The 2008 figure for cyber crime is a huge jump from $18 million in losses reported in 2001. So far this year, from February to March, there was a 50% increase in reported Internet fraud complaints in the U.S.

“These numbers are shocking, but it is important to note that the vast majority of ID theft goes unreported, so the actual threat is probably much more common than even these huge figures would lead us to believe,” said Justin Yurek, president of ID Watchdog, Inc., the most comprehensive consumer identity monitoring service available. “I predict continued growth in this crime as the economy remains stagnant in this recessionary cycle.”

Internet fraud includes everything from phony sales on auction and classified sites such as eBay Inc. and craigslist.com to smaller scale version of a Ponzi scheme. One new Internet identity theft scam involves e-mail messages that have the appearance of originating from the FBI or other federal agencies that seek the recipient’s bank account information in order to help with illegal wire transfer investigations.

“This report underscores the rampant growth of identity theft across the board from not only high-tech but also low-tech sources,” Yurek said.

Identity theft is now the fastest-growing crime in the U.S.—with nearly 10 million Americans victims of some form of identity fraud each year. And, even if consumers make a conscious effort to protect their credit card information, it might be surprising to learn 80% of identity theft is unrelated to credit fraud. Phone and utilities fraud, bank and loan fraud, employment and government document fraud, and medical records fraud represent perhaps more wide spread forms of ID crime.