Online scammers stole a record $16.6B last year, FBI says

Online scammers swindled people out of a record amount of money in 2024, according to a newly released report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). 

The IC3 said Wednesday in its "2024 Internet Crime Report" that losses from internet scams and other malicious online activity totaled $16.6 billion, up 33% from the prior year. 

People over the age of 60 accounted for the highest number of complaints (more than 147,100) and the largest amount of losses ($4.8 billion), the report said.

In 2024, the IC3 fielded more than 859,500 complaints from people of all ages who said they had fallen victim to online scams and cybercrimes.

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The complaints that the IC3 received were for crimes in categories like phishing/spoofing, extortion, personal data breach, non-payment, investment, tech support and more.

There were over 193,400 complaints about phishing or spoofing scams, making it the most commonly reported type of internet crime for the IC3 in 2024, according to the report. 

Crimes related to cryptocurrency were at the center of nearly 149,700 complaints. 

The IC3 report also detailed the losses incurred from various internet scams and crimes.

For instance, investment scams caused $6.57 billion in losses in 2024, it found. Business email compromises swiped $2.77 billion from people. 

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"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," said B. Chad Yarbrough, the FBI operations director for criminal and cyber.

Nearly 83% of all losses stemmed from cyber-enabled fraud, crimes in which criminals "use the Internet or other technology to commit fraudulent activities, often involving the theft of money, data, or identity, or the creation of counterfeit goods or services," the IC3 reported. That led to $13.7 billion in losses in 2024, according to the report.

The IC3 also said cryptocurrency has "become an enticing means to cheat investors, launder proceeds, and engage in other illicit schemes." In 2024, losses from cryptocurrency fraud posted a 66% increase year-over-year, totalling $9.3 billion. 

Yarbrough warned in the report that the "attack surface" for online bad actors has "grown exponentially" as "nearly all aspects of our lives have become digitally connected."

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"Scammers are increasingly using the Internet to steal Americans’ hard-earned savings," he said. "And with today’s technology, it can take mere taps on a keyboard to hijack networks, cripple water systems or even rob virtual exchanges."

The IC3, which was created in 2000, has seen about 4.2 million complaints of internet scams and cybercrimes over the past five years. Losses over that timeframe amounted to $50.5 billion, it said.