FBI Reports $12.5 Billion Lost to Fraud in 2023 as Cybercrime Reaches New Heights

The FBI's annual Internet Crime Report for 2023 has revealed the escalating severity of cybercrime, with a staggering $12.5 billion reported lost by the American public to online fraud, marking a 22% increase from the previous year. This uptick in criminal activity highlights the evolving nature of internet scams, with investment fraud losses experiencing a particularly sharp rise to $4.57 billion — a 38% increase from the previous year, of which $3.94 billion were attributed to cryptocurrency investment fraud. Breaking down the demographics of investment fraud, most complaints originated from individuals aged 40-49, with 6,680 reports, closely followed by those aged 30-39 with 6,654 complaints, and individuals aged 60 and above, who filed 6,404 complaints.

Diving deeper, the report, indicates that among the five principal categories of cybercrime—tech support, extortion, non-payment/non-delivery, personal data breach, and phishing—phishing emerged as the predominant type. In 2023, phishing led with 298,878 reported complaints, significantly outpacing the second most common category, personal data breaches, which had 55,851 incidents. This was followed by non-payment/non-delivery with 50,523 reports, extortion at 48,223, and tech support fraud, which saw 37,560 complaints.

Business email compromise (BEC) scams were among the most financially damaging, resulting in $2.9 billion in losses. Cybercriminals exploit financial processes, such as accounting, to obtain W-2 forms or manipulate communications within the real estate sector, where sensitive data and large funds are often exchanged with urgency. Ransomware attacks also saw a surge, with nearly $60 million in adjusted losses, and nearly 1,200 complaints from organizations within critical infrastructure sectors, including 249 from the healthcare sector alone.

On a more positive note, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has been pivotal in mitigating some of the damage through its Recovery Asset Team (RAT). Established in 2018, RAT has successfully frozen over $538.39 million following fraud complaints. Their efforts include the successful freezing of nearly $45 million from a single BEC scam affecting a critical infrastructure construction project in New York. Overall, RAT's interventions have led to the recovery of more than 70% of funds in cases where Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC) requests were filed.

These figures from the FBI depict the cybercrime landscape in 2023, setting a precedent for future challenges. As technological advancements like AI become more prevalent, the complexity of attacks and the sophistication of deceptive tactics are expected to increase.