FTC: At least $548 million lost to identity theft
 

i lost some $$ last year to this bullshit :mad:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Americans lost at least $548 million to identity theft and consumer fraud last year as the Internet provided new victims for age-old scams, according to government statistics released Tuesday.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it received 635,000 consumer complaints in 2004 as criminals sold nonexistent products through online auction sites like eBay Inc. or went shopping with stolen credit cards.

Identity theft -- the practice of running up bills or committing crimes in someone else's name -- topped the list with 247,000 complaints, up 15 percent from the previous year.

Fraud and identity theft cost consumers at least $437 million in 2003.

Internet-related fraud accounted for more than half of the remaining complaints as scammers found victims through Web sites or unsolicited e-mail, the FTC said.

Auction fraud was the most common Internet scam, the FTC said in its annual fraud report, followed by complaints about online shopping and Internet access service.

The number of incidents was up across nearly every category from 2003, but it was unclear whether that represented an actual increase in fraud or simply a greater awareness of the FTC's Consumer Sentinel fraud program.

Consumers likely lost significantly more than the amount reported, as fewer than half were able to pin a dollar figure on their losses.

The median monetary loss reported was $259, though 41 consumers reported losses of $1 million or more.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/02/01/i...eut/index.html