Cyber Crime Justice - How and Who and Where to report a crime ...

Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section

United States Department of Justice



Reporting Computer, Internet-Related, or Intellectual Property Crime

Internet-related crime, like any other crime, should be reported to appropriate law enforcement investigative authorities at the local, state, federal, or international levels, depending on the scope of the crime. Citizens who are aware of federal crimes should report them to local offices of federal law enforcement.

*Reporting Computer Crime

*Reporting Intellectual Property Crime

*Reporting Computer Hacking, Fraud and Other Internet-Related Crime

The primary federal law enforcement agencies that investigate domestic crime on the Internet include: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Secret Service, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) , the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) . Each of these agencies has offices conveniently located in every state to which crimes may be reported. Contact information regarding these local offices may be found in local telephone directories. In general, federal crime may be reported to the local office of an appropriate law enforcement agency by a telephone call and by requesting the "Duty Complaint Agent."

Each law enforcement agency also has a headquarters (HQ) in Washington, D.C., which has agents who specialize in particular areas.

For example, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service both have headquarters-based specialists in computer intrusion (i.e., computer hacker) cases.

To determine some of the federal investigative law enforcement agencies that may be appropriate for reporting certain kinds of crime, please refer to the following table:

Computer intrusion (i.e. hacking)
FBI local office
U.S. Secret Service
Internet Crime Complaint Center

Password trafficking
FBI local office
U.S. Secret Service
Internet Crime Complaint Center

Counterfeiting of currency
U.S. Secret Service


http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm