OnLine Scams

The IC3 received 269,422 complaints consisting of a wide array of scams affecting victims of all demographic groups.

The most frequently reported crimes are broken down in the chart below, which also illustrates how different scams are targeted at different demographics. While confidence / romance scams, in which the criminal establishes an online relationship with its victim and later asks for money, are mostly targeted at middle-aged women, men are more likely to fall for too-good-to-be-true car listings and become victims of auto fraud.

For more information on the different kinds of online scams visit the IC3’s website or check out its latest annual report on Internet crime.

This graphic charts the financial losses suffered by victims of Internet crimes in the United States in 2014.

On Line Scams