Internet fraud targets mostly Men, Americans, Elderly
Men are the ones to be more often the victims of Internet fraud. Also, they used to lose more money than women.
In accordance with annual report published by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, a typical victim of Internet fraud is a 30-40-year-old man from New York, California, Florida, or Texas. As to victims of Internet fraud living outside the USA, a substantial number lived in the UK, Nigeria, Canada, Romania and Italy.
According to the report, in 2006 men lost USD 1.69 to every USD 1 that women lost. Â
The 2006 Internet Crime Report is the 6th annual study based on complaints referred to law enforcement or regulatory agencies. Between January 1 and December 31, 2006, the web site received 207 492 complaints, which is a 10.4% decrease from the number of complaints filed in 2005.Â
The total loss from all the referred fraud cases in 2006 was USD 198.44 million, while the total loss in 2005 was USD 183.12 million. An average loss per complaint in 2006 was USD 724.
According to the report, the most reported crime was Internet auction fraud which accounted for 44.9% of all fraud complaints. The fraud complaint that caused the highest loss was the Nigerian letter scam, followed by check fraud.
When it comes to age groups, the elderly used to lose the most to scammers. People of 60 and older lost more money than any other age group and reported losing about USD 866 per victim.