According to an FBI report, nearly 500,000 Americans fell victim to internet scams last year.
$10.3 billion. That’s the amount Americans lost to online scams in 2022, a reported the FBI on Wednesday. Although the agency received fewer complaints (more than 800,000) than last year, losses have risen sharply from 2021, when they amounted to $6.9 billion.
On average, the FBI received nearly 2,100 complaints related to online scams per day, for about 500,000 victims. While 30-39 year olds were the most likely to report a scam (more than 94,000), it was those over 60 who lost the most money ($3.1 billion).
Between widespread and costly scams
In detail, phishing was the most prevalent type of scam with over 300,000 complaints and losses amounting to $52.1 million. Investment scams were the costliest, costing Americans $3.3 billion. A 127% increase compared to 2021, when they brought in $1.45 billion to scammers. Among these scams, those related to cryptocurrencies were the most lucrative, having generated 2.57 billion dollars in losses, against “only” 907 million the year before. The FBI even points out that many victims incurred massive debts to cover the losses of these fraudulent investments.
Another technique used by scammers is email compromise. Targeting both companies and individuals, it consists of taking control of professional email to use it for malicious purposes. Particularly used to impersonate a CEO in order to request a transfer of funds, it has brought more than $2.7 billion to scammers.
Finally, Americans have lost over $800 million in fake customer service or IT service fraud. It is mainly the elderly who have been targeted by these fake call centers, with almost half of the victims being over 60 years old and accounting for 69% of the losses.
It should be noted that with the exception of the United States, the United Kingdom is the only country to have exceeded the bar of 10,000 victims (more than 280,000) in 2022. France has counted 2,061. Last year.
