On Wednesday, April 23, the FBI released its annual Internet Crime Report based on filings sent through its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Here are some trends that financial institutions should be aware of:
- While compliant numbers were down during 2024, the dollar amount lost was much higher compared to 2023. Total financial losses were $12.5 billion during 2023 versus $16.6 billion during 2024 (a $4.1 billion increase).
- Losses surrounding cryptocurrency were $9.3 billion for 2024 versus $5.6 billion during 2023. Crypto is associated with multiple crime types. Thus, the crime types described below had some element of cryptocurrency associated with the scheme.
- Loss events per crime type:
- Investment losses were $6.6 billion versus $4.6 billion during 2023
- Business Email Compromise (BEC) losses were $2.8 billion versus $2.9 billion during 2023. While down for 2024, it remains the second highest loss type.
- Tech Support scheme losses increased to $1.5 billion versus $924 million during 2023. This category has quickly grown in losses, with fraudsters mimicking call centers of financial institutions for scams.
- Personal Data Breach losses doubled for 2024 with $1.5 billion in losses versus $744 million during 2023. Consumers appear to be targets of breaches, as corporate or business breaches are declining through 2024.
- Non-payment or non-delivery scheme losses doubled from $785 million during 2024 versus $309 million.
- Government impersonation schemes continue to increase, with $406 million in losses versus $394 million during 2023.
- Employment losses (guessing HR/employee impersonations) more than tripled during 2024, with $264 million in losses versus $70 million the previous year.
- Losses from phishing schemes are way up, totaling $70 million in losses versus $19 million in 2023.
- Identity theft losses are up to $174 million versus $126 million during 2023.
- Extortion losses nearly doubled, with $142 million in losses versus $74 million during 2023.
You’re probably wondering… Is there any GOOD news to report?
- As we mentioned above, Business Email Compromise and Corporate Data Breaches were down for 2024. Maybe the word about ACH Originations and their new upcoming 2026 rules is creating awareness?
- Ransomware financial losses declined, though the number of incidents increased.
- Fewer malware incidents were reported, though financial losses related to these incidents increased.
- Fewer lottery/sweepstakes schemes, though financial losses related increased.
In summary, what does this report tell us?
- Cryptocurrency is heavily involved in fraud schemes and is utilized in various crime types.
- Investment schemes have had a meteoric rise for the past four years and remain the #1 fraud type.
- Business email compromise is still high, though it declined in 2024. $2.7 billion is the second-highest loss for this crime type, only behind the rapid growth in investments.
- Impersonation schemes are growing, whether impersonating tech support or call centers, government officials or HR/employees. This plays on trust, and newer scams involving AI voice replication could come into play and increase its overall impact.
- Consumers need to be more careful with their data. This includes where it is stored, how secure their logins are and how safe they are executing their information with payments.
Looking for ways to stay in the know on fraud trends and learn how to keep yourself and your organization safe? We’ve got you covered with the following resources.