'State of the Net'™ Report Shows Cybercrime Costs US Consumers $7 Billion

Identity Theft
Phishing

With identity theft topping the Federal Trade Commission's list of US consumers complaints, the release of a new report issued by a leading consumer advocacy group that puts a price tag of more than $7 billion on the cost of cybercrime to the US consumers is not a surprise to many familiar with the identity theft threat.

The FTC's numbers show that for the seventh year in a row, identity theft tops the list of complaints that consumers filed with the Federal Trade Commission, accounting for 36 percent of the 674,354 complaints received from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006. According to the Better Business Bureau identity theft affects an estimated 10 million U.S. victims per year.

A recent survey completed by Consumer Reports projects U.S. consumers have lost more than $7 billion during the last two years to viruses, spyware and phishing schemes.

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