Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, releases a snapshot of Internet-facilitated crime in its annual report.

Herbert J. Stapleton: It lets the public know that the FBI is concerned with this type of activity and is making efforts to address it. But it also serves as a warning of the types of things to be on the lookout for.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern, and this is FBI, This Week. The IC3 is a joint operation between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. Nearly 290,000 complaints with a reported $525 million in financial losses were filed in 2012. Special Agent Herbert Stapleton says the most frequent online crimes involve auctions, scareware, and FBI impersonation scams. His advice…

Stapleton: Adhering to the old adage of, “If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.”

Halpern: Many crimes committed using the Internet do go unreported.

Stapleton: We really want to urge everyone in the public to report this type of crime here at the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Halpern: To file an Internet crime complaint, visit www.ic3.gov.

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