The number Internet crimes in 2007 fell by a hairline 0.3 percent compared to 2006, but the financial losses amounted to $239.09 million for the year, which represented a 21 percent increase in value from the 2006 figure, according to an FBI report released Thursday.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) also said that nearly 3 out of 5 complaints involved Internet auction fraud and failure to deliver products purchased on the Internet.

In previous warnings, the FBI had alerted the public about:

• Phishing schemes, where Internet fraudsters send e-mails purportedly from the victims’ bank or from a charitable organization.

• Fake inquiries, purportedly sent by the Justice Department, where fraudsters asked people to supply personal information.

• Hoax e-mails, where Internet users were led to believe messages received had been sent by the FBI Director.

• Pet scams, where fraudsters put up advertisements and sell pets online, and deliveries are not done or the pets that arrive are not healthy or are not as advertised.

• Romance fraud, usually perpetrated on social networking and online dating sites.

From the complaints submitted to IC3, some 90,000 were referred to law enforcement agencies across the country for more in-depth investigation. An overwhelming majority of these cases complained of financial losses sustained by the complainant. The average dollar loss for complainants was $2,650 and the median was at $680.

Males were the most likely perpetrators, accounting for 75.8 percent of the cases, and over half of them resided in just seven (7) states (California, New York, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania). While the majority of reported fraudsters lived in the United States, a significant number of schemes originated from the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Nigeria and Romania.

Initial contact that started the fraud was done through e-mail (73.6 percent) and web pages (nearly one third at 32.7 percent).

Security experts and law enforcement officials have observed that even as online criminals have become more sophisticated in their methods and more elusive, judges do not impose long jail times on convicted computer criminals.

For instance, an 18-year-old hacker, who was instrumental in the crash of the University of Pennsylvania’s computer server in 2006, pleaded guilty in March. He was charged for infecting thousands of computers worldwide with “malware” which he then offered for hire. Sentencing is scheduled in May, but according to law enforcement officials, the judge has already indicated that community detention or some form of home detention may be sufficient punishment.

It may be that judges find difficulty understanding the risks involved in cyber-crimes and how these are perpetrated, according to a cyber-crime expert.

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