NATIONWDE –  Online scammers stole a record $16.6 billion in 2024 — an increase of more than 30% from the previous year, the FBI said in a new report.

What You Need To Know

  • Online scammers stole a record $16.6 billion in 2024 – an increase of more than 30% from the previous year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a new report

  • More than 83% and $13.7 billion of the money was lost in cyber fraud schemes last year with investment fraud topping the list of crime types at $6.5 billion in losses

  • In nearly 30% of complaints, money was reported stolen, with an average amount lost of just over $19,000, but this figure was more than four times higher for people over age 60

  • The report also provided a breakdown of the states with the highest number of complaints and monetary losses: California, Texas, Florida and New York topped both categories

“Scammers are increasingly using the Internet to steal Americans’ hard-earned savings,” FBI Operations Director for Criminal and Cyber B. Chad Yarbrough wrote in a note attached to Wednesday’s findings.

More than 83% and $13.7 billion of the money was lost in cyberfraud schemes last year with investment fraud topping the list of crime types at $6.5 billion in losses, followed by scams involving compromised business emails, tech support and personal data breaches. The report noted more than $9.3 billion of the amount stolen last year was cryptocurrency. 

Officials said that ransomware was the biggest threat to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023. Critical manufacturing, health care institutions, government facilities and financial services were the targets with most reported ransomware threats, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center found. 

In nearly 30% of overall complaints made to the bureau, money was reported stolen, with an average amount lost of just over $19,000. But this figure was more than four times higher for people over age 60, according to the report. Their average loss was $83,000.

People in that age group also submitted the most complaints with 147,127 of the total 859,532 — 46% more than in 2023. They also reported more than a quarter — $4.8 billion — of the total amount lost. Scams targeting their investments followed by ones involving tech support led to the highest losses.

The report also provided a breakdown of the states with the highest number of complaints and monetary losses: California, Texas, Florida and New York topped both categories. 

Over the past five years, the estimated total of money stolen by online scammers has steadily increased from $4.2 billion in 2020, but the volume of complaints by victims has followed an uneven pattern with dips in 2022 and 2024. An inquiry to the FBI about this was not immediately returned. 

“These rising losses are even more concerning because last year, the FBI took significant actions to make it harder, and more costly, for malicious actors to succeed,” Yarbrough wrote, citing an international operation targeting ransomware syndicate LockBit. 

The FBI said it has helped to prevent $800 million in losses since 2022 by providing decryption keys, which allow encrypted data to become readable, to victims of ransomware.

A seperate operation launched in 2024 saved victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud nearly $300 million, the report said. More than three-quarters of the people who had been targeted were not aware they were being scammed. 

The bureau recommended that anyone who believes they might be a victim of a cybercrime to immediately reach out to all of their banks, submit a complaint to the Internet Crime Complaint Center and to contact law enforcement.