In an effort to more accurately reflect the wide-ranging nature of on-line complaints being reported, the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) today announced that the Internet Fraud Complaint Center will now be called the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.
The IC3, which began in May, 2000, is a partnership between the FBI and the NW3C to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding areas of cyber crimes. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism for alerting authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. Within the FBI, the IC3 is a component of the Cyber Division. The name change will not alter the course of business in that the IC3 will continue to emphasize serving the broader law enforcement community and all the key components of the 50 FBI-led Cyber Crime Task Forces throughout the country.
Jana Monroe, FBI Assistant Director, Cyber Division, said, "Among the top priorities at the Internet Crime Complaint Center is to establish effective alliances with private industry which will enable us to leverage both intelligence and subject matter expertise. This approach is pivotal in identifying and crafting a proactive response to cyber crime."
AD Monroe added, "Through already strong but growing partnerships with NW3C, private sector and foreign and domestic law enforcement, we have built a solid foundation to address today’s cyber criminals no matter where they are or how complex their schemes may be."
"State and local law enforcement participation is a cornerstone to the success of IC3," said Glen B. Gainer III, NW3C’s Chairman of the Board. "IC3 will continue to receive, database, and refer complaints to law enforcement agencies having jurisdiction."
Since its inception, the IC3 has received complaints across a wide array of cyber crime matters including on-line frauds in its many forms. Examples of complaints received involve identity theft, international money laundering, computer intrusions, on-line extortion, credit and debit card scams, intellectual property theft and a growing number of on-line schemes.
Last year, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received and processed more than 120,000 complaints, many of which pass through multiple jurisdictions and overlap with other crimes, making cooperation on all fronts a necessity. Once a complaint is filed with IC3, further analysis is conducted to identify and quantify crime patterns and provide statistics on current trends. The complaint is then expeditiously packaged and sent to appropriate law enforcement agencies for further investigative action.
"Operation E-Con" and more recently "Operation Cyber Sweep" represent successful investigative initiatives supported by IC3. In those initiatives, more than 200 such investigations were productively packaged, resulting in arrests and/or charges of more than 250 individuals for engaging in a variety of cyber crimes.
The IC3, located in Fairmont, West Virginia, is comprised of agents, analysts, and IT specialists from the FBI as well as supervisors, analysts and IT specialists from the NW3C. Currently, there are 62 total staff members at IC3.
In conjunction with the new name, a new web address has also been established at ic3.gov