The latest report from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that Americans lost $ 10.3 billion to internet scams in 2022 – up from $ 6.9 billion in 2021.
According to Engadget , although there are fewer scams (800,944 cases), their consequences are still very serious. Investment scams are the most common and most damaging
Related fraud losses have grown from nearly $1.5 billion in 2021 to $3.3 billion, with most of that value coming from crypto scams (up from $907 million the year before). 2021 to nearly $2.6 billion by 2022).
While investment scams are on the rise, ransomware- related scams have plummeted. There were only 2,385 digital extortion scams compared to 3,729 the year before, which resulted in a relatively modest loss of $34.3 million.
The FBI warns its figures are not representative of all online scams in the US . Not everyone who is a victim of a ransomware attack reports it to the FBI.
