The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report for 2023, showing a nearly 10% increase in cybercrime complaints compared to the previous year. In 2023, more than 880,000 cybercrime complaints were filed in the United States, resulting in reported losses of over $12.5 billion, a 22% increase from 2022. Over the past five years, the FBI received nearly 3.8 million complaints, totaling $37.4 billion in losses.
Phishing remains the most common type of cybercrime, followed by personal data breaches, non-payment or non-delivery scams, extortion, and tech support scams. Investment fraud accounted for the highest losses, totaling $4.57 billion in 2023, up from $3.31 billion in 2022. Business email compromise (BEC) ranked second, with victims reporting $2.9 billion in losses.
Other cybercrimes resulting in significant losses include tech support scams, personal data breaches, confidence and romance scams, data breaches, government impersonation, and non-payment/non-delivery schemes.
The FBI received over 2,800 ransomware complaints in 2023, with losses totaling nearly $60 million. The most targeted sectors were healthcare, critical manufacturing, government facilities, IT, and financial services. The IC3 received 1,193 complaints from critical infrastructure organizations affected by ransomware attacks.
The most active ransomware groups in 2023 were LockBit and BlackCat, both targeted in recent international law enforcement operations.
The IC3 claims a success rate of over 70% in recovering losses involving fraudulent money transfers to domestic accounts. The agency managed to freeze nearly $538 million of the $758 million in reported losses.
The FBI’s report highlights the growing threat of cybercrime and the need for organizations and individuals to take proactive measures to protect against such attacks. It also underscores the importance of reporting cybercrimes to law enforcement agencies to help combat this growing threat.
