Online fraud reporting is much
easier now than it used to be, in the early days of cybercrime. Back then, the
Internet was such a fresh frontier that little regulation and attempt to
policing activities on it was possible. While the Web remains a wild world,
people who have been victimized on it are at least recognized as victims now
and have a few modes of recourse as well as reporting open to them.
So if you have just felt what it is
like to become a victim of online fraud or have nearly been taken in by an
online scammer, here is your guide to reporting the incident to the
authorities.
- Who Is Involved in an Online Fraud Report?
To find out whom you need to inform,
take a look at your incident and establish who needs to be involved. This is fairly simple: say you have an online fraud experience where an eBay vendor
ripped you off not sending you your purchased items after you sent him payment.
In such a case, the parties who can help you fix this issue are obviously eBay
and whatever payment processor you used to send the vendor payment. Informing
eBay of the fraud helps you by disputing the fraudulent sale and can also get
you the vendor’s contact details.
- Should You Go to the Local Police?
Yes, generally speaking. Law
enforcement has jurisdiction over online fraud cases as well, although some
police forces still do not have special departments for cybercrime. That said,
awareness of the problem has been mounting, so you can now find cybercrime
resources that make it easier to report online fraud scams to the police
nowadays. It depends on where you are located; most of the developed countries
have online fraud resources these days.
In the US, you can make your report
at the Internet Crime Complaint Centre or IC3 website, which refers cases
directly to the online crime division of the FBI. In the UK, the counterpart is
the Action Fraud website. In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police can be
informed through the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre. You may have to do a quick
search to find out what the equivalent for these are in your area. If you
cannot find it, you can approach the local police to file the report. Ask them
who handles computer crime in your location and bring the report to that
person.
- What Should You Put in Your Report?
This is quite straightforward:
reporting fraud over the Web is basically just telling someone else the story
of what happened. However, if your goal is for the someone to take action, e.g.
by investigating the crime, you will need to convince them of the veracity of
your story. Thus, if the goal of your reporting is to try and convince
authorities to take action, you will need to supply evidence.
Take screenshots, copy and forward
scam emails, and supply as accurate a timeline of events as you can when doing
the report. Jot down everything you know about the fraudster, as it may help
with investigations. Finally, be sure to clarify how much you have lost, if you
have lost anything. It may be painful to have to own up to victimization by an
online fraud criminal, but doing so just might help you get the investigative
action you need.
