The Internet Crime Complaint Center’s latest study turns up some interesting statistics – like men more likely to be duped by Internet fraud than women.

The study suggests that for every dollar women lose to Internet scammers, men lose $1.67 more. The IC3 is a partnership formed by the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and Bureau of Justice Assistance. Last year, the IC3 received nearly 220,000 complaints of Internet crime. More than half, or 57.6%, were male and from one of the four most populated states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York.

The patterns showed that men were more likely to fall for investment scams which they believed would have the biggest payout. Women were more easily duped by auction scams, but not more than men. Men also were more likely to fall for that infamous scam-of-scams – the Nigerian fraud.

The IC3 report also detailed a rather sobering statistic – that internet fraud overall rose  last year, with a $40 million increase in losses. Surprisingly, the Internet scam complaints to IC3 have lessened but perhaps because some of these crimes have gone unreported.

“The Internet presents a wealth of opportunity for would be criminals to prey on unsuspecting victims, and this report shows how extensive these types of crime have become,” said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James E. Finch. “What this report does not show is how often this type of activity goes unreported. Filing a complaint through IC3 is the best way to alert law enforcement authorities of Internet crime.”

Internet auction fraud was the most widely reported complaint, with other reported incidents including credit/debit card fraud, non-delivery of purchases, spam, hacking and child pornography.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 11:05 am under Internet, Security.

Read more entries by Erna Mahyuni.
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