*I always reflexively doubt statistics of this kind. Still, it's impressive to learn how many Internet bandits pose as the FBI.
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/03/losses-from-internet-crime-more-than-doubled-in-2009.ars
Losses from Internet crime more than doubled in 2009
By Matthew Lasar
(...)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that the total dollar loss from all cases referred to its Internet Crime Complaint center was $559.7 million in 2009. That's more than double the previous year: $264.6 million. And the number of complaints grew substantially as well: 336,655—a 22.3 percent jump from 2008's 275,284.
"The figures contained in this report indicate that criminals are continuing to take full advantage of the anonymity afforded them by the Internet," the FBI's Donald Brackman of the National White Collar Crime Center commented on the latest statistics. "They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers. Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn't have imagined just five years ago." ((("Fast, cheap and out of control.")))
In 2009 the median dollar loss from these incidents was $559.7. That means half of all the complainers sustained losses higher than that amount. But what is probably most frustrating to the FBI is that the top scam for which the agency received cries for help came from the victims of bogus e-mails purporting to originate from the Bureau itself. These represented 16.6 percent of the total number of complaints.
Typical of this kind of dodge was the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate e-mail that made the rounds last June. It gave the appearance of a confidential report on terrorism accidentally released by the FBI...
