Cybercrime Up Again

It shouldn’t be surprising that the number of reported cybercrime complaints to the feds rose again. Almost daily I hear from someone I know about a new threat, hack, or fishy AI call. The most recent was in my own town’s school district where a parent was called by a criminal demanding a ransom for their child whose AI-derived voice was heard in distress in the background.

The individual victims of cybercrime are often the most vulnerable. As a group, people over the age of 60 suffered the highest number of losses in 2024–totaling nearly $5 billion, according to a recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

In its latest annual report, the 2024 Internet Crime Report, the IC3 combined information from 859,532 complaints of suspected internet crime and detailed reported losses exceeding $16 billion–a 33% increase in losses from 2023. Of the reported complaints, 256,256 ended with actual losses. The average cost of a loss was $19,372.

The report found that the top three cybercrimes, by number of complaints reported by victims in 2024, were phishing/spoofing, extortion, and personal data breaches.

Victims of investment fraud, specifically those involving cryptocurrency, reported the most losses–totaling over $6.5 billion.

The 2024 report also revealed that the most complaints were received from just three states: California, Texas, and Florida.

Fraud represented the bulk of reported losses in 2024, and ransomware was again the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023.

The rise in total losses reported to the IC3 has skyrocketed since 2020–roughly $4 billion in losses in 2020 to $16.6 in losses for 2024.

Cyber-enabled fraud, which includes complaints where criminals use the internet or other technologies to commit fraudulent activities, often involving theft of money, data, or identity, was responsible for almost 83% of all losses in 2024.

The FBI notes that these figures do not include all incidents and/or loss, since many go unreported.

“Reporting is one of the first and most important steps in fighting crime so law enforcement can use this information to combat a variety of frauds and scams,” said FBI Director Kash Patel in a statement when releasing the report. “The IC3, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, is only as successful as the reports it receives; that’s why it’s imperative that the public immediately report suspected cyber-enabled criminal activity to the FBI.”

The more comprehensive complaints the FBI receives, the more effective it will be in helping law enforcement gain a more accurate picture of the extent and nature of internet-facilitated crimes, the report said.

If you or your clients suspect fraud, submit a complaint to www.ic3.gov.

Topics Fraud