The FBI recently reported that Americans lost $10.3 billion to online scams in 2022, a significant increase from the year prior when they were only cheated out of $6.9 billion. So why the big change? It seems cryptocurrency is to blame. Losses due to crypto scams jumped from $907 million in 2021 to $2.6 billion in 2022.
On the flip side, ransomware complaints were down from 3,729 to 2,385, with a total loss of $34.3 million compared to $49.2 million the year prior. Phishing was, unsurprisingly, the most common scam with 300,000 complaints, but losses only added up to $52.1 million, which was much less than some other scam types.
The FBI points out that these numbers are all likely higher in reality, since they’re only based on reports the agency receives and not everyone reaches out when they’ve been scammed. You can view the full report here.
