The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) of the American Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has just revealed its annual report. And unsurprisingly, the numbers aren’t good. This year, the complaints registered – this is the interest of this figure, which is based on damage reported to the courts – are on the rise, reaching 880,000, an increase of 10%.
This is the fourth successive year that complaints have continued around this low level. In 2020, the FBI recorded 791,000 complaints, and 847,000 the following year. But at the same time, the reported damage jumped from $4 billion in 2020 to $12.5 billion in 2023.
Crypto scams
A third of these losses ($4.5 billion) are due to investment fraud, up 38%. These are essentially cryptocurrency scams, with around 4 billion reported losses. Likewise, the 21,500 complaints for professional email hacking resulted in losses of approximately $2.9 billion, “sophisticated” scams, notes the FBI.
As also noted by Cybermalveillance, the number of fake technical support or fake customer support scams is increasing. With false transfer fraud, this represented damage of around $1.3 billion in 2023.
Finally, in terms of ransomware attacks, first due to LockBit (175) then to ALPHV/BlackCat (100) and Akira (95), the FBI counted 2,825 complaints, a figure up compared to the year. last (2,385). Ransomware caused, according to FBI figures, losses of around $60 million, and first targeted the health sector, then industry and administrations.
The seniors most affected in the portfolio
Overall, complaints primarily concern a phishing attack (approximately 299,000), followed by those for personal data breach (approximately 56,000).
These thefts initially targeted seniors, according to FBI figures. More than 101,000 complaints were filed by people over the age of 60 who reported approximately $3.4 billion in losses. With around 66,000 complaints, 50-59 year olds lost “only” 1.7 billion, while 40-49 year olds are at the origin of 84,000 complaints for theft amounting to 1.5 billion .