Unfortunately, online fraud is an extremely common crime with ever-increasing rates:

• According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), between 2008 and 2009, complaints of online fraud rose by 20%, from 275,000 to 335,000.
• According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in 2009, 60% of fraud complainants reported that the internet was used to initiate the fraud.[1] 
• In 2009, 560 million dollars in losses to fraud-related internet crimes were reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

[1] This statistic does not include identity theft reports.

Graph of Fraud-Related Internet Crimes 2005-2009

Method of Contact for Fraud

Dollars Lost to Online Fraud

For more information on the prevalence of online fraud, visit the Internet Crime Complaint Center or the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel.