The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) took nearly 800,000 reports of suspected cyber crime in 2020. The agency says that represents a 69% increase in total complaints from 2019.
It estimate their losses were more than $4.2 billion last year.
Phishing scams, nonpayment or nondelivery scams, and extortion were the top three internet crimes reported by those victims.
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The ones that caused the most financial damage -- business email compromises, romance and confidence schemes, and investment fraud. The FBI says Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) schemes added up to losses of $1.8 billion. The agency writes in its annual report that BEC schemes are "a sophisticated scam targeting both businesses and individuals performing transfers of funds. The scam is frequently carried out when a subject compromises legitimate business email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds."
Phishing scams took victims for more than $54 million.
The IC3 reports it received more than 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19. Fraudsters targeted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Most of those complaints involved grant fraud and loan fraud.
In the last five years, the FBI has received more than 2.2 million cybercrime complaints, costing victims $13.3 B in losses.
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