California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The new report illustrates that online crime is at an all time high.

The reported dollar loss from Internet crime reached an all-time high of $240
million in the U.S. last year, about $40 million more than in 2006, according to
new figures released by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a joint operation
between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center said that it received 207,000 complaints of crimes
perpetrated over the Internet during 2007, referring more than 90,000 to law enforcement.

"The Internet presents a wealth of opportunity for would be criminals to prey on unsuspecting
victims, and this report shows how extensive these types of crime have become," said James
Finch, the assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division in the joint press release. "What this
report does not show is how often this type of activity goes unreported." Internet auction fraud
was the most widely reported complaint.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.

For further information see: http://www.ic3.gov/media/2008/080403.htm