In the United States alone, victims reported losses of $239 million to online fraud in 2007, with average losses running about $2,530. The complaints are recorded by a special Web-based hotline operated by the F.B.I. and the National White Collar Crime Center, a nonprofit corporation focusing on electronic crime.

The most common frauds were fake e-mail messages and phony Web pages, and the crimes were organized from the United States, Britain, Nigeria, Canada, Romania and Italy, according to an F.B.I. report issued last month.

Despite the increasing sophistication and elusiveness of online criminals, judges remain reluctant to order much jail time for computer crime, according to some national law enforcement officials and major companies like Microsoft.
 

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High-Tech Crime Is an Online Bubble That Hasn’t Burst