I’ve interacted with the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3) since its formation in May, 2020, (and prior to that, since at least 2010, through its predecessor, the National White Collar Crime Center), in matters involving clients impacted, personally and professionally, by identity theft, extortion, malicious business redirects, defamatory doxxing and a multitude of similar digital crimes – and they are crimes, albeit, if the perpetrators are captured, they can and have been successfully sued in civil courts as well as criminally prosecuted.
From the FBI, a background and explanation of IC3’s mission:
The IC3 was established in May 2000 to receive complaints crossing the spectrum of cyber matters, to
include online fraud in its many forms including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) matters, Computer
Intrusions (Hacking), Economic Espionage (Theft of Trade Secrets), Online Extortion, International Money Laundering, Identity Theft, and a growing list of Internet facilitated crimes. As of December 31, 2022, the IC3 has received over seven million complaints. The IC3 mission to provide the public and our partners with a reliable and convenient reporting mechanism to submit information concerning suspected cyber-enabled criminal activity and to develop effective alliances with law enforcement and industry partners to help those who report. Information is analyzed and disseminated for investigative and intelligence purposes forlaw enforcement and public awareness.
The information submitted to the IC3 can be impactful in the individual complaints, but it is most impactful in the aggregate. That is, when these individual complaints are combined with other data, it allows the FBI to connect complaints, investigate reported crimes, track trends and threats, and, in some cases, even freeze stolen funds. Just as importantly, the IC3 shares reports of crime throughout its vast network of FBI field offices and law enforcement partners, strengthening our nation’s collective response both locally and nationally.
To clarify, IC3 is a crime reports aggregator; the unit does not investigate individual crimes. Those crimes that are flagged are forwarded to the FBI and law enforcement partners, for their review and investigation, if necessary. The below visual best describes the IC3 mission and operation.
There is a step that should generally be taken before reporting any suspected digital crime- file a report with your local police department. The IC3 complaint form will ask for this information. The police report begins the process of analyzing your compaint as a crime. (You can still file with IC3 without a police report but again, IC3 compiles crime reports and then disseminates the information to the appropriate federal law enforcement agency, if warranted. Coordinating with local law enforcement agencies enhances the information and investigation flow.)
As law enforcement monitoring technology continues to refine its digital investigation tools, we will be bringing our readers news on pertinent developments.
If you have any questions on filing a complaint, or when you should file one, please let me know and I can shepherd you through the process.
BNI Operatives: Situationally aware.
As always, stay safe.
The Beacon Bulletin 