By rssfeeds-admin The agency said the 2024 Internet Crime Report combines information from 859,532 complaints of suspected Internet crime and details reported losses exceeding $16 billion — a 33 percent increase in losses from 2023.
According to the 2024 report, Texans reported $1.35 billion in losses, a $328 million increase from the prior year.
As a group, people 60 and older submitted the second highest number of complaints but suffered the most severe financial losses at $489.7 million. People 40 to 49 submitted the greatest number of complaints, with the third highest financial loss of $155 million, the agency said.
The agency said the top three cybercrimes in Texas, by number of complaints, reported by victims in 2024 were: extortion (7,854), personal data breaches (5,424), and phishing/spoofing (3,987).
The top three cybercrimes in Texas reported by financial losses were: investment fraud ($636 million) up from $362 million in 2023; business e-mail compromises ($293.5 million), down from $294.8 million in 2023; and tech support scams ($86.7 million), up from $62.7 million in 2023, the agency said.
“Cybercrime remains a serious and growing threat to Texans, with victims losing millions of dollars annually,” John Morales, special agent in charge of the FBI El Paso field office, said. “The FBI is fully committed to identifying and bringing cybercriminals to justice and empowering the public with the critical tools and awareness. One effort is our outreach to West Texas seniors where we engage with groups about current online threats and provide them with security measures they can take to stay ahead of the evolving cyber landscape.”
The agency said that to promote public awareness, the IC3 produces an annual report to aggregate and highlight the data provided by the public.
The quality of the data is a direct reflection of the information the public provides through the IC3 website. The IC3 standardizes the data by categorizing each complaint and analyzes the data to identify and forecast trends in Internet crime, the agency said.
The agency said the annual report helps the FBI develop effective relationships with industry partners and share information for investigative and intelligence purposes for law enforcement and public awareness.
The FBI recommends that everyone frequently review consumer and industry alerts published by the IC3.
“If you or your business are a victim of an Internet crime, immediately notify all financial institutions involved in the relevant transactions, submit a complaint to www.ic3.gov, contact your nearest FBI field office, and contact local law enforcement,” read the news release by the FBI.
You can learn more about the history of IC3 by listening to this previously released podcast: FBI podcast episode “Inside the FBI: IC3 Turns 20.
The full 2024 internet crime report can be found here
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