The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual 2023 Internet Crime Report including state by state data. In 2023, the IC3 received over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 Billion. This is nearly a 10% increase in complaints from 2022 and a 22% increase in losses. Californians reported over $2 Billion in losses to Internet crimes last year.
Nationwide, the top three crime types most frequently reported by victims were phishing/spoofing, personal data breach, and non-payment/non-delivery. Phishing and spoofing schemes had over 298,000 complaints reported in 2023. Personal data breaches had over 55,000 complaints reported, and non-payment/non-delivery scams had 50,000 complaints.
The IC3 received nearly 80,000 complaints from Californians, with reported losses increasing by more than $100 million from 2022. The recently published report shows that nationally, victims 30 to 49 years old were the most likely group to report losses from investment fraud, while those over 60 accounted for more than half of losses to tech support scams. Seniors, those over 60, were the most victimized with over 100,000 complaints made to the IC3 and reported losses north of $3 billion.
Across the country, ransomware has proved to be the most insidious and destructive cyber scheme in 2023. The IC3 received over 2,800 ransomware complaints with adjusted losses of more than $59.6 million, a 74% increase from the previous year. The most impacted critical infrastructure sectors were health care and public health, critical manufacturing, and government facilities.
"This report should be a wake-up call for everyone who uses the Internet. What is especially heartbreaking is the large number of elderly citizens who have been victimized," said Amir Ehsaei, assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. "The FBI makes it a top priority to investigate cyber-crimes that affect thousands of victims, including people whose entire livelihoods have been wiped out by scammers. We encourage the public to frequently review consumer and industry alerts published by IC3 and report any suspicious cyber activity to ic3.gov."
The FBI continues to combat cyber threats, complex financial crimes, and navigate the evolving threat landscape. IC3 is critical to our efforts in doing so, giving the public a direct way to report these crimes to the FBI. Reporting allows us to collect data, open and advance investigations, and identify trends and changes in the threat landscape.
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