Scammers stole a record $16.6 billion in 2024, the FBI said on Wednesday.
That marked a 33% increase from 2023, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center’s annual report. More than a quarter million complaints reported money lost to a scam, with an average of a loss of more than $19,000.
“As nearly all aspects of our lives have become digitally connected, the attack surface for cyber actors has grown exponentially,” the FBI’s Operations Director for Criminal and Cyber B. Chad Yarbrough said in a note attached to the report.
While most losses were caused by fraud, ransomware prevailed as the largest threat to critical infrastructure in 2024, the FBI said. Complaints related to ransomware rose 9%.
The reported losses are likely an undercount of the actual amount of money lost to scammers, experts say, because not all targets report the incident to law enforcement or the FBI.
2024 scams by the numbers
Not all the complaints include an associated age range, but of the data with age ranges, people over the age of 60 filed the most, with more than 147,000 complaints. They also reported losing the most money, $4.8 billion, which is more than a quarter of the total losses reported in 2024 and a 43% increase from 2023, the report said.
The average loss among people over the age of 60 was $83,000, more than four times the average overall loss in 2024.
People under 20 were the least likely to lose money to a scam, reporting about $22.5 million in losses in around 18,000 complaints in 2024.
Eighty-three percent of losses involved the use of the internet or other technology, the FBI said.
Investment scams were the top cause of loss, raking in more than $6.5 billion, the FBI said. Compromised business emails and tech support scams led to over $2.7 billion and more than $1.4 billion in losses, respectively, while personal data breaches were responsible for over $1.4 billion in losses.
Romance scams landed sixth on the list, with people reporting more than $672 million lost to the schemes.
California residents reported the most losses. Vermont is the U.S. state with the fewest reported losses. The Northern Marina Islands, a U.S. territory, reported the fewest losses in 2024.
The vast majority of funds were lost when cryptocurrency was used, the FBI said, followed by wire transfers and credit or debit cards.
“Cryptocurrency has become an enticing means to cheat investors, launder proceeds, and engage in other illicit schemes,” Yarbrough said.
Nicole Sganga
contributed to this report.
