2008 was the busiest year yet for online fraudsters, according to an annual Internet Crime Report released Monday by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) logged more than 275,000 complaints last year -- a jump of 33 percent from the year before -- accounting for about $265 million worth of losses, according to the center's 2008 Internet Crime Report.

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Complaints to the IC3 had been dropping since 2005, but last year broke the previous record of 231,000. The median dollar loss per complaint was $931. In 2007 it was $680.

The jump in complaints isn't surprising. Computer security experts say that 2008 was a watershed year for cybercriminals as they perfected their techniques, building automated "SQL Injection" programs that could quickly place malicious attack code on thousands of Web sites, and running massive networks of botnet computers that could be used to steal sensitive information and infect other computers.

As in previous years, online auction fraud and nondelivery of merchandise accounted for more than half of the complaints, although auction-fraud complaints dropped more than 10 percentage points from 2007 levels.

Credit and debit card complaints were up in a year when two major payment card processors -- Heartland Payment Systems and RBS WorldPay -- were hacked. In 2007, credit and payment card fraud made up 6.3 percent of complaints. Last year, with even more complaints on the books, this kind of crime accounted for 9 percent of the total.

Most fraudsters use e-mail to reach their marks, and spam designed to steal sensitive financial information was "one of the more significant scams" the IC3 saw last year. In one new scam, the criminals sent messages doctored to look as though it had come from the FBI, asking for bank account information in order to help with a financial investigation. "Many of these e-mails also contain an element of extortion," the IC3 report states. "Recipients are told that if they do not comply with the FBI's request for information they will be prosecuted."

In another widespread scam, the criminals would hack into a victim's e-mail account and then send out messages to friends, claiming that they were stranded in Nigeria or some other foreign country and needed some quick cash to get out of a jam.

The IC3 data comes from the cybercrime victims themselves. It is then shared with law enforcement and regulatory agencies that use it to get a track on crime trends and to prosecute criminals.

  美国联邦调查局周一发表的互联网犯罪调查报告称：2008年是互联网犯罪分子活动最猖獗的一年。

联邦调查局的互联网犯罪投诉中心（IC3）所接到的投诉案件比去年增加了275，000起——猛增33%——据该中心2008网络犯罪报告称，此类案件共造成近26500万美元的财产损失。

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  自2005年起，IC3接到的投诉案一直有所下降，但在去年，投诉数量打破了以往231，000件的记录，平均个体损失为931美元，而 2007年则为680美元。

  投诉猛增并不足为奇。计算机保安专家称：2008年是一个分水岭。因为网络罪犯完善自己的技术，编制了自动化的资料隐码程式，可以很快地让恶意攻击代码侵入数千个网站，并运行大量的僵尸网络上的计算机，利用其窃取敏感信息，并感染其他计算机。

虽然2007年的基础上，拍卖欺诈投诉量的下降超过了10个百分点，但同往年一样，互联网拍卖欺诈和未能交货的投诉仍占了投诉案件的一半以上。

自两大信用卡处理公司——Heartland Payment 和环球支付公司——遭黑客入侵后，信用卡和借记卡的投诉在这年中增加了。2007年，信贷和支付卡欺诈投诉占了6.3%。去年，甚至出现了更多的关于书籍类的投诉，占了总数的9%。

  大多数骗子使用电子邮件达到目的，而利用垃圾邮件窃取敏感的财务信息则是在IC3今年记录在案的诈骗案中比较突出的一种。有一种新型的诈骗形式，犯罪分子将发送的邮件进行伪装，使其看上去像是由联邦调查局发送的，然后再将其寄出，向他人索要银行账户信息，声称要对其进行财务调查。“此类邮件中，大部分都含有勒索的意味”据IC3报告称“收件人被警告说，如果他们不按照美国联邦调查局的要求提供资料，他们将受到起诉。”

 在另一中普遍的欺诈形式中，犯罪分子将侵入受害者的电子邮件帐户，然后发送邮件给受害者的朋友，声称他们被困于尼日利亚或是别的国家，需要一些现金脱离困境。

 IC3资料来源互联网犯罪的受害者。它稍后会将其提供给执法部门和监管机关，以便得出犯罪证据，对罪犯进行起诉。