What Do You Know About the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)?

By Sami Hartsfield
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership amongst the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) dedicated to receiving, developing, and referring criminal cyber complaints. IC3 researches the criminal cyber complaints it receives, and refers them to federal, state, local, and even international authorities when warranted.

IC3 has received numerous complaints regarding all aspects of the relatively new area of cyber crime, including online intellectual property rights violations, computer hacking, trade secret thefts, cyber extortion, online international money laundering, and the perennial con favorite identity theft. Of course, many new types of cyber crimes are being invented every day by clever cons.

Since IC3's inception of June 2000, it became clear that many cyber crimes overlap with other types of "traditional" crimes. As a result, IC3 -- formerly known as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center -- was renamed in October 2003 to reflect the broadening characteristics of such cyber crimes with the more common non-cyber variety.

If you believe you have been defrauded online or were otherwise a victim of a cyber crime, you are encourage to file a complaint with IC3. You may file your complaint online by providing the following information:

· Full name;

· Mailing address;

· Phone number;

· Name, address, telephone number, and Web address, if available, of the individual or organization you believe defrauded you;

· Specific details on how, why, and when you allege you were defrauded; and

· Any other relevant information.

You may file a cyber criminal complaint with IC3 here. It's that easy and hopefully the more people who get involved in prosecuting cyber crimes the more effective agencies can be in prosecuting them.

Sami Hartsfield is a contributing author for Identity Theft Secrets: prevention and protection. You can get tips on Identity theft protection, software, and monitoring your credit as well as learn more about the secrets used by identity thieves at the Identity Theft Secrets blog.