Washington ? Reports of Internet-related fraud now account for more than half the consumer complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency said Thursday.

Internet-related fraud was the subject of 55 percent of the more than half-million complaints filed in 2003, up from 45 percent a year earlier, the FTC said. The median loss for victims of Internet-related fraud was $195.

Identity theft — stealing someone’s personal information for financial gain — was the most common complaint the FTC received for the fourth consecutive year, the agency said. It represented 42 percent of all complaints in 2003, up from 40 percent the year before. The most common cases of identity theft involved credit cards, followed by telephones or utilities and banks.

Internet auctions represented 15 percent of the complaints, while shop-at-home/catalog sales were 9 percent, and Internet services and computer complaints made up 6 percent.

Overall, 516,740 consumer complaints were filed last year, up from 404,000 in 2002.