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Overview
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), which began operation on May 8, 2000, was established as a
partnership between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of
cyber crime. IFCC was intended and continues to emphasize serving the broader law enforcement community,
including federal, state and local agencies, which employs key participants in the growing number of Cyber Crime
Task Forces. Since its inception, IFCC has received complaints across a wide array of cyber crime matters,
including online fraud in its many forms, intellectual property rights (IPR) matters, computer intrusions (hacking),
economic espionage (theft of trade secrets), child pornography, international money laundering, identity theft, and a
growing list of additional criminal matters. To better reflect the broad character of such matters having a Cyber
(Internet) nexus referred to IFCC, and to further the growing partnerships with key sponsoring agencies, IFCC was
renamed the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) on December 1, 2003.
IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly
expanding arena of cyber crime. IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting
mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory
agencies at the federal, state, and local level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving
Internet related crimes.
Although IC3 primarily serves citizens of the United States it has also served as a model for other countries wishing
to develop a regional, centralized Internet crime referral system. For example, the National White Collar Crime
Center of Canada (NW4C) was initiated in 2003 as an online complaint system called RECOL, Reporting Economic
Crime Online. “RECOL is an initiative that involves an integrated partnership between International, Federal and
Provincial Law Enforcement agencies, as well as, with regulators and private commercial organizations that have a
legitimate investigative interest in receiving a copy of complaints of economic crime.”
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The establishment of this
agency directly meets the needs of Canadians who are victims of Internet crime.
Significant and supplemental to partnering with law enforcement and regulatory agencies, it will remain a priority
objective of IC3 to establish effective alliances with industry. Such alliances will enable IC3 to leverage both
intelligence and subject matter expert resources, pivotal in identifying and crafting an aggressive, proactive
approach to combating cyber crime. Two examples of efforts coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice are
Operation Cyber Sweep and Operation Web Snare. These operations represent initiatives targeting an expansive
array of cyber crime schemes victimizing individuals and businesses worldwide.
Overall, the IC3 2003 Internet Fraud Report is the third annual compilation of information on complaints received
and referred by IC3 to law enforcement or regulatory agencies for appropriate action. The results provide an
examination of key characteristics of 1) complaints, 2) perpetrators, 3) complainants, 4) interaction between
perpetrators and complainants, and 5) success stories involving complaints referred by IC3. The results in this
report are intended to enhance our general knowledge about the scope and prevalence of Internet fraud in the United
States. This report does not represent all victims of Internet fraud, or fraud in general, because it is derived solely
from the people who filed a report with IC3.
General IC3 Filing Information
Internet crime complaints are primarily submitted to IC3 online at www.ic3.gov or www.ifccfbi.gov. Complainants
without Internet access can submit information via telephone. After a complaint is filed with IC3, the information is
reviewed, categorized, and referred to the appropriate enforcement or regulatory agency.
From January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2003, there were 124,509 complaints filed online with IC3. This is a 60%
increase over 2002 when 75,063 complaints were received. There was a steady increase in the number of complaints
filed for each quarter of 2003 with the fourth quarter having a record number of 37,381. Additionally, complaint
submissions have increased annually (see Chart 1 and 2). The number of complaints filed per month averaged
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RECOL.CA Reporting Economic Crime Online, Welcome to RECOL, 2004.