The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says Americans lost over $10 billion to scammers in 2023, marking a 14% increase in reported losses compared to the previous year.
To put this into context, Chainalysis says ransomware gangs also had a record year, with ransomware payments having reached over $1.1 billion in 2023.
Over 2.6 million consumers filed fraud reports with the FTX the previous year, a figure almost identical to 2022.
Imposter scams emerged as the most frequently reported fraud category, with notable upticks in business and government impersonation reports.
Following closely behind were online shopping scams, trailed by reports concerning prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries, as well as investment scams and business or job opportunity schemes.
The FTC added 5.4 million consumer reports to its Consumer Sentinel Network secure online database last year, with more than 1.1 million reports of identity theft received through the agency's IdentityTheft.
The data shared today by the FTC reflects just a fraction of the actual harm inflicted by scammers in 2023 since most frauds are never reported.
Those who fell victim to fraud can report incidents at ReportFraud.
Gov or file identity theft reports at IdentityTheft.
After being included in the FTC's Sentinel database, the reports are made available to roughly 2,800 federal, state, local, and international law enforcement professionals.
They help investigators track down fraudsters, making it easier to discover trends and educate the public against scam attempts.
A full breakdown of reports received in 2023, including state and metropolitan area stats, can be found on the FTC's data analysis site at ftc.
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This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:25:07 +0000