In its annual Internet Crime Report, the FBI reports the IC3 received 351,936 complaints in 2018—an average of more than 900 every day. The most financially costly complaints involved business email compromise, romance or confidence fraud, and investment scams, which can include Ponzi and pyramid schemes.
Though reports came from every US state and territory and involved victims of every age, there was a concentration of victims and financial losses, among individuals over the age of 50.
The bright spots reported by the IC3 include the establishment in February 2018 of the Recovery Asset Team and its success in recovering funds lost in business email compromise scams. The team was able to successfully recover more than USD 192 million in funds—a recovery rate of 75%.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now