Internet fraud reported to a U.S. government clearinghouse was up one-third last year over 2007, officials report.

John Kane, research director for the Internet Crime Complaint Center, suggested the economic slump may be to blame, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday. He said job loss and the battered stock market make some people more vulnerable to fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes, while others hit by hard times turn to crime.

"You have a large population of potential victims ... who might not otherwise fall for these scams at a time when they're personal

financial situation was a little bit better," Kane said.

The center reported Monday that it received 275,284 complaints during the year, with losses totaling $265 million, the BBC reported. The two most common complaints were goods ordered and paid for on line and not received and Internet auction fraud, followed by credit card fraud.