The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) has released their 2021 Internet Crime Report.
The number of complaints increased by 7% to 847,376 from 2020 to 2021, however the reported losses increased by 64% year over year to $6.9 Billion!
For several years, the #1 Cybercrime type has been Business Email Compromise followed by the #2 of Romance Scam. But this year, we had a change! The criminals have discovered how many people don’t understand investing in cryptocurrency and have turned Investment Scams into a new money factory.
#1 is still Business Email Compromise, but with only a 3% increase in victims, there was a 28% increase in reported financial losses. That’s an average loss of $120,000 per victim, compared to last year’s $96,700 per victim.
#2 dislodges Romance Scams by Investment Scams for the first time ever with a dramatic increase! Investment Scams went from 8,788 complaints to 20,561 complaints, while losses increased 333% from $33.6 Million dollars to $1.45 Billion dollars! THat’s an average loss of $70,810 per victim, up from $38,287 per victim last year!
#3 Romance Scams was quite similar to 2020 in the number of complaints, however the amount of losses still increased by 59%. In 2020, the average victim lost $25,272, but in 2021, the average victim lost $39,344. And these victims tend to be senior citizens!
| Crime Type | 2021 Losses | 2020 Losses | Change in Loss | 2021 Victims | 2020 Victims | Change in… |
