminal persuades the victims to deposit a check for more than the amount owed, and the victims later discover that the checks are counterfeit): 18,511.
- The top five fraud types reported in 2011 were (1) work-from-home scams: 17,352; (2) FBI impersonation scams: 14,350; (3) loan intimidation scams: 9,968; (4) auto auction fraud: 4,066; and (5) romance scams: 5,663.