Internet fraud

Internet fraud is a type of cybercrime fraud or deception which makes use of the Internet and could involve hiding of information or providing incorrect information for the purpose of tricking victims out of money, property, and inheritance. Internet fraud is not a single crime but covers a range of illegal and illicit actions that are committed in cyberspace. Fraud is differentiated from theft since the victim is deceived into voluntarily providing the information, money or property to the perpetrator. Internet fraud is distinguished by the way it involves temporally and spatially separated offenders. Online fraud appears in many forms, ranging from email spam to online scams. Common cybercrimes involving internet fraud including social engineering, phishing, cryptocurrency frauds, and romance scams such as pig butchering scams. Internet fraud prevention efforts include Internet security measures and Internet safety initiatives.

In the FBI's 2017 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received about 300,000 complaints. Victims lost over $1.4 billion in online fraud in 2017. In a 2018 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and McAfee, cybercrime costs the global economy as much as $600 billion, which translates into 0.8% of global GDP.