CYBER SECURITY- Reporting Scams, Fraud and Computer Hacking

You have taken measures to protect your computer from hacking. And you are careful about clicking on links of suspicious emails or of answering robo-calls supposedly from the IRS, the local courts or a grandchild. But who do you report these incidents to if you accidently clicked on the link or find yourself involved with a scammer?

Local law enforcement agencies generally do not have the resources to conduct an investigation and expect to be able to put together a case to prosecute a scammer or fraudster. Most of the typical scam and phishing emails that we get are generated either in another part of the U.S. or internationally with Nigeria, Russia, China, and India as major sources of spam and scams. However, if there is a local tie to a fraud call 911 and ask to talk to a deputy.

ID theft can victimize you from a variety of sources. Your purse or wallet is stolen; you swiped your debit card through an undetected skimmer at an ATM machine; malware can get on your computer taking your account numbers; someone steals your mail. Obviously, if you’re your wallet or mail is stolen, call 911. If you discover that you are a victim of ID theft, the Federal Trade Commission has launched a new one stop web site that gives you a checklist and links for everything that you should do at https://www.identitytheft.gov/.

The source of other cyber/computer crimes (whether local, national or international) such as malware, phishing, etc. may not be obvious. However, national law enforcement organizations are interested in any information that we can provide. They may not be able to help in specific cases, but any information will help in investigations of specific criminals and in determining trends of cyber-crimes.

The Federal Trade Commission (https://www.ftc.gov/) has a place where you can file a complaint about someone falsely claiming to be from the government, a business or a family member; scams, SPAM, as well as potentially criminal issues involving mobile devices or telephones, internet services, and online shopping. To file your complaint online go to https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-2.

For reporting strictly on cyber-crimes go to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx. IC3 acts as a convenient and easy-to-use place online for victims to report cyber-crime and as a repository of information about cyber-crime for local, state, national and international law enforcement agencies to help with their investigations.