Internet Crime

While the Washington State Attorney General's Office can help propose legislation to protect consumers against Internet crime and while we can fight Internet crime through our high-tech unit using the state's Consumer Protection Act, when it comes to other types of crimes, our efforts are limited by the office's lack of original criminal jurisdiction.

If you are a victim of an internet crime, we encourage you to contact IC3-- The Internet Crime Complaint Center --a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).

IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations.

For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.

The IC3 has received complaints crossing the spectrum of cyber crime matters, to include online fraud in its many forms including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) matters, Computer Intrusions (hacking), Economic Espionage (Theft of Trade Secrets), Online Extortion, International Money Laundering, Identity Theft, and a growing list of Internet facilitated crimes.