While in many cases billions are lost that cannot be recovered, online fraud traps are becoming more common every year. Ransomware attacks, spam calls, text messages and emails continue to skyrocket, causing more than $10 billion in losses in the US alone in the past year, a new FBI report states.
While scammers target people of all ages, older groups seem to be more affected, and the FBI’s internet crime report shows people over 60 make up the largest group, with over $724 million in reported losses.
The report showed a five percent reduction in the number of complaints in 2022 compared to 2021, but the financial loss was much greater, going from $6.9 billion to over $10.2 billion in a year.
But what are the most used internet fraud methods? The FBI addresses this issue with the following items:
1. Ransom scam
2,385 ransomware complaints were filed last year, but the FBI believes there were many more incidents that went undetected or unreported. As with the Royal Mail scam last month, scammers primarily gain access to data on a computer. Afterwards, the scammers demand a certain amount of ransom and state that they will take the data hostage or make it public if not paid. The ransom demanded in the Royal Mail incident was $80 million.
Ransomware attacks accounted for more than $34.3 million in total losses last year, and the FBI says the most important variants are by LockBit, ALPHV/BlackCat, and Hive.
2. Call center fraud
Call center scams mainly affect seniors, many of whom are inactive online. The report shows that nearly half of these victims were older than 60, accounting for 69% of the total financial losses ($724 million).
The report states that individuals aged 50 to 59 make up only 9%, and groups of 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s each account for 5% or less of victims.
There were approximately 22,000 complaints reported last year, and the report shows that this resulted in more than $2.7 billion in financial losses.
3. Email scam
You may have received an email from the company you work for warning against opening emails from unknown addresses, and the report shows why. Scammers can use this method to make unauthorized funds transfers by simply opening the email or clicking the link in the unknown email.
Scammers can use this method in any way possible, including compromised merchant emails, W-2 information requests, and multiple gift card requests.
To avoid this scam, be sure to carefully review the email address or URL. Fake addresses often contain an extra or missing letter or number, so it looks like a legitimate address at first glance. Also, whatever you do, don’t click on a link in a spam email or text message that asks you to verify your account information. If you think a subscription is asking for verification, instead of clicking the link, go to your account page on the service where your subscription is located, by the normal means, and if you need to do a verification, you should see any necessary corrections or notifications there.
4. Investment fraud
Among investment scams, cryptocurrency scams appear to be the worst. According to the report, more people were affected by crypto-related scams and the financial impact was much higher. Total investment fraud was $3.6 billion, with crypto fraud accounting for more than $2.5 billion of the total.
From 2021 to 2022, the increase in overall investment scam was quite large, reaching a 127% increase in a year, while cryptocurrency investment scams increased by 183% in the same time frame.
5. Other fraud methods
Liquidity Mining: People connect their crypto wallets to a fake liquidity mining app and all their funds are wiped out.
Hijacked Social Media Accounts: Scammers hijack the user’s social media account and interact with another user using cryptocurrency, encouraging them to invest before stealing their money.
Real Estate Scam: A scammer contacts a real estate agent and offers to buy property worth millions of dollars in cash or cryptocurrency.
Employment scam: A scam job listing is posted online, but applicants are offered investment advice rather than being offered a position. This allows the scammer to get as much money as possible from the victim.
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