Confidence Game
When reading about phone or e-mail scams it is easy to wonder why someone might fall for such, considering how often we are warned about same and how often they present themselves, but far more people fall for scams than you might think, and they are not only the little old ladies in farmhouses that are usually pictured. The FBI just released its 2024 Internet Crime Report that shows that US consumers lost a staggering $16.6 billion to-criminals last year, up 33% y/y on 859,532 complaints of which 29.8% had incurred actual losses. The average loss was $19,372. Over the last 5 years the FBI received 4.2 million complaints that resulted in $50.5 billion in losses.
While there were more complaints filed by those over 60 years old in 2024, and ~$4.5 billion in losses for that age group, the 40 – 50 age group racked up $2.2 billion in losses and the 30- 40 age group another $1.4 billion. The 20 – 30 age group was the most careful, losing only $540 million ($7,563/incident report), while the under 20’s lost onl $22 million but averaged over $12,000/ incident report.
While there were more complaints filed by those over 60 years old in 2024, and ~$4.5 billion in losses for that age group, the 40 – 50 age group racked up $2.2 billion in losses and the 30- 40 age group another $1.4 billion. The 20 – 30 age group was the most careful, losing only $540 million ($7,563/incident report), while the under 20’s lost onl $22 million but averaged over $12,000/ incident report.
2024 Internet Crime Complaints & Loss by Age Group - Source: SCMR LLC, FBI
On an overall basis the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received complaints for a very wide swath of internet crimes, ranging from the most common phishing/spoofing, where personal information is the most typical objective, to SIM Swap scams, where scammers try to transfer user’s account information to another phone. True Cryptocurrency complaints were given special focus (would have been in the #2 position if included in the list by number of complaints and #1 by loss value), with 4,323 folks notified by the IC3 that they were involved in a crypto scam. It turned out that 76% did not know they were being defrauded until they were notified, and those notifications were able to save consumers over $285 million.
Most dangerous were data breach issues and ransomware threats made to critical infrastructure, with manufacturing (primarily data breach) and health care (both) being the biggest targets. The IC3 was able to successfully freeze $496 million in US assets and $92 million in international assets relating to business e-mail scams for a 66% success rate.
The IC3 also receives complaints from foreign countries but more relevant is the data on where fraudulent wire transactions were headed, surprisingly China was last on the list.
The data gets even more granular, with state data showing that California individuals lost over $833 million, followed by Texas ($490m), Florida ($388m) and New York ($258m) and DC ($251m) as the top 5. As noted earlier, crypto has unusual focus when it comes to internet crime and it is on the rise, with 2024 showing a 29% increase in crypto complaints and a 47% increase in crypto losses in 2024. US Crypto scam losses amounted to $5.8 billion, with the 40 – 50 and the over 60 age groups hit the hardest, although the ability to access or send crypto via ATMs is beginning to give scammers an easier and less traceable way of getting payment for a number of scheme types.
The IC3 and the FBI generally receive thousands of complaints each day and while the impact on individuals, especially those most vulnerable is considerable, the overall impact of being able to integrate complaint data through the IC3, gives the FBI the ability to connect similar or identical complaints and find patterns that can be investigated, and if necessary, freeze funds for domestic and international entities that are consistent violators. While scammers continue to evolve tactics to avoid broad detection, at least there is a part of the US government that is working solely for consumers without the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups as scammers don’t typically hire lobbyists…
The IC3 also receives complaints from foreign countries but more relevant is the data on where fraudulent wire transactions were headed, surprisingly China was last on the list.
- Hong Kong 27.2%
- Vietnam 23.5%
- Mexico 13.4%
- Philippines 12.7%
- India 11.8%
- China 11.4%
The data gets even more granular, with state data showing that California individuals lost over $833 million, followed by Texas ($490m), Florida ($388m) and New York ($258m) and DC ($251m) as the top 5. As noted earlier, crypto has unusual focus when it comes to internet crime and it is on the rise, with 2024 showing a 29% increase in crypto complaints and a 47% increase in crypto losses in 2024. US Crypto scam losses amounted to $5.8 billion, with the 40 – 50 and the over 60 age groups hit the hardest, although the ability to access or send crypto via ATMs is beginning to give scammers an easier and less traceable way of getting payment for a number of scheme types.
The IC3 and the FBI generally receive thousands of complaints each day and while the impact on individuals, especially those most vulnerable is considerable, the overall impact of being able to integrate complaint data through the IC3, gives the FBI the ability to connect similar or identical complaints and find patterns that can be investigated, and if necessary, freeze funds for domestic and international entities that are consistent violators. While scammers continue to evolve tactics to avoid broad detection, at least there is a part of the US government that is working solely for consumers without the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups as scammers don’t typically hire lobbyists…
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