WASHINGTON DC – Internet crime complaints to the FBI rose nearly 70% last year. Missouri is in the top 10 states for the dollar amount of losses.
By far the biggest losses for those victims in both states came from Business Email Compromises, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
The FBI says traditional hacking and spoofing of email accounts of CEO's and chief financial officers to get wire transfers of money has become more sophisticated. In 2020, some cybercriminals turned to extortion, tech support fraud, and romance scams to get paid, then converted the money to cryptocurrency.
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Estimated losses to victims in Missouri from business email compromises were $91 million. The FBI says BEC schemes added up to losses of $1.8 billion nationally.
Some 5,000 total victims from both states filed complaints saying they either didn't get paid for something or what they paid for was never delivered. That cost them roughly $12 million.
Another scheme that netted cybercriminals big bucks -- romance scams. In Illinois, hundreds of victims handed over more than $14 million to people they thought they could trust. Victims in Missouri lost more than $9 million.