The following is the text of that complaint:

Attention: Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice

Regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IC3.gov – Systematic Institutional Violation of the Rights of Crime Victims.

September 8, 2021

Our organization SCARS (Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. a Florida nonprofit corporation) is a crime victims’ assistance organization that provides support, education, and assistance to approximately one million victims per year. We are based in Miami, Florida. www.AgainstScams.org

Since the inception of the FBI’s creation of the www.IC3.gov website, we have actively encouraged the victims of cybercrime & cyber-enabled crime to report to the FBI by this mechanism. We estimate that the FBI has received over one million complaints in this way.

Recently, our organization has polled the victims we serve and have come to an important conclusion. Namely that the FBI has violated the civil rights of nearly every U.S. resident or citizen that filed a complaint to that website.

The FBI publishes their own acknowledgment of the Rights of Crime victims on their website at: https://www.fbi.gov/resources/victim-services/rights-of-federal-crime-victims

Yet, the FBI does not comply with a single one of these rights of crime victims to complaints taken through the IC3.gov reporting portal – not only in violation of the right they claim to provide, and of CRIME VICTIMS’ RIGHTS ACT (CVRA): 18 U.S.C. § 3771 as well.

To be specific: in our communications with numerous victims (thousands), victims have received NO follow-up from the FBI, informing them that this was a violation of the law or informing them of any status of any investigation or their rights as victims. This includes no information about services or referrals that they as a victim might be entitled to under the law.

In submitting this complaint to the DoJ Inspector General’s office we desire to make sure that:

All complainants are, now and in the future;
1. Contacted and informed of their rights as crime victims.
2. Informed if the FBI investigates or does not investigate, that victims receive reasonable communications on the status of their complaints.
3. That all victims are informed about resources available through the Federal Government or the States, such as victims’ counseling services and others that are available to them.
4. That they receive a formal confirmation of a complaint being filed that they may need when interacting with local governments or financial institutions.

In short, that these victims receive their rights under statute and the FBI’s own claimed adherence to these rights.

We further ask for an opportunity to regularly consult with the FBI about victims’ issues to better help them understand the severe emotional impact on victims that this has caused to victims.

We believe that this is easily resolved and the confidence of crime victims restored in the FBI. Currently, victims feel that the FBI is doing nothing with these complaints, which both demoralized already traumatized crime victims, and undermines confidence in the institution itself.

We hope that your office will address this important issue to the benefit of the victims involved.

Sincerely,

Tim McGuinness
Director,
Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.