In the March released 2022 Internet Crime Report produced by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the numbers confirm that cyber actors continue to plague Americans by targeting U.S. networks, attacking critical infrastructure, holding our money and data for ransom, facilitating large-scale fraud schemes, and threatening our national security.
IC3 received 800,944 reported complaints, with losses exceeding $10.3 billion. Interestingly, the total number of complaints decreased by 5%, while dollar losses increased by 49%.
- Phishing schemes were the number one crime type, with 300,497 complaints and a reported $52 million loss.
- Investment schemes reported the highest financial loss to victims for the first time, with a reported $3.3 billion loss.
- Victims aged 30-39 were the largest reporting group, while the most significant dollar loss was incurred by citizens aged 60 and older.
Within those complaints, cryptocurrency investment fraud rose from $907 million in 2021 to $2.57 billion in 2022, with the most targeted age group reporting this type of scam being 30-49. This data proves that people of competent age continued to be fooled by crafty thieves.