Internet Crime Complaint Center Highlights Top Internet Scams of 2012

Even though the year 2012 is long gone, we have completed almost half of 2013 with continual recollection of 2012 due to many of the emerging threats at that time starting to dominate this year's malware playing field.

The top Internet scams of 2012 play a big role in what we are witnessing first hand and how we are able to come up with creative ways to stay one step ahead of hackers and cybercrooks who inject the ever-so-growing internet with such threats.

Because 2012 may seem like a vague memory to some of us, we want to highlight the top Internet scams of 2012 starting with many malware schemes we see prevalent today. To kick things off, the vast field of malware is claimed to be the largest in history with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reporting 289,874 processed complaints in 2012. That comes to about an average of 24,000 complaints every month.

Within the 2012 Internet Crime Report released by the IC3 just recently, we will clearly testify to their reported 8.3% rise in unverified losses over the previous year. What this means is computer users like me and you have been victimized at a higher rate in 2012 than in 2011.

According to the recent IC3 2012 report, they received about 47 complaints each day about FBI impersonating e-mail scams. The average adjusted loss for these complaints came to a staggering $141 per complaint. That is about $6,604 lost every single day.

On another front altogether, the IC3 reported that intimidation or extortion scams were a widely exploited type of Internet scam for 2012. This included telephone calls from victimized computer users where their system was infected with a variety of scams from payday loans to offers that claim to disinfect their system for a ridiculous fee.

Another top Internet scam of 2012 was hit-man scams. This type of scam is where the fraudster claims to be a hit man hired to kill the victim. The scam asks that a fine of around $8,000 be paid within five business days and convert to Islam or the victim will be assassinated. These scams came in the form of emails from an alleged Agent Bauer of the International Intelligence Bureau. The recipient then supposedly has a chance to respond by purchasing a security alarm and protection from the 'Agent' or be put to death as it claims.

The top Internet scam in 2012 that has prevailed in an unprecedented scale this year are scareware or ransomware scams. These scams include pop-up messages that claim to be some type of law enforcement entity, sometimes the FBI, who has supposedly detected illegal activity on the victim's computer and a fine is then assessed. The fine is asked to be paid through actual e-payment processors like PayPal, MoneyPak, Ukash or PaySafeCard. These scams usually lock up an infected system while payment of the fine does the victim no good. Other threats reported by IC3 dominating 2012 include real estate scams, auto fraud, romance scams and others.

Another part of the 2012 Internet Crime report from IC3 is that women tend to be the prevalent victim when it comes to money extortion. Either way, we draw some skepticism with the recent stats in IC3's report as fraud can take place on both ends of the spectrum regardless if the alleged victim reports it to IC3. Moreover, think of all of the scams that were not reported to IC3 in 2012.