Internet Fraud Complaint Center

The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) was created in May 2000 as a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). The IFCC is a federally funded, not-for-profit organization, based in Morgantown, West Virginia. At its inception the IFCC staff consisted of 12 FBI agents and 25 employees of the NW3C, with an annual budget of $12 million. In February 2002, the IFCC was the recipient of the Excellence in Government Award, which is an award given to federal government agencies that have demonstrated innovative electronic government initiatives.

The IFCC's primary function is to act as a clearinghouse for Internet fraud complaints filed by victims. Because a victim of Internet fraud often does not know where to file a complaint, the IFCC centralizes this function and disseminates complaints to the proper jurisdictional authority. Complaints can be filed via the IFCC Web site (http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp) 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all types of Internet fraud—auction fraud, nondelivery of merchandise, credit card fraud, investment fraud, business fraud, confidence fraud, identity theft, check fraud, and Nigerian letter fraud. The information is collected, entered into a database, analyzed to determine patterns or trends, and disseminated to the appropriate federal, state, or local law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

In its first full year of operation, 2001, the IFCC received approximately 50,000 complaints and 17,000 reports of fraud were referred to law enforcement or regulatory agencies. Total loss from these cases was $17.8 million. In the second full year of operation complaints rose to 75,063 and referrals almost tripled. The associated loss was $54 million.

For the consumer, the IFCC provides a centralized way to file a complaint of Internet fraud regardless of jurisdiction. The IFCC determines which agencies have jurisdiction and forwards the complaint to them. The consumer only needs the Web site address and the details pertaining to the fraud. When filing a complaint, the information requested is similar to that found on a standard police complaint report, such as name, address, and nature of complaint. In addition, specific information about the fraud should be included, for example, transaction numbers, auctions sites, and electronic payment documentation.

Once a complaint is received, IFCC analysts review it and check it against their fraudulent complaint database to determine if there have been other complaints against the same party. If there is a match, the complaint is grouped with the others and reviewed by the same analyst. The IFCC may[Page 729] conduct a preliminary investigation, which includes the number of victims and the dollar loss. The IFCC then forwards this information to all relevant agencies with jurisdiction, including a copy of each complaint, results of various database checks on the subject, and lists of agencies receiving the report with contacts and phone numbers. The IFCC will communicate with agencies electronically, by fax, and by mail. The IFCC does not dictate which agency should investigate but leaves it up to the individual agencies to coordinate so that a duplication of work does not occur.

...