The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that $10 billion was eroded from investors’ possession by online fraudsters in 2022.
The FBI, in its 2022 annual outlook report said that this tops the list for five consecutive years.
Timothy Langan, Executive Assistant Director Federal Bureau of Investigation
“Today’s cyber landscape has provided ample opportunities for criminals and adversaries to target U.S. networks, attack our critical infrastructure, hold our money and data for ransom, facilitate large-scale fraud schemes, and threaten our national security. At the FBI, we know “cyber risk is business risk” and “cyber security is national security.”
“There is no shortage of recent examples showing the wide-ranging economic and national security effects of cyber crimes. We have seen cyber threats emanate from around the world and witnessed the scope and sophistication of these scams and attacks deepen.
“As these threats increase, we continue to encourage victims to report cyber incidents and cyber-enabled frauds to the FBI so that we may impose risks and consequences on malicious cyber actors.
“In 2022, the IC3 received 800,944 complaints, which is a 5 percent decrease from 2021. However, the potential total loss has grown from $6.9 billion in 2021 to more than $10.2 billion in 2022,”
Based on the FBI’s assessment, a huge number of digital frauds affected more elderly people than others.
According to the FBI, people over 60 accounted for $724 million, or more than two-thirds of the reported losses from “call center fraud,”
