The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) registered over 275,000 online fraud complaints in 2008, representing nearly USD 265 million in losses.

This is a 33 percent increase compared to the number of complaints received in 2007, while the loss per complaint reached USD 931 on average, up from USD 680 in 2007.

During the period under review, when two payment card processors, namely Heartland Payment Systems and RSB WorldPay reported major security breaches, the number of credit and debit card fraud complaints accounted for 9 percent of the total, over 6.3 percent in the previous year. The majority of complaints were related to online auction fraud and non-delivery of merchandise, which accounted for over half of the total, despite a 10 percent drop in the number of auction-fraud complaints year-on-year.

According to IC3, in 2008 most fraudsters used e-mail and spam to steal sensitive financial details. The same source, which published the data in its annual Internet Crime Report, mentions that the jump in the number of complaints is attributable to the fact that hackers have improved their stealing techniques, having created automated "SQL Injection" programs that can insert malicious attack code on websites. They are also using networks of botnet computers to steal sensitive information and infect other computers.