Internet scam was at an all -time -high in America in 2022 as its citizens were reportedly said to have lost $10.3billion according to reports from the FBI.
According to a new Federal Bureau of Investigation report, the loss in 2022 was the highest in five years.
ABC News update revealed, the Bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) lodged more than 2,000 complaints per day.
The most highly reported crimes were phishing expeditions, with 300,497 victims reporting over $52 million in losses in 2022, according to the Bureau.
Data breaches and non-payment scams were the next most common internet scams in 2022, claiming 58,859 and 51,679 victims, respectively, according to the report.
In 2022, the FBI “received 2,385 complaints known as ransomware with adjusted losses of more than $34.3 million,” according to the report
Earlier this year, the Justice Department disrupted a ransomware gang called HIVE, which was responsible for 87 incidents targeting critical infrastructure, the report says.
Call center scams are responsible for over $1 billion in losses to victims.
“Call centers overwhelmingly target the elderly, with devastating effects,” the report says. “Almost half the victims report to be over 60 (46%), and experience 69% of the losses (over $724 million).”
In total, the elderly lost $3.1 billion to internet scams in 2022, the most of any age group.
Definition of terms :
Phishing : defined as “the use of unsolicited email, text messages, and telephone calls purportedly from a legitimate company requesting personal, financial, and/or login credentials,” is frequently successful because phishing emails will often resemble those from people victims know personally, prompting them to click on unsecured links.
Ransomware : a type of cyber intrusion which locks up a device’s data until a ransom is paid, is of particular concern for cybersecurity professionals due to the low rare of reports by victims of ransomware attacks.