Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: An initiative that brings together local, state, and federal law enforcement resources for Internet-facilitated criminal investigations is expanding.

It’s called Operation Wellspring, and it has grown from one to 13 FBI field offices across the country.

Through Operation Wellspring, local and state law enforcement members are embedded in FBI Cyber Task Forces and trained in Internet fraud investigations.

The task forces work in tandem with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which provides the public a way to report suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity.

The reported information is analyzed and used to open investigations that would otherwise go unaddressed.

Supervisory Special Agent James Lamadrid leads a Cyber Task Force in the FBI’s Salt Lake City Division, where the initiative was launched four years ago this month.

James Lamadrid: Our goal in the Cyber Task Force is to collaborate to combat cyber crime, share timely intelligence, and protect the American public from cyber criminals.

Halpern: If you’re a victim of Internet-facilitated crime, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov. I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau with FBI, This Week.