Cybercrime topped $16B in 2024; seniors hit hardest with $4.8B
Internet crime cost U.S. consumers $16.6 billion in 2024 — an increase of more than 30% compared to the previous year — and seniors were hit the hardest with a $4.8 billion loss, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday.
The staggering numbers are reflected in the FBI's annual internet crime report, which analyzed approximately 860,000 complaints of suspected cybercrimes filed with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year.
According to the report, the most reported cybercrimes last year were extortion, personal data breaches and phishing/spoofing — forms of email compromise scams designed to trick victims into revealing personal information. The highest number of complaints came from victims in California, Texas and Florida.
Overall, adults 60 and older submitted nearly 150,000 complaints to the IC3 in 2024 — the most in any age group — and suffered the most losses at nearly $5 billion.
By comparison, individuals aged 20 to 29 filed just over 71,000 complaints last year, for a total loss of $540 million.
While fraud accounted for the majority of reported financial losses in 2024, ransomware was once again 'the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure,' with complaints increasing by 9% compared to 2023, according to B. Chad Yarbrough, FBI's operations director for criminal and cyber.
The rise in losses in 2024 — the highest ever recorded — is particularly alarming given the FBI's 'significant actions' aimed at making it harder for cybercriminals to succeed.
'Scammers are increasingly using the internet to steal Americans' hard-earned savings,' Yarbrough said. 'And with today's technology, it can take mere taps on a keyboard to hijack networks, cripple water systems, or even rob virtual exchanges.'
Since its launch in 2000, the IC3 has handled complaints spanning a wide range of cybercrimes, including hacking, online extortion, and identity theft.
Over the past five years, it has averaged around 836,000 complaints annually — roughly 2,200 per day. By contrast, in its early years, the center received about 2,000 complaints each month.
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