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Introduction[]

IC3

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), began operation on May 8, 2000 as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC). In December 2003, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center was renamed the Internet Crime Complaint Center to better reflect the broad character of such criminal matters having a cyber (Internet) nexus. IC3 is a partnership between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and serves as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime.

IC3 was intended and continues to emphasize serving the broader law enforcement community, including federal, state and local agencies, which employ key participants in the growing number of Cyber Crime Task Forces. Since its inception, IC3 has received complaints across a wide variety of cyber crime matters, including online fraud (in its many forms), intellectual property rights (IPR) matters, computer intrusions (hacking), economic espionage (theft of trade secrets), child pornography, international money laundering, identity theft, and a growing list of additional criminal matters.

IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, and local level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet-related crimes.


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Significant and supplemental to partnering with law enforcement and regulatory agencies, it is a priority objective of IC3 to establish effective alliances with industry. Such alliances would enable IC3 to leverage both intelligence and subject matter expert resources, pivotal in identifying and crafting an aggressive, proactive approach to combating cybercrime.

The Center issues an annual report on Internet crime. They are available here.

IC3 Capabilities[]

The FBI’s IC3 Unit uses analytical tools to build case referrals from IC3's consumer complaint database. The FBI analysts augment the consumer complaint data with information from open and closed (law enforcement) sources as well as private industry. FBI analytical and case assistance is made available to all law enforcement agencies as part of any IC3 referral or upon request from a law enforcement agency.

Along with useful productivity tools, IC3 and NW3C also offers analytical staff, trainers and researchers to assist law enforcement with any needs they have regarding case development including: searching and compiling case information, conducting forensic analysis of received data, contacting other agencies who may share interest in collaborative investigations, providing training support or direct delivery training charts and writing case reports.

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