Spam ruse promising money for being an Internet crime victim spoofs IC3's name

(Picture courtesy of the FBI)

"The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)," according to their website.

In their own words it provides a "vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime."

According to a recently released press release from the FBI's Cyber Division, the good name of IC3 is being spoofed (impersonated) to lure people into become victims of identity theft and financial crimes. In this instance, the specific come-on is a claim that they are passing out money to the victims of cyber crime.

Besides being devious - they obviously have a "sick sense of humor."

From the press release:

The FBI is asking the public to be aware of e-mail schemes containing various versions of fraudulent refund notifications claiming to be from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the government of the United Kingdom. The e-mails falsely state that refunds are being made available to compensate the recipients for their losses as victims of Internet fraud.

The perpetrators of this fraud use the names of people not associated with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, but give them titles in an attempt to make the e-mails appear official. The perpetrators use IC3’s logo and the former name of IC3, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), as well as the names of the Bank of England and the Metropolitan Police (U.K.) in the e-mails.

According to the FBI, the intended victim is required to sign a wire transfer release form in order to receive their refund. In actuality the scammers behind this will probably use the release form to have the bank wire all the money out of an account to them.

I haven't seen one of these spam e-mails yet. They could use different come-ons, or even drop malicious software on your system. When this occurs malware steals all the information from your computer, automatically.

If you would like to learn about cyber scams, the FBI site has a lot of relevant information. They are also requesting that if you spot one of these scams to report it directly to the "real" IC3 site.

Press release on this matter, here.

2007 Internet Crime Report shows dollar loss at all time high!

According to what many consider a reputable source, the FBI, Internet scams have set a new dollar record ($240 million).

Here is what they wrote about it in the press release (courtesy of the FBI site):

Pets, romance, and secret shoppers.

They’re each among the top ruses used by Internet scam artists in 2007, according to a comprehensive report on online crime just issued by the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.

Here is how the FBI described the most prevalent scams:

Pet Scams

- You see an online (or offline) ad selling a pet and send in your money, plus a little extra for delivery costs. But you never get the pet; the scam artist simply takes your money and runs. - You’re selling a pet. You’re sent a check that’s actually more than your asking price. When you ask about the overpayment, you’re told it’s meant for someone else who will be caring for the pet temporarily. You’re asked to deposit the check and wire the difference to this other person. But the check bounces and you lose the money you sent to what turns out to be a fraudster.

Secret Shoppers and Funds Transfer Scams

- You’ve been hired via the web to rate your experiences while shopping or dining. You’re paid by check and asked to wire a percentage of the money to a third party. Like the pet scam, the check is bad and you’re out the money you sent. As part of the scam, the fraudsters often use (illegally) real logos from legitimate companies.
- While renting out a property, you’re sent a check that is more than your rental fee and asked to wire the difference to someone else (are you seeing a trend here?). Or you take a job that requires you to receive money from a company and redistribute funds to affiliates via wire.

Adoption and Charity Frauds

- You get a spam e-mail that tugs on your heartstrings, asking for a pressing donation to a charity and often using the subject header, “Urgent Assistance is Needed.” The name of a real charity is generally used, but the money is really going to a con artist. One set of scams in 2007, for example, used the name of a legitimate British adoption agency to ask for money for orphaned or abandoned children.

Romance Fraud

- You encounter someone in an online dating or social networking site who lives far away or in another country. That person strikes up a relationship with you and then wants to meet, but needs money to cover travel expenses. Typically, that’s just the beginning—the person may end up in the hospital during the trip or get mugged and need more money, etc.

Fraud stats. The report provides a complete breakdown of statistics on Internet crime in 2007. For the year, total complaints were down slightly with 206,884 submissions, but total losses were at their highest level ever, nearly $240 million. See the report for plenty more details about victims, perpetrators, and common categories of complaints.

Full report, here.

Please remember that these reports are only as accurate as the data they compile. Often, I find that a lot of scam victims have no idea, where to report activity to. Because of this, I will end this post with information from the release on where to report Internet scam activity (highly recommended):

Logging a complaint is easy: just go to the IC3 website, click on “File a Complaint,” type in the details, and hit “next.” Review your information and click on “submit” when you’re ready to send. The good folks at IC3 will take it from there.