For scammers, 2023 was a busy year. The FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report collected 880,418 complaints about scams and reported $12.5 billion in losses, the most over the last five years.
Since 2019, complaints were up 88% and financial losses were up 257%. Arizona had the most complaints per 100,000 population with 227.17.
Here are the 10 states with the most complaints per 100,000 people, based on the 2022 population count:
| 1. Arizona | 227.17 |
| 2. California | 198.13 |
| 3. Washington | 187.17 |
| 4. Florida | 184.95 |
| 5. Texas | 157.68 |
| 6. Ohio | 152.68 |
| 7. Michigan | 147.84 |
| 8. New York | 137.48 |
| 9. Georgia | 127.67 |
| 10. Pennsylvania | 127.18 |
Investment fraud
In 2023, the FBI said investment fraud was once again the costliest type of crime tracked by the Internet Crime Report (IC3). Losses to investment scams rose from $3.31 billion in 2022 to $4.57 billion in 2023—a 38% increase.
The second-costliest type of crime was business e-mail compromise (BEC), with 21,489 complaints amounting to $2.9 billion in reported losses. Tech support scams, meanwhile, were the third-costliest type of crime tracked by IC3. Different demographic groups tended to be impacted by different crimes.
Victims between the ages of 30 and 49 years were the most likely group to report losses from investment fraud, while the elderly accounted for well over half of losses to tech support scams.
The FBI said ransomware incidents, in which hackers take control of a computer or network, continued to be impactful and costly.
“After a brief downturn in 2022, ransomware incidents were again on the rise with over 2,825 complaints,” the report’s authors wrote. “This represents an increase of 18% from 2022. Reported losses rose 74%, from $34.3 million to $59.6 million.”
In terms of numbers, phishing email scams were the most common last year. There were nearly 300,000 complaints last year, more than double the number from 2019.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-03-08 11:54:47
