US Cybercrime Losses Surge 33% to $16.6 Billion, FBI Says

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported a record $16.6 billion in cybercrime losses in 2024, marking a 33% increase from the previous year. The center received 859,532 complaints, with 256,256 involving actual financial losses, averaging about $19,372 per incident. Fraud was the largest contributor to these losses, with cyber-enabled fraud alone accounting for over $13 billion. Ransomware remained a significant threat, especially to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% compared to 2023.

Older Americans, particularly those over 60, were the most impacted demographic, filing 147,127 complaints and suffering nearly $4.8 billion in losses. This group remains a prime target for scams such as tech support fraud, impersonation, and investment scams, including those involving cryptocurrency, which contributed to approximately $9.3 billion in losses.

The most common cybercrimes reported included phishing/spoofing, extortion, personal data breaches, business email compromise, and investment fraud. States with the highest complaint volumes were California, Texas, and Florida.

Despite the rising losses, the FBI has intensified efforts to combat cybercrime through partnerships with private and international sectors. Initiatives like Operation Level Up, along with distributing thousands of ransomware decryption keys since 2022, have helped victims avoid over $800 million in ransom payments. The FBI also disrupted fraud syndicates, shut down scam call centers, and arrested hundreds of cybercriminals worldwide.

The report cautions that the reported figures likely underestimate the true scale of cybercrime losses, as many incidents go unreported or undetected. For ransomware, losses only include ransom payments and exclude costs related to downtime, lost data, or remediation services.

The IC3, celebrating its 25th anniversary, continues to serve as a critical hub for reporting and analyzing cyber-enabled crimes, receiving over 2,000 complaints daily on average-an exponential increase from its early years.