The report, which compiles information from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), shows a steady increase in fraud across nearly all areas. The center has registered more than 880,000 complaints. IC3 only aggregates data from reported cases, so the actual dollar figure is likely much higher.
Of all types of digital crime, investment fraud caused the most losses, reaching $4.57 billion, a 38% increase from the previous year. According to the FBI, $3.94 billion of the losses were related to cryptocurrency investment fraud.
Reported annual investment fraud losses have more than tripled since 2021, driven by social engineering attempts such as “killer plate” scams — where scammers convince victims to believe they have a personal relationship with them Making fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. Many scams originate in Southeast Asia and are highly organized operations overseen by criminal syndicates that exploit forced labour.
"It is important to note that different age groups tend to be affected by different crimes," the FBI said in the report. "Victims aged 30 to 49 are the group most likely to suffer losses from investment fraud."
"With the increase in these strategies where funds flow directly to cryptocurrency platforms and third-party payment processors... it underscores the importance of utilizing two-factor or multi-factor authentication as an additional layer of security," they said.
Ransomware is also on the rise after declining in 2022, with adjusted losses rising 74% to nearly $60 million. The agency received nearly 1,200 complaints from organizations within critical infrastructure sectors affected by ransomware attacks, with the healthcare sector accounting for 249 of these complaints.
The report also highlights some positives from an overall shocking year for online fraud.
IC3's Recovery Asset Team (RAT) froze more than $538.39 million after receiving fraud complaints. The team was established in 2018 as a liaison between financial institutions and field offices to recover stolen assets.
In one case, the RAT filed a Financial Fraud Termination Chain (FFKC) request, a request to recover funds from a U.S. account, after a New York-based "critical infrastructure project entity" reported a $50 million loss from a BEC scam. The bank was able to freeze the assets in the account due to the huge amount of international wire transfers that were stolen.
