According to the FBI on Wednesday, online scammers and cybercriminals stole a record $16.6 billion last year.
The amount, which comes from the FBI’s annual Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report, represents a significant increase over the $12.5 billion recorded in 2023 and reflects the growing frequency of online frauds, especially those that target older Americans and include cryptocurrencies.
Since the study only includes those who take the time to report to the agency, its statistics are an undercount even though it is a leading look at how cybercrime is ravaging the United States. Last year, the bureau received 859,532 reports about cybercrime and scams.
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In a press conference introducing the study, Deputy Assistant Director Cynthia Kaiser stated, “It’s difficult to have numbers tell the full story of what might be occurring across the cybercriminal ecosystem.”
“We’ve seen criminals shift from the physical to the digital world since 2020, as everything in our lives has become more virtualized, increasing the attack surface,” she said.
According to the research, over a quarter of a million consumers reported experiencing real financial losses as a result of scams and cybercrime.
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There were 58,271 complaints and $129,624 in reported losses as a result of fake toll frauds, in which victims regularly get text messages requesting payment of a nominal cost. At least some of those scams are connected to a Chinese-speaking cybercriminal syndicate that has placed ads on Telegram, according to an NBC News story from March.
People 60 and older were by far the largest fraud victims, reporting losses of over $4.8 billion. With $2.8 billion in complaints mentioning cryptocurrencies, older victims were also the most likely to claim that bitcoin was a part of a fraud that targeted them.
In investment scams, which the FBI classifies as “pig butchering” frauds, people over 60 lost the most money, $1.8 billion.
Scams involving pig slaughtering frequently begin with a harmless or perplexing text message from a stranger, which hackers then utilize as a pretext to establish a rapport with the victim by posing as a friend or romantic partner. They gradually persuade people to put more and more money into a fraudulent cryptocurrency operation, which has resulted in heartbreaking tales of pensioners losing all of their savings.
According to the report, the amount of money lost to investment scams has skyrocketed in recent years, rising from $3.3 billion in 2022 to $4.6 billion in 2023 and $6.6 billion last year.
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