Despite all the warnings, Americans are still getting scammed online. Last year alone, scam artists took Americans for $2.7 billion.
The number is part of a report by a division of the FBI. On average, there are more than 900 scam complaints received each day by the agency.
Find out which states were hit hardest by internet scams, as well as which scams proved to be the most lucrative for cybercriminals. We'll also tell you ways you can protect yourself online.
Online scams on the rise
In its 2018 Internet Crime Report, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 351,936 complaints about internet-enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation. That's about 50,000 more complaints than in 2017.
The most frequently reported complaints were:
Non-payment/non-delivery scams -- With these scams, you send a product but don't get paid or you pay and don't receive the item.
Extortion -- Cons threaten physical harm, criminal prosecution or public exposure to force you to give them money.
Personal data breaches -- A person's personal data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen or used by hackers.
The most financially costly complaints were:
Business email compromise/email account compromise -- In 2018, Americans lost almost $1.3 billion to these types of scams. The business email compromise (BEC) scam targets businesses that regularly use wire transfer payments. Email account scams are similar but the targets are individuals.
Romance or confidence fraud -- Americans were scammed out of more than $362 million in this fraud. Victims are manipulated into believing the
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