FBI: Cybercrime losses topped US$4.2 billion in 2020

FBI: Cybercrime losses topped US$4.2 billion in 2020

The Bureau received over 28,000 reports of COVID-19-themed scams last year



The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received a record-breaking 791,790 cybercrime complaints in 2020 that were responsible for over US$4.2 billion in losses, according to the Bureau’s 2020 Internet Crime Report (ICR). Compared to 2019, the number of complaints made by victims of various flavors of cybercrime rose by a whopping 69%.


As could be expected, last year saw a surge in scams exploiting the various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) receiving over 28,500 complaints. The majority of cases revolved around aid and pandemic relief packages and stimulus funds, with many victims reporting that they didn’t find out that scammers had submitted online unemployment insurance claims with their stolen identities until they submitted their own paperwork.


Once governments started rolling out COVID-19 vaccination programs, many cybercriminals switched gears and started circulating various vaccine scams, including fraudulent ads offering a chance to buy the vaccines.


Business Email Compromise (BEC) once again remains the costliest type of fraud on the FBI’s list; however, the number of victims actually decreased from almost 24,000 in 2019 to some 19,000 last year. Over the years, fraud tactics have evolved as well. Cybercriminals use various scams such as extortion, tech support, or ..

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