“Today, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is embarking on a campaign to increase awareness of the IC3 as a reliable and convenient reporting mechanism to submit information on suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity to the FBI. As part of the campaign, digital billboards featuring the IC3’s contact information are being placed within the territories of a number of Bureau field offices around the country.

While the number of complaints being reported to the IC3 did increase in 2015 from the previous year, anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that there are many other instances of actual or suspected online frauds that are not being reported, perhaps because victims didn’t know about the IC3, were embarrassed that they fell victim to a scammer, or thought filing a complaint wouldn’t make a difference. But the bottom line is, the more complaints we receive, the more effective we can be in helping law enforcement gain a more accurate picture of the extent and nature of Internet-facilitated crimes—and in raising public awareness of these crimes.

The FBI field offices taking part in the billboard campaign include Albany, Buffalo, Kansas City, Knoxville, New Orleans, New York City, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, and San Diego. They were selected because they house multi-agency cyber task forces that participate in an IC3 initiative called Operation Wellspring. This initiative connects state and local law enforcement with federal cyber resources and helps them build their own cyber investigative capabilities, which is important because not all Internet fraud schemes rise to the level necessary to prosecute them federally. We hope to expand Operation Wellspring to other FBI offices in the future.”

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