In the United States, losses from Internet fraud reached a record $10 billion in 2022

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has published its annual Internet Crime Report from which it follows that in 2022, losses from Internet fraud reached a five-year high and amounted to more than $10 billion. The figure is $3 billion more than in 2021.

The largest number of complaints about online fraud came from young citizens aged 30 to 40 years. However, older people bear the main losses from crimes of this kind. In particular, people over the age of 60 often fall for the tricks of attackers posing as representatives of government agencies or technical support of commercial structures, and provide them with personal information, including credit card information. According to the report, older people have lost more than $724 million due to these types of frauds, which is more than two-thirds of all losses from this type of crime.

According to the document, the criminals made at least $34 million on ransomware viruses that block computers from working until the victim pays a ransom. Compared to other online crimes, the amount seems small. FBI experts explain this by the fact that many victims do not turn to law enforcement agencies, but prefer to silently pay extortionists.

The report also notes that the use of BEC (Business Email Compromise) attacks has become one of the most effective ways for cybercriminals to profit. Losses from such attacks in 2022 amounted to $2.4 billion.