Cyber-victims lose to online schemes

updated 10:58 a.m. ET Aug. 8, 2006

YONKERS, N.Y. - The State of the Net survey by Consumer Reports projects that American consumers lost more than $8 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware and various schemes.

Additionally, it shows consumers face a 1-in-3 chance of becoming a cybervictim -- about the same as last year.

According to the survey, consumers lost $630 million over the past two years to e-mail scams.

They also spent at least $7.8 billion for computer repairs, parts, and replacement over the past two years to correct problems caused by viruses and spyware.

Consumer Reports says it conducted the survey among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 households with Internet access.

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