WASHINGTON — Online scams including identity theft schemes, “advance fee” and “romance fraud” cost Americans some $485 million in 2011, a report prepared for the FBI said Thursday.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center annual report said the number of complaints about online fraud rose 3.4 percent to 314,246.
The most common complaints included FBI-related scams, in which criminals impersonate the FBI to gain sensitive data, identity theft and advance fee fraud — schemes in which emails pledge to release funds for a transaction fee.
One of the newer schemes involves fraudulent auto sales — in which a criminal posts a car for sale at an attractive price, pretending to be desperate to sell before moving or deploying overseas, and then seeking a deposit to hold the vehicle.
Other fraud schemes include the “non delivery” of merchandise bought online or through an auction, and “overpayment fraud” in which someone receives an check with instructions to deposit it in a bank account and send excess funds or a percentage of the deposited money back to the sender.
More available at TPM: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/10/online-scams-cost-485-million-in-u-s-in-2011-survey/